Modeling Rare Plant Distributions Using ArcGIS
Elizabeth Crook, University of California-Irvine
In this activity, students work with rare plant occurrence data from the Nature Reserve of Orange County, California to create species distribution maps in ArcGIS. Students are given shapefiles of species ...

Analyzing pollen in lake sediments to understand climate change
Dan Maxbauer, Carleton College
This activity is aimed at analyzing a stratigraphic sequence of pollen samples from local lake sediments in order to reconstruct past climate and environmental conditions. The main activity fits into a larger ...

An integrated view of the Glendale Landscape
Kaye Savage, Wofford College
Students work in groups to develop posters that communicate their concept of landscape following several field labs (soils, sediment analysis, river discharge, vegetation survey, aquatic life) at one location. They ...

Watershed Management
Bruce Herbert, Texas A & M University
In this project, I ask students to use analogous reasoning to support the development of an accurate and rich conceptual model about a specific environmental issue using evidence collected from two watershed ...

Campus Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
Suzanne Savanick, Macalester College. Email: shansen2@macalester.edu Suzanne Savanick and Chris Wells co-taught a class like this for the Macalester College environmental studies senior seminar during spring 2008.
Students conduct a greenhouse gas emission inventory for their college or university. Students analyze findings and present information to the college or university community. -

Campus Nitrogen Budget
Suzanne Savanick, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, ssavanic@carleton.edu
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 ...

A Sustainable Southwest Japanese Garden
Rhonda Spidell, Albuquerque Academy
A Sustainable Southwest Japanese Garden Project combines Earth Systems geoscience curriculum with designing and developing a sustainable Japanese garden. The garden uses water harvested from the roof of the ...

Environmental Geochemistry poster project
Jodi Ryder, Central Michigan University
This is an independent case study project completed in pairs. The students should investigate an example of natural geochemistry and then use a poster format to share their findings with the class.

Investigative Case - "Swampeast Missouri"
Developed for Lifelines Online by Michelle Fisher at Three Rivers Community College, Poplar Bluff, Missouri. (http://www.bioquest.org/lifeline/ ( This site may be offline. ) )
Students will explore wetland hydrology and biology and decide whether or not to restore a wetland or retain dams and drainage systems.

Investigative Case - "Goodbye Honey Buckets"
Developed by Lana McNeil, College of Rural Alaska, Nome for Lifelines Online. (http://bioquest.org/lifelines/index.html)
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.