Converging Tectonic Plates Demonstration
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
During this demo, participants use springs and a map of the Pacific Northwest with GPS vectors to investigate the stresses and surface expression of subduction zones, specifically the Juan de Fuca plate diving beneath the North American plate.

Where Does Stream Water Come From?
Christa Torrens, University of Colorado at Boulder
In this module, students explore various sources of stream water through reading, discussion, and data analysis in R. The module focuses on streams from four distinct LTER sites: an Antarctic desert stream, an Arizona desert stream, an Arctic tundra stream, and a temperate forest stream in New England.

Risky Business: Using Games to Understand Farmer Decision-making in Sri Lanka
Thushara Gunda, Vanderbilt University
In coupled natural and human systems (such as farming), decision-making is rarely straightforward since it is influenced by myriad factors. This in-class role playing game allows students to step into the shoes of ...

The Sleeping Mountain
Rebecca Teed, Wright State University-Main Campus
In this role-playing scenario, students represent townspeople whose lives and livelihoods are endangered by an active volcano which may or may not erupt in the near future. -

Benefits and consequences of using minerals as natural resources
Geoffrey Cook, University of California-San Diego
In a short research assignment, students learn about mineral resources that are used in common, present-day electronic devices (a cell-phone is used as a prime example). They investigate the environmental and ...

The Heat is On: Understanding Local Climate Change
Dan Zalles, SRI International
Students draw conclusions about the extent to which multiple decades of temperature data about Phoenix suggest that a shift in local climate is taking place as opposed to exhibiting nothing more than natural ...

Mapping Plate Boundaries
Rurik Johnson (Plymouth Middle School)
Students can discover plate boundaries by plotting different sets of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on maps. These are then stacked on the overhead projector, outlining the tectonic plates. -

Climate change and human pre-history
Achim Herrmann, Louisiana State University
This is an activity that I do at the beginning of a critical thinking seminar when we talk about the emergence of human civilization and its relationship to climate change. It introduces and sets the framework for ...

Formation of the solar system
Lensyl Urbano, University of Memphis
This assignment or demonstration works really well for me in describing the formation of the solar system, the shapes and changes in planetary orbits, and introduces Milankovitch cycles.