Glacier Flow Model and Introduction to Monte Carlo Methods
Dan Morgan, Vanderbilt University
The goal of this assignment is for students to recognize that adding some randomization and "noise" to a model yields different results each time we run the model, and we can pull some useful statistics ...

Impacts of anthropogenic sound on marine mammals
Andrew Fischer, university of tasmania
Marine mammals rely on sound for their daily existence. Therefore, the introduction of anthropogenic noise in the marine environment can have a profound impact on their behavior. Listening to sounds in the ocean is ...

Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics Project
Dan Burleson, University of Houston-University Park
This activity is a project designed to introduce undergraduate chemical engineering students to chemical engineering thermodynamics in the context of MATLAB. The project requires students to learn concepts they ...

Using Regression Models to make Predictions
Michelle Isenhour, Naval Postgraduate School
This activity introduces students to prediction and confidence intervals for a simple linear regression model using a MATLAB Live Script. To draw a connection to confidence intervals for an unknown population mean, ...

Kinetics of Herbicide Photodegradation
Kristi Closser, California State University-Fresno
This lab activity is designed to connect student's knowledge of reaction rates to actual data and an unfamiliar system (photodegradation of phenylurea herbicides in the presence of various catalysts). Students ...

Traffic flow model
Morgan Fonley, Alma College
This assignment relates to a traffic flow model. Each problem involves graphing in two and three dimensions and interpreting those graphs.

Fetal Body Composition
Amir Golnabi, Montclair State University
This is a comprehensive and practical project in Calculus for life science majors, which helps students gain a deeper understanding of fundamental concepts of Calculus and enables them to apply those concepts to ...

Investigating Real and Ideal gases
Kristi Closser, California State University-Fresno
This activity looks at the difference between real and ideal gas laws, emphasizing the connection of the physical properties to equations and graphs. Students first analyze the real gas equation, which should be ...

Introduction to strings and DNA/protein sequence alignments
Benjamin Bratton, Princeton University
This is problem set that helps solidify concepts of computational processing (accessing data, parsing data, visualizing data, using preconstructed tools) and sequence matching, specifically in the context of ...

Simulating Passive Properties of Neurons Using Matlab
Michael Wright, California State University-Sacramento
This lab activity simulates a fundamental concept in cellular neuroscience; namely that all neurons can be modeled as circuits (i.e., the equivalent circuit) composed of resistors and capacitors in parallel. The ...

Cool Roof
Eugene Mahmoud, Mt. San Antonio College
This project is a hands-on, open-ended, collaborative assessment of students' abilities to collect numerical data, and develop mathematical models of naturally occurring phenomena. Students design physical ...

Synthesizing Marine Data Sets using MATLAB
Diane Fribance, Coastal Carolina University
Students use MATLAB to analyze an oceanographic data set collected in an estuary on a class boat trip, and put it into context using time-series data downloaded from online sources. Some basic oceanographic ...

Climate change and extreme values analysis
Alexandre Martinez, University of California-Irvine
In this activity, we learn where to get climate data (monthly temperature maxima and monthly precipitation maxima) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We learn how to fit a GEV ...

Volcano Monitoring with GPS: Westdahl Volcano Alaska
Maite Agopian, EarthScope; Beth Pratt-Sitaula, Purdue University
Learners use graphs of GPS position data to determine how the shape of Westdahl Volcano, Alaska is changing. If the flanks of a volcano swell or recede, it is a potential indication of magma movement and changing ...

Fault Models for Teaching About Plate Tectonics
Modified from an activity by Larry Braile (Purdue University) by TOTLE (Teachers on the Leading Edge) Project and further improved by ShakeAlert.
This short interactive activity has learners to manipulate fault blocks to better understand different types of earthquake-generating faults in different tectonic settings--extensional, convergent, and strike-slip. Fault models aid in visualizing and understanding faulting and plate motions because the instructor and their students can manipulate a three-dimensional model for a true hands-on experience.

Earthquake Machine
IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) and ShakeAlert
In this activity, learners work collaboratively in small groups to explore the earthquake cycle by using a physical model. Attention is captured through several short video clips illustrating the awe-inspiring power of ground shaking resulting from earthquakes. To make students' prior knowledge explicit and activate their thinking about the topic of earthquakes, each student writes their definition of an earthquake on a sticky note. Next, through a collaborative process, small groups of students combine their individual definitions to create a consensus definition for an earthquake.

Seismic Geohazards & Earthquake Hazard Maps: Alaska emphasis
TOTLE (Teachers on the Leading Edge), CEETEP (Cascadia EarthScope Earthquake and Tsunami Education Program), EarthScope ANGLE, and ShakeAlert projects
Ground shaking is the primary cause of earthquake damage to man-made structures. This exercise combines three related activities on the topic of shaking-induced ground instability: a ground shaking amplification demonstration, a seismic landslides demonstration, and a liquefaction experiment. The amplitude of ground shaking is affected by the type of near-surface rocks and soil. Earthquake ground shaking can cause even gently sloping areas to slide when those same areas would be stable under normal conditions. Liquefaction is a phenomenon where water-saturated sand and silt take on the characteristics of a dense liquid during the intense ground shaking of an earthquake and deform. Includes Alaska and San Francisco examples.

Build a Better Wall
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) and CEETEP (Cascadia EarthScope Earthquake and Tsunami Education Program). Improvements by ShakeAlert.
How can we design buildings to withstand an earthquake? This activity uses simple materials and gives learners a chance to experiment with structures that can withstand an earthquake. Two optional activities explore building damage by subjecting models to ground vibration on a small shake table.

Rocks are Elastic!! Seeing is Believing
IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology)
This activity helps learners see the elastic properties of rocks by actually bending marble. How rocks respond to stress is a fundamental concept, critical to forming explanatory models in the geosciences (e.g., elastic rebound theory). Whereas learners are likely to have lots of experience with rocks, few will have directly experienced them behaving elastically. As a result of this "missed experience", most learners conceptualize rocks as rigid solids; a concept which generally serves students well in everyday life but impedes learning about particular geologic concepts.

Human Wave: Modeling P and S Waves
IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) and ShakeAlert
Lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, learners are the medium that P and S waves travel through in this simple, but effective demonstration. Once "performed", the principles of P and S waves will not be easily forgotten. This demonstration explores two of the four main ways energy propagates from the hypocenter of an earthquake as P and S seismic waves. The physical nature of the Human Wave demonstration makes it a highly engaging kinesthetic learning activity that helps students grasp, internalize and retain abstract information.