Water Table Contours and Contamination CogSketch geoscience worksheet
Initial Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Summary
Sketching activity that uses a sketch-understanding program, CogSketch. Students use water table elevations from wells to draw the contours of the water table onto a map. Students also indicate the groundwater flow direction and draw contamination boundaries for two sources of contamination.
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Context
Audience
Undergraduate introductory course in geoscience
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
Students should be introduced to groundwater concepts and contour lines.
How the activity is situated in the course
We have used this activity as a homework assignment after the topic is introduced in lecture and reading, but it could also be used in class, in lab, or as group work.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Groundwater flow and contamination
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Dynamic processes, cause and effect
Other skills goals for this activity
Description of the activity/assignment
This worksheet focuses on contouring the water table and how contaminants can flow in ground water. Students are given a map of an area that contains houses, a farm, and numerous wells. The elevation of the water table is given near each well. Students use the elevations to contour the water table with a 5ft contour interval and draw an arrow to show indicate the flow direction once the map is complete. The last task asks students to draw the flow boundaries of two contaminants (chicken farm and septic tank) and determine what wells would be affected. Not only does this worksheet teach students how to contour, but it also helps them interact with contour lines to determine and understand how water flows in the subsurface.
This worksheet uses the sketch-understanding program with built-in tutor: CogSketch. Therefore, students, instructors, and/or institution computer labs need to download the program from here: http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/software/cogsketch/. At any point during the worksheet, students can click the FEEDBACK button and their sketch is compared to the solution image. The built-in tutor identifies any discrepancies and reports pre-written feedback to help the student correct their sketch until they are done with the activity. Once worksheets are emailed to the instructor, worksheets can be batch graded and easily evaluated. This program allows instructors to assign sketching activities that require very little time commitment. Instead, the built-in tutor provides feedback whenever the student requests, without the presence of the instructor. More information on using the program and the activity is in the Instructor's Notes.
We have developed approximately two dozen introductory geoscience worksheets using this program. Each worksheet has a background image and instructions for a sketching task. You can find additional worksheets by searching for "CogSketch" using the search box at the top of this page. We expect to have uploaded all of them by the end of the summer of 2016.
This worksheet uses the sketch-understanding program with built-in tutor: CogSketch. Therefore, students, instructors, and/or institution computer labs need to download the program from here: http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/software/cogsketch/. At any point during the worksheet, students can click the FEEDBACK button and their sketch is compared to the solution image. The built-in tutor identifies any discrepancies and reports pre-written feedback to help the student correct their sketch until they are done with the activity. Once worksheets are emailed to the instructor, worksheets can be batch graded and easily evaluated. This program allows instructors to assign sketching activities that require very little time commitment. Instead, the built-in tutor provides feedback whenever the student requests, without the presence of the instructor. More information on using the program and the activity is in the Instructor's Notes.
We have developed approximately two dozen introductory geoscience worksheets using this program. Each worksheet has a background image and instructions for a sketching task. You can find additional worksheets by searching for "CogSketch" using the search box at the top of this page. We expect to have uploaded all of them by the end of the summer of 2016.
Determining whether students have met the goals
CogSketch has a gradebook feature that allows instructors to batch grade worksheets using the defined rubric in the worksheet. Once graded, instructors can also open all the sketches and evaluate student work. Instructions are given in the Instructor's Notes.
More information about assessment tools and techniques.Teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment: Water Table Contours and Contamination CogSketch geoscience worksheet (Cogsketch Worksheet 3.8MB Jun7 16)
- Instructors Notes: Instructor's Notes for Water Table Contours and Contamination CogSketch geoscience worksheet (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 145kB Jun7 16)
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Other Materials
Supporting references/URLs
Download CogSketch: http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/software/cogsketch/