Teaching Activities
These teaching activities have a strong spatial thinking component. Search the collection to find activities suitable for your classes.
Resource Type: Activities
Results 1 - 20 of 6198 matches
Molecular Parasitology
Swati Agrawal, University of Mary Washington
In Spring 2021, we piloted a mini-CURE where student groups from University of Mary Washington and Georgia State University collaboratively completed research projects as part of a research-intensive course on Molecular Parasitology. The benefits of this approach were immediately obvious as students interacted across institutions, learned from each other's disciplinary expertise while informing their own research with data collected by their collaborators.
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Data Representation in MATLAB: From Raw Data to Insight
Ray Senior, University of Technology, Jamaica
This activity is a hands-on computational lab where students import, validate, inspect, and visualize three heterogeneous data types (spreadsheets, audio, images) to discover MATLAB's unified array-based data ...
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Control Systems using Simulink
Kelvin Loutan, The University of Trinidad and Tobago
Analytically solving differential equations representing dynamic systems can sometimes distract from the physical implications of the model. In this module, the dynamic equations of a DC motor are used as a ...
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ERP Peak Detective: Introduction to Event-Related Potential Analysis with MATLAB
Brian Rivera, St Olaf College
This scaffolded laboratory activity introduces students with minimal programming experience to Event-Related Potential (ERP) analysis using MATLAB. Students progress from interactive visual exploration of neural ...
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Discover Plate Tectonics
Angela Daneshmand, Santiago Canyon College
This is a student-centered activity for a synchronous online course where students access google slides to complete during a video conferencing session (eg. Zoom) in break out rooms. Students will be introduced to ...
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Getting started with Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry
Beth Pratt-Sitaula, EarthScope
Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry method uses overlapping images to create a 3D point cloud of an object or landscape. It can be applied to everything from fault scarps to landslides to topography. This ...
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Dimensional Analysis and Flow Visualization Using MATLAB
Kianoosh Yousefi, The University of Texas at Dallas
In this MATLAB-based activity, students develop two general computational modules, one for automated dimensional analysis using the Buckingham π theorem, and another for streamline and pathline visualization for ...
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Stress Map
James Conder, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
Use earthquakes from the global CMT catalog to look at crustal stresses in a given region of the Earth. Students will download earthquake data from an online catalog and make 2 tectonic maps. One map is of the ...
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Measuring voting districts and distributions
Eugene Mahmoud, Mt San Antonio College
This project-based activity allows students to use MATLAB to analyze voting district boundaries and their relationship to social and environmental justice. Students recreate geographic borders, calculate centroids, ...
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Activity 9: Feedback Loops Introduction
Cameron Weiner, Middlebury College; Lisa Gilbert, Williams-Mystic
Students are introduced to feedback loop vocabulary and experiment with different relationships between reservoirs in simple feedback loops using LOOPY, a free, online modeling program.
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Plate Tectonics: GPS Data, Boundary Zones, and Earthquake Hazards
Christopher Berg, Orange Coast College; Julie Elliott, Michigan State University; Beth Pratt-Sitaula, EarthScope
Students work with high precision GPS data to explore how motion near a plate boundary is distributed over a larger region than the boundary line on the map. This allows them to investigate how earthquake hazard ...
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Measuring Plate Motion with GPS: Iceland | Lessons on Plate Tectonics
Roger Groom, Mt. Tabor Middle School; Cate Fox-Lent, UNAVCO; Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium; Nancy West, Quarter Dome Consulting; David Thesenga, Front Range Community College
This lesson teaches middle and high school students to understand the architecture of GPS—from satellites to research quality stations on the ground. This is done with physical models and a presentation. Then students learn to interpret data for the station's position through time ("time series plots"). Students represent time series data as velocity vectors and add the vectors to create a total horizontal velocity vector. They apply their skills to discover that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is rifting Iceland. They cement and expand their understanding of GPS data with an abstraction using cars and maps. Finally, they explore GPS vectors in the context of global plate tectonics.
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What's in the Water? Lesson 4: Drinking Water & Environmental Justice
Kelsey Bitting, Elon University; Jessica Merricks, Biology
In this lesson from the "What's in the Water?" PFAS Contamination Unit", students explore equity in drinking water across the U.S. For homework, students read segments of two recent reports ...
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Remote Sensing Applications in Hydrology
Dr. Manuela Girotto, University of California, Berkeley; Dr. Viviana Maggioni, George Mason University; Emad Habib, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The module offers background content on the fundamentals of remote sensing, but also integrates a set of existing online tools for visualization and analysis of satellite observations. Specifically, students are ...
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Remote Mapping and Analytical data integration: Coal Creek quartzite and Ralston shear zone, Colorado
Kevin Mahan, University of Colorado Boulder; Michael G. Frothingham, University of Colorado at Boulder; Ellen Alexander, University of Colorado at Boulder
This is a combination of an online mapping project (igneous and metamorphic terrain) and a subsequent module for group collaboration with associated analytical datasets (e.g., geochronology and microstructure). ...
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Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized Board Game - High School Edition
Rowan Martindale, The University of Texas at Austin; Enrique Reyes, Northside ISD - San Antonio; Estefania Salgado Jauregui, The University of Texas at Austin; Kathy Ellins, The University of Texas at Austin; Anna Weiss, The University of Texas at Austin
"Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized" can be used as an active learning tool in a class or lab to promote understanding of Earth processes (Geology), deep time, fossils, and the history of life on Earth ...
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Solving the 1D Schrodinger Equation
Morgan Hawker, California State University-Fresno
In this activity, students will explore 1-dimensional solutions to the time-independent Schrodinger equation. Students will utilize a provided MATLAB live script to determine exact energy values for two different ...
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Using Carbon Isotopes in Astrobiology: Origin of Life and beyond
Phoebe Cohen, Williams College
Carbon isotopes are used in many different ways by scientists to reconstruct Earth's past. For example, we can use carbon isotopes to determine when life first evolved on Earth, and to learn more about what ...
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Numerical Simulation Basics: Accuracy and Model Validation for a Finite-difference Equation
Jim Boyle, Western Connecticut State University
This activity teaches students a few of the basic concepts for numerical simulation of physical systems by modeling the simple and well-known problem of free-fall. The recursion relation for the finite-difference ...
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Sandy Hollow Virtual Field Geology Exercise
Andrew Laskowski, Montana State University; Devon A. Orme, Montana State University-Bozeman
This is a Google Earth based virtual field exercise focused on Sandy Hollow, near Block Mountain and McCartney Mountain in southwest Montana. This is a classic field locality in the Montana portion of the Sevier ...
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