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 6134 matches
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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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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Bottle Design via MATLAB with Volume and Surface Area
Bree Ettinger, Emory University
In this activity, students design a bottle silhouette using parametric splines in MATLAB and compute its volume and surface area using numerical integration. The project connects numerical methods and computation ...
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Example False position Method Problem in MATLAB Live Script
Adrian Quesada Martinez, Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica
Interactive MATLAB activity to implement and analyze the False Position Method (Regula Falsi) for finding roots of nonlinear equations. Includes theoretical introduction, step-by-step graphical visualization, ...
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Igneous Rocks Inquiry Lab (In Person)
Jennifer Cholnoky, Skidmore College; Mary Abercrombie, Florida Gulf Coast University
Average inquiry level: Guided inquiry This is an in-person inquiry lab for igneous rocks, but it could be converted to an online lab through use of igneous rock photos available online (see links provided in the ...
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Getting started with Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry
Beth Pratt-Sitaula, EarthScope Consortium
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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Plate Tectonics: GPS Data, Boundary Zones, and Earthquake Hazards
Christopher Berg, Orange Coast College; Beth Pratt-Sitaula, EarthScope Consortium; Julie Elliott, Michigan State University
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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Lake Mixing Module
This module was initially developed by Carey, C.C., J.L. Klug, and R.L. Fuller. 1 August 2015. Project EDDIE: Dynamics of Lake Mixing. Project EDDIE Module 3, Version 1. cemast.illinoisstate.edu/data-for-students/modules/lake-mixing.shtml. Module development was supported by NSF DEB 1245707.
Stratified lakes exhibit vertical gradients in organisms, nutrients, and oxygen, which have important implications for ecosystem structure and functioning. Mixing disrupts these gradients by redistributing these ...
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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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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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Wakemup Pluton
Basil Tikoff, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
Students work through a set of questions about a geologic map of an igneous intrusion and surrounding rock units. These questions focus students' attention on the topography, geomorphology, lithology, and ...
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Indiana River Meanders Mapping Exercise
Emily Zawacki, Arizona State University Campus Immersion
In Indiana, major rivers and their tributaries cross much of the state. These rivers can produce significant hazards related to flooding and erosion, which threaten nearby residents and infrastructure. Rivers are ...
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Example Bisection Method Problem in MATLAB Grader
Roche de Guzman, Hofstra University
Here's an example of a text book problem in Numerical Methods that was converted to a MATLAB Grader assignment to assess students in a more automated and interactive way. Other problems can be modeled and ...
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Activity 8: Equilibrium Experiment
Cameron Weiner, Middlebury College
Students explore the systems thinking concepts of equilibrium and nonequilibrium with a water pouring experiment. Students complete the activity at home or virtually with videos. Water is poured from a top ...
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What's in the Water? Lesson 1: Water Cycle and Watersheds
Kelsey Bitting, Elon University
In this lesson from "What's in the Water?" PFAS Contamination Unit", students collaboratively explore water and contaminant cycling through the natural environment. They identify pathways each ...
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Prairie Eco Services
Kelly Knight, Houston Community College
As densely populated urban areas continue to expand, human activity is removing much-needed greenspaces from our communities; in turn, we are also removing critical buffers that are needed to combat air and water ...
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Lesson 2: My Water Footprint (Middle School)
Kai Olson-Sawyer, GRACE Communications Foundation
This lesson centers on a deeper exploration of the water footprint associated with food. Students learned in Lesson 1 that virtual water, especially as it relates to food, typically makes up the majority of their ...
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Geological Mapping of a Virtual Landscape
Mark Helper, The University of Texas at Austin
This virtual mapping exercise is part video game, part map prediction and interpretation. You will navigate a virtual landscape to "collect" outcrops and their field notes, recording your observations on ...
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Topographic differencing: Earthquake along the Wasatch fault
Chelsea Scott, Arizona State University Campus Immersion
After a big earthquake happens people ask, 'Where did the earthquake occur? How big was it? What type of fault was activated?' We designed an undergraduate laboratory exercise in which students learn how ...
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Lesson 3: The Value of a Water Footprint (High School)
Kai Olson-Sawyer, GRACE Communications Foundation
Session 1 of this lesson begins with a quick activity to get students thinking about their direct and virtual water use. It introduces a few new ideas for virtual water use that may surprise students, including the ...
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