Exploring California's Plate Motion and Deformation with GPS | Lessons on Plate Tectonics part of Geodesy:Activities
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Students analyze data to study the motion of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. From GPS data, students detect relative motion between the plates in the San Andreas fault zone--with and without earthquakes. To get to that discovery, they use physical models to understand the architecture of GPS, from satellites to sensitive stations on the ground. They learn to interpret time series data collected by stations (in the spreading regime of Iceland), to cast data as horizontal north-south and east-west vectors, and to add those vectors head-to-tail.Students then apply their skills and understanding to data in the context of the strike-slip fault zone of a transform plate boundary. They interpret time series plots from an earthquake in Parkfield, CA to calculate the resulting slip on the fault and (optionally) the earthquake's magnitude.

Virtual Fieldtrip to Baraboo, WI, with StraboSpot part of Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
Basil Tikoff, University of Wisconsin-Madison
This activity is a virtual field trip to the Baraboo area of southern Wisconsin. The StraboSpot digital data system is used to show the data, including the spot functionality to view outcrops at multiple spatial ...

Co-evolution of Life and Minerals part of Hydrogeology:Hydrogeology, Soils, Geochemistry 2013:Activities
Penelope Boston, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Based on the 2010 Scientific American paper by Hazen, and the more technical 2008 paper of Hazen et al, both of which explore the effect of the biosphere on the tremendous number of mineral species that occur on ...

The Geologic Timescale and Paleoclimates part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Mark W. Bowen, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
This is a basic exercise in which students utilize a variety of online resources to answer questions about the geologic timescale, major theories in geology, and temporal scales of climate change.

Comparing subsidence rates in different tectonic settings part of Sedimentary Geology:Sedimentology, Geomorphology, and Paleontology 2014:Activities
Liz Hajek, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
Think-pair-share and jig-saw activity asking students to study and compare subsidence curves from different tectonic settings.

Book Review of a Popular Science Book part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Heather Macdonald, College of William and Mary
Students select a popular science book to read and then write a book review and give a short oral book review to their classmates.

Maxwell Behavior of Cake part of Structural Geology and Tectonics:Structure, Geophysics, and Tectonics 2012:Activities
Christie Rowe, McGill University
Uses 3 points of entry to introduce students to viscoelastic rheology: A hands-on exercise with cake as the deformable material, an accessible example of an artificial material, and using literature to apply the ...

Isostasy: Exploring why continents are high and ocean floors are low part of Online Teaching:Activities for Teaching Online
Aurora Pun, University of New Mexico-Main Campus
A self-paced tutorial applies students' understanding of density in combination with analogies to apply principle of isostasy to explaining Earth's surface relief. The tutorial is bookended by online ...

Sequence-stratigraphic and mass-balance analysis of experimental stratigraphy part of Sedimentary Geology:Sedimentology, Geomorphology, and Paleontology 2014:Activities
Liz Hajek, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
Sequence-stratigraphic and mass-balance analysis of experimental stratigraphy. Students are charged with evaluating how basin subsidence geometry influences depositional patterns. In addition to providing practice ...

Boneyard Creek and other Extra Credit Exercises part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Eileen Herrstrom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Each of these activities takes place outside of class and requires ~0.5 hour to complete. Students review and expand on lecture topics, complete online exercises, discover campus geology, and work with computer ...