Campus Nitrogen Budget part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Campus-Based Learning:Examples
Link the college or university operations with local ecology. In this study, students use a tool from urban ecology, the nitrogen budget, to research the inputs, outputs and subsytem transfers of nitrogen on the ...

Image Classification part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Teaching with GIS:Examples
An exercise to use a simple image analysis program to classify land surface types seen in satellite imagery in order to analyze changes in landscape development over time. -

Natural Disaster Risk at Home part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Undergraduate Research:Examples
Students analyze the natural disaster threat and potential mitigation techniques of their (family) home.

Rayleigh fractionation visualization part of Activities
A MS Excel spreadsheet gives an account of Rayleigh fractionation, the progressive removal of the heavier oxygen isotope as a moist air parcel moves from the subtropics to the high latitudes. This exercise is ...

Using Real Data from Ice Cores and Salt Cores to Interpret Paleoclimate part of Cutting Edge:Sedimentary Geology:Activities
The goals of this project are to engage sedimentary geology students in critical thinking about global warming. I present information about how ice cores and halite cores record past temperature data. Then, ...

Intro to Environmental Geology Writing Assignment part of Cutting Edge:Student Learning: Observing and Assessing:Activities with Rubrics
Students in an introductory environmental geology class research the Dust Bowl, analyze information and data and develop a written argument.

Destruction of the Rainforest and Atmospheric Oxygen part of Teacher Preparation:Resource Collections:Activities
Pre-service Midle School teachers devised an experiment to test an assertion that destruction of the Brazilian Rainforest would lead to a serious drop in atmospheric oxygen. The experiment proved to be a failure, but opened other avenues of science learning and had a positive impact on their confidence in teaching inquiry-based science.

Investigative Case - "Goodbye Honey Buckets" part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Investigative Case Based Learning:Examples
Students will investigate arctic geology and hydrology as well as tundra ecology as they consider options for sewage treatment. Public safety, environmental impact, and issues of construction and engineering will be explored.

Exercise on Atmospheric Structure, Stratospheric Ozone, and Acid Rain part of Cutting Edge:Introductory Courses:Activities
This activity helps students to understand the basic ozone structure as well as ozone and acid rain problems.

Lab 3: Normal Climate Patterns part of EarthLabs for Educators:Drought
The lab activity described here was created by Betsy Youngman of Phoenix Country Day School and LuAnn Dahlman of TERC for the EarthLabs project. Activity Summary and Learning Objectives Students generate and ...

Engaging Question part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:First Day of Class:Activities
Karl Wirth, Macalester College Course: Dynamic Earth and Global Change 20 students This activity serves a number of functions, including an introduction to the course, a learning prompt that can be revisited ...

Hurricane Tracking part of Cutting Edge:Hurricanes-Climate Change Connection:Activities
This is a homework assignment that focuses student attention on ongoing hurricane/tropical storm development, often during the height of hurricane season. The students are directed to a web site (I like ...

Forecasting Lake Effect Snow in Lake Superior region part of Cutting Edge:Hurricanes-Climate Change Connection:Activities
This exercise is designed to present the realistic problems of forecasting weather. Lake effect snows are hard to forecast because they depend on information that isn't part of the regular set of information ...

Hurricane Investigation part of Cutting Edge:Hurricanes-Climate Change Connection:Activities
This is a simple homework assignment that will reinforce topics discussed in lecture as well as enabling students to search and analyze information on the web.

Climate Change and Atlantic Hurricanes: A GIS Inquiry part of Cutting Edge:Hurricanes-Climate Change Connection:Activities
Students make hypotheses about how hurricane numbers, locations, or intensities have been changing, and then use hurricane tracks, wind speed, barometric pressure, and dates to test their hypotheses.

Tropical Cyclones, Sea Surface Temperature, and Beyond part of Cutting Edge:Hurricanes-Climate Change Connection:Activities
The activity will use historical data of sea surface temperature and tropical cyclone origin and/or tracks to identify trends. Students use Arc GIS to explore projected SST changes and predict areas where tropical ...

Lab Activity: Earth's Energy Budget and the Greenhouse Effect part of Process of Science:Examples
"Earth's Energy Budget and the Greenhouse Effect" is a lab activity in which students use computers and scientific applications software to access, display, describe, analyze, and interpret global, climate-related data sets related to the earth's energy budget and the greenhouse effect.

Air-sea Interactions: Activities in Oceanography part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
This online set of activities help students learn properties of ocean waves, wind-wave relationships and properties of tsunamis.

Choosing Papers part of Cutting Edge:Complex Systems:Teaching Activities
A procedure for having students dive directly into the literature to select papers that are appropriate for the class as a whole to read and discuss. The activity provides constraints and a format for sorting the ...

Rainwater Harvesting Service Learning Project part of Cutting Edge:Service Learning:Activities
Students will gain an understanding of the history, benefits, and components of a rainwater harvesting system and partner with community members to design and build a rainwater harvesting system for their school.