Earth System Science Courses

Building-Stone Geology part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Field Labs:Field Lab Examples
Students in an area remote from igneous and metamorphic rocks wrote papers on the properties of locally used building stones and gave a walking tour in which they presented their results.

Global Temperatures part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Teaching with Data:Examples
Students analyze the global temperature record from 1867 to the present. Long-term trends and shorter-term fluctuations are both evaluated.

US Historical Climate: Excel Statistical part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Mathematical and Statistical Models:Examples
Students import US Historical Climate Network mean temperature data into Excel from a station of their choice and use Excel for statistical calculations, graphing, and linear trend estimates.

Carbon Dioxide Exercise part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Interactive Lectures:Examples
Students work in groups, plotting carbon dioxide concentrations over time on overheads and estimating the rate of change over five years.

The Boxing Day Tsunami part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Teaching with Google Earth:Examples
Undergraduate students map data from the National Geophysical Data Center and the United States Geological Survey on Google Earth and study visualizations in order to explore the causes and effects of the Tsunami ...

Applying Lessons Learned to the Volcanic Risk at Mt. Rainier part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Jigsaws:Examples
In this jigsaw-method activity on subduction zone volcanism, students apply lessons learned from four historic eruptions to the volcanic hazards associated with Mt. Rainier in the Pacific Northwest.

Constructing Phylogenetic Trees: The Whippo Story part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Interactive Lectures:Examples
An interactive lecture in which students use data on feeding habits and habitat, skeletons, and DNA sequences to draw phylogenetic trees.

What Determines Gender in Humans? part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Interactive Lectures:Examples
In this activity students examine karyotypes from five individuals to try to identify which chromosomes determine gender in humans. This activity is also a good illustration of meiotic non-disjunction.

Effect of Proportionality Constant on Exponential Graph (k>0) part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Interactive Lectures:Examples
This classroom activity presents College Algebra students with a ConcepTest and a Question of the Day activity concerning the effect of the proportionality constant, k, on the y-intercept and position of an exponential graph where k>0 and C is an arbitrarily fixed value in f(x)=Ce^(kx).

Effect of Coefficient of x on Parabola Vertex (b>0) part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Interactive Lectures:Examples
This classroom activity presents College Algebra students with a ConcepTest, a Question of the Day, and a Write-pair-share activity concerning the effect of the coefficient of x on the vertex of a parabola where a>0, b>0 and a and c are fixed values in f(x)=ax^2+bx+c.