How Did This Landscape Form? A Field-Based Exercise to Enhance Awareness of the Natural Environment
Lyn Gualtieri, Seattle University
In this activity students will investigate a landform (such as a waterfall or lake) in the field and apply the scientific method to come up with a geologic hypothesis. The focus of the activity is on making observations of the natural environment and fostering a "sense of place."

Interviewing the Past: Developing a Sense of Place through Oral Histories
Bob Abel, Olympic College
Local changes in climate, flora, fauna, and the human population can be anecdotally explored through interviews with long time locals.

Assessing Local Sea Level Rise
Ken Tabbutt, The Evergreen State College
Students will read primary scientific literature, work collaboratively, think critically, and utilize GIS as a tool to visualize and quantify spatial and temporal changes in hydrological systems.

Designing a Biological Community
Charles Dodd, Shoreline Community College
In this Physical Geography Lab, students are responsible for designing a simple biological community.

Developing a Sense of Place with Pre-service Science Teachers
Andrew Gilbert, The Evergreen State College
The lesson content focuses on designing investigations concerning the notion of scale through a series of investigations on their campus. The overarching goal is to foster a connection to the earth through an investigation of the local environment.

Sustainability and Changing Rates of Change
Christopher Coughenour, The Evergreen State College
To understand sustainability, students must understand rates of change. This activity includes a primer on basic rates concepts and an exercise that motivates critical thinking about rates of change and sustainability with an analysis of historical petroleum production rates data from the United States and the world.

Producing Bioregional Knowledge and Understanding: Student Projects Based on Field Learning
Susan Digby, Olympic College
Students produce a set of eight personal travel 'insights' from field trips within their bioregion. Each insight consists of an image produced by the student and accompanying text; students are producers of meaning rather than consumers.

Quantifying Our Stream: A Field Lab on Stream Channel Morphology and Stream Discharge
Emma Agosta, Shoreline Community College
In this field and lab activity, students will collect field data and take measurements at specified cross-sections at a local stream. They will later analyze in lab the data collected and use it to calculate stream discharge and to draw conclusions about stream channel dynamics.

Geochemical Clues and Biological Insights: Characterizing the Importance of Salmon in Northwest Streams
Kena Fox-Dobbs, University of Puget Sound
Students use geochemical tools used to track the presence of marine (salmon) derived nutrients in the terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems of creeks where salmon spawn. They also explore pros and cons of hatchery-raised salmon.

Town Planning using Geological Constraints
Tracy Furutani, North Seattle Community College
Students are divided into teams, each charged with writing a plan for the expansion of a fictional town in the North Cascades foothills. The town council (the instructor) has decided upon several expansion projects, such as an airport and housing subdivisions, and the student teams receive information about the bedrock geology, hydrology, soils, and slope stability of the area. Students present their plans in a open forum to the other students, and there is a vote of the students on the most reasonable science-based plan.