Classroom, Lab and Field Exercises in Geophysics
This collection of teaching materials allows for the sharing of ideas and activities within the community of geophysics teachers.
Do you have a favorite teaching activity you'd like to share? Add your teaching materials to the collection, using our submission tool.
Subject: Geophysics
Results 1 - 20 of 439 matches
SIGkit (Software for Introductory Geophysics toolkit) for modelling and visualization of data part of Workshop 07: Activities
Charly Bank, University of Toronto
Predicting what geophysical data may look like and making basic inferences from data are critical learning outcomes of introductory geophysics courses whether they happen in a classroom or in a field setting. This ...
Concept puzzles about geophysical methods part of Workshop 07: Activities
Sarah Titus, Carleton College
These exercises can be used in class to insure students have a firm grasp on the concepts behind a variety of geophysical techniques and can take anywhere between 10-45 minutes.
Learn more about this review process.
Earthquake Epicenter Location Exercise using Google Earth and OneNote part of Workshop 07: Activities
Jeffrey Nunn, Louisiana State University
Students are provided with data from 4 seismograms which are used to plot the epicenter of an earthquake using OneNote to pick the P-S wave arrival gap and Google Earth to plot the circles which intersect at the ...
Learn more about this review process.
Density structure of the earth from mass and moment of inertia part of Workshop 07: Activities
Donald Forsyth, Brown University
Using mass and moment of inertia as constraints, students construct density models of the whole earth. This activity uses concepts from physics, multi-dimensional calculus, and linear algebra, and also reinforces ...
Learn more about this review process.
Well Logs part of Workshop 07: Activities
Kevin Brewer, Olivet Nazarene University
This lab is an exercise focused on wells and well logs. In it, the student will examine four well logs, correlate major unit boundaries, and construct three figures: a cross-section diagram, a structure map, and an ...
Earth Motion Monitor part of Workshop 07: Activities
Charles Ammon, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
An activity based around the display near real-time seismograms in the classroom.
Learn more about this review process.
SeisMac Seismogram Modeling part of Workshop 07: Activities
Michael Wysession, Washington University in St. Louis
Use the freely-downloaded "SeisMac" program on a Mac laptop to demonstrated the differences between P, S, Rayleigh and Love waves. SeisMac is a free program that instantly turns a Mac laptop into a ...
Learn more about this review process.
Finding the Moho part of Workshop 07: Activities
Stephen Boss, University of Arkansas Main Campus
This lab activity uses the Rapid Earthquake Viewer (on on-line seismogram viewer),spreadsheet software, and students' knowledge of seismic refraction principles to recapitulate Mohorovicic's classic ...
Learn more about this review process.
Trans-California Seismic Profile Analysis part of Workshop 07: Activities
Magali Billen, University of California-Davis
Homework assignment focused on identifying seismic arrivals and determining layer thickness and velocity using real-world data from a published article.
Learn more about this review process.
Scorpions as Seismologists part of Workshop 07: Activities
Laura Wetzel, Eckerd College
Students investigate how seismologists and scorpions use wave travel times to locate sources of movement. The primary strength of this exercise is that it links geophysics and biology to enhance interest for ...
Learn more about this review process.
Using Geophysical Field Studies as the Focus for Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in an Introductory Geophysics Course part of Workshop 07: Activities
Paul Kelso, Lake Superior State University
Using field geophysics projects as the focus of problem based learning activities in an introductory geophysics course provides students with the opportunity to work and think as geophysicists. Students are ...
Earthquake! A Term Paper and Presentation Assignment part of Workshop 07: Activities
Laura Wetzel, Eckerd College
In this writing and oral presentaion assignment, students are challenged to assess a building site for a fictitious organization, the Society for Earthquake Enthusiasts. Each student must choose a historically ...
Learn more about this review process.
Interpretation of plate boundaries from topography, bathymetry, volcanoes, and earthquake focal depths using Google Earth and OneNote part of Workshop 07: Activities
Jeffrey Nunn, Louisiana State University
Students are provided with data on topography, bathymetry, locations of earthquakes and volcanoes and earthquake focal depths in Google Earth. They are asked to plot a cross-section of topography/bathymetry and ...
Seismic refraction exercise for a hydrogeology course part of Workshop 07: Activities
Devin Castendyk, SUNY College at Oneonta
This problem has students analyze seismic refraction data to determine the depth to the water table and stratigraphy. Simple, useful, and gratifying.
Find the UST with GPR part of Workshop 07: Activities
William Montgomery, New Jersey City University
Field-based activity that uses GPR to find an underground storage tank (UST). Optionally, data provided with the activity enables lab or class use as well. Activity can be enhanced with use of GPS unit that takes ...
Seismogram Patterns part of Workshop 07: Activities
Charles Ammon, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
I assign this homework on the first day of class, after discussing the nature of science and mathematics, and the integral role of patterns in scientific discovery. The specific goal is to have students carefully ...
Using physical observations to guess the interior of a globe part of Workshop 07: Activities
Devin Castendyk, SUNY College at Oneonta
This activity introduces students to the need for geophysics and the application of several geophysical methods commonly employed. Students are given a hollow globe that contains various objects and asked to infer ...
Introduction to Plate Tectonics part of Workshop 07: Activities
Elizabeth Cochran, University of California-Riverside
Uses maps created in Google Earth to explore concepts of plate tectonics including locations of plate boundaries, age of the sea floor, and distribution of earthquakes
Exploring Earthquake Hazards with GIS part of Workshop 07: Activities
Constantin Cranganu, CUNY Brooklyn College
This activity is a straightforward application of GIS to assessment of earthquake hazards. The students get more modeling skills with GIS and a better understanding of earthquake hazards.
Estimating GPS Positional Error part of Workshop 07: Activities
Bill Witte, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Very simply and directly determine the x, y, z accuracy of the various GPS receivers using a simple method that doesn't use a lot of quantitative statistics and yields a gut-level sense of the accuracy of ...