Paleoclimate and Ocean Biogeochemistry
Allison Jacobel, Middlebury College
This module guides students through an examination of how surface ocean productivity relates to global climate on glacial-interglacial timescales and how the availability of ocean nutrients can be correlated with ...

Wind and Ocean Ecosystems
Alanna Lecher, Lynn University; April Watson, Lynn University
Wind has a fundamental impact on ocean ecosystems. Wind drives physical processes, including current development and upwelling through Ekman transport. These physical processes, in turn, have cascading impacts on ...

Ocean currents and overflows
Stefanie Semper, University of Bergen; Mirjam Glessmer, Lund University
We are researchers and teachers in physical oceanography. Here we provide a lesson plan including materials, to explore ocean currents and specifically "underwater waterfalls", i.e., overflows in the ...

Episodic tremor and slip: The Case of the Mystery Earthquakes | Lessons on Plate Tectonics
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Earthquakes in western Washington and Oregon are to be expected—the region lies in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Offshore, the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate subducts under the North American plate, from northern California to British Columbia. The region, however, also experiences exotic seismicity— Episodic Tremor and Slip (ETS).In this lesson, your students study seismic and GPS data from the region to recognize a pattern in which unusual tremors--with no surface earthquakes--coincide with jumps of GPS stations. This is ETS. Students model ductile and brittle behavior of the crust with lasagna noodles to understand how properties of materials depend on physical conditions. Finally, they assemble their knowledge of the data and models into an understanding of ETS in subduction zones and its relevance to the millions of residents in Cascadia.

Reef Builders through Time
Peg Yacobucci, Bowling Green State University-Main Campus
Students will use the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) to explore the history of reef-building animals through time. They will document diversity and extinction patterns through time for seven reef-building marine ...

Deep Sea Microbes Jigsaw
Beverly Owens, Cleveland Early College High School; Molly Ludwick, Kings Mountain Middle School
This activity will help students to explore characteristics of microbes that live in the deep sea. This activity can be conducted as a jigsaw or research project, and can be used with face-to-face, remote, and ...

Iceberg of Antarctica
Turtle Haste, Albuquerque Public Schools; Diane Nihart, Albuquerque Public Schools
After exploring the various hands-on, art, kinesthetic activities, and electronic resources after reading the book: Iceberg of Antarctica by Marlo Garnsworthy, students will develop, create, and produce their own ...

Explore Real Data from an Ice Core
Jason Cervenec, Ohio State University-Main Campus; Stacy Porter, Denison University
Ice core data allow students to explore a number of patterns while learning that researchers need to gather and interpret evidence to understand Earth's past. Students will explore core data collected in ...

Plankton Lab
Katryn Wiese, City College of San Francisco
Plankton Lab online (developed for remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic); students will explore plankton samples from three different locations in San Francisco Bay, identify organisms, and characterize the ...

Plate Tectonics and the Scientific Process
Suki Smaglik, Heritage University
Average inquiry level: Guided inquiry This is a series of scaffolded modules to guide students in understanding Plate Tectonic Theory, from its history to modern applications, and is designed for the asynchronous ...