Teaching Activities
These teaching activities have a strong spatial thinking component. Search the collection to find activities suitable for your classes.

Resource Type: Activities
Subject: Geoscience
Results 1 - 20 of 34 matches
Investigating Earthquakes: GIS Mapping and Analysis (College Level)
Brian Welch
This is a college-level adaptation of a chapter from the Earth Exploration Toolbook. The students download global quake data over a time range and use GIS to interpret the tectonic context. -
Learn more about this review process.
Exercise 8: Using LiDAR and GPS data to model the water table in ArcScene
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Barbara and David Tewksbury, Hamilton College Summary In this exercise, students process LiDAR data for the Hamilton College campus area to determine accurate elevations of wellheads of sampling wells on campus. ...
Learn more about this review process.
Cascadia Great Earthquake and Tsunami Suite
Michael Mayhew, National Science Foundation;
Michael Mayhew and Michelle Hall, Science Education Solutions Summary The Cascadia Earthquakes and Tsunami Suite contains five case studies organized around understanding the potential for large earthquakes and ...
Learn more about this review process.
Northridge: A Case Study of an Urban Earthquake
Michael Mayhew, National Science Foundation;
Michael Mayhew and Michelle Hall, Science Education Solutions Summary The 1994 Northridge Earthquake Case Study explores the mystery of how such a major fault could have been missed within a tectonic basin that is ...
Learn more about this review process.
Northwest Passage
Glenn Richard, SUNY at Stony Brook
An investigation of changes in polar regions using Google Earth.
Learn more about this review process.
GPS Treasure Hunt
Rebecca Teed, Wright State University-Main Campus
Students are divided into teams, each of which is given a list of instructions and a GPS unit, and sent to find certain locations. At each stop, they identify a particular building stone or a plant. -
When is Dinner Served? Predicting the Spring Phytoplankton Bloom in the Gulf of Maine (College Level)
Brian Welch
College-level adaptation of the Earth Exploration Toolbook chapter. Students explore the critical role phytoplankton play in the marine food web. -
Looking into Earth with GIS (College Level)
Brian Welch
College-level adaptation of the Earth Exploration Toolbook chapter. Students work with a free GIS program, ArcVoyager SE, to explore earthquake data and plate tectonics. -
Image Classification
Brian Welch
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. -
Calculation of Stream Discharge
Bruce Rueger, Colby College
This lab is a field oriented exercise that visits two sites on the same stream to calculate stream discharge. It illustrates the influences of stream cross-sectional area on discharge and the resistance of bedrock ...
Earthquakes
Achim Herrmann, George Washington University
This activity uses geoinformatics to understand the world around us with an emphasis on earthquakes.
Campus Mapping Tour
Helge Alsleben, Texas Christian University
This exercise allows students to learn how to produce a geologic map. Students will pair up and explore campus as a "virtual" field area. This works well in areas where outcrop is generally sparse, but ...
VEPP: Using maps to assess volcanic geologic hazards
Brian Scheidt, Mineral Area College
This is an exercise that is in development and has not yet been fully tested in the classroom. Please check back regularly for updates and changes. Students will use a combination of topographic and geologic maps ...
GPS data, vectors and volcano monitoring: an exercise for introductory geology students based on VEPP data
Martha House, Pasadena City College
Brief three-line description of the activity or assignment and its strengths (you will have an opportunity to expand on this description later in the form): This exercise is designed to investigate continuous GPS ...
Google Earth Investigations of Folded and Faulted Landforms
Hillary Hamann, University of Denver
This activity utilizes Google Earth (the free downloadable version) to investigate folded and faulted landscapes and to review crustal deformation processes and associated landform features.
Venus, Earth's structural sister: Investigations using radar imagery
Vicki Hansen, University of Minnesota-Duluth
Students conduct fieldwork on Venus without leaving the lab. Concepts include basic mapping principles, remote data set interpretation, structure morphology and interaction, rheology, temporal relations, and ...
Introduction to Google Earth
Liane Stevens, Bentley University
This assignment is designed as an introductory Google Earth tutorial on navigation; layers and featured content; and the creation and modification of Placemarks, Paths, and Polygons. The assignment is intended as a ...
Using Google Earth & GIS to Create a Customized Map
Omowumi Alabi, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Students are introduced to cartographic concepts and learn how to use GIS to make a proper map with scale information, location (longitude and latitude), orientation and appropriate title.
Navigation Unit
Suki Smaglik, Central Wyoming College
This is a hands-on activity designed to teach basic land navigation skills using compass, GPS units and topographic maps. This unit relies heavily on math skills.
Mapping Bedrock Outcrops with Stride & Compass and a GPS Unit in a soil and forest mantled landscape
Les Hasbargen, SUNY College at Oneonta
Students take a two mile hike along a trail in a forest and map bedrock exposures. The project takes place over a few days. Students will need 2-3 hours to collect the data in the field, and another 2-3 hours to ...





