Introductory Environmental or Physical Geology courses for primarily non-science majors

Earth or Environmental Science courses: Grades 9-12

Student teams are assigned a parcel of land along a river, unaware that each team's land is connected to someone else's land. They are told that they must develop the land (using federal bailout money for sustainable development in under-developed regions) in order to raise the money to pay the taxes on the land. I give them a list of the types of development they must include: hospitals, schools, infrastructure, water treament and sewage treatment plants, waste disposal sites, etc. They must prepare a powerpoint presentation illustrating how they developed the land. The students also prepare a hard copy of their aerial image with all locations illustrated. I give the teams approximately 30-40 minutes to prepare their image and presentation. Once they have completed their presentations, I call on each team to discuss their development, explaining the reasons behind their choices. As they are presenting, I tape the hard copy of their land on the wall, connecting the sections one by one. About half-way through the presentations, the students become aware that the river sections are ALL connected. Once all of the teams have presented, we then have a discussion of the effects of each team's development choices. This leads to a class discussion of land use, water quality, and resource management. I have the teams complete a worksheet that has them explain their development choices to turn in for credit.

Aerial imagery of the Amazon River (powerpoint). Post the powerpoint images separately online for students to access in class. Additionally, you will need to print out hard copies for teams to develop. Powerpoint file: Google Earth Imagery for land use activity (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 13.3MB May22 12) or slideshare powerpoint file

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