Teaching Activities
These teaching activities have a strong spatial thinking component. Search the collection to find activities suitable for your classes.
Resource Type: Activities
Subject: Geoscience Show all
- Economic Geology 11 matches
- Environmental Geology 86 matches
- Geochemistry 151 matches
- Geomorphology 388 matches
- Geophysics 343 matches
- Historical Geology 184 matches
- Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology 300 matches
- Mineralogy 178 matches
- Sedimentary Geology 229 matches
- Structural Geology 259 matches
- Tectonics 356 matches
Geoscience > Geology
374 matches General/OtherResults 81 - 100 of 2101 matches
Climate Drivers of Phenology
Emily Mohl, Saint Olaf College
Many species' life cycles are strongly influenced by temperature, but other cues, like day length and precipitation, can also trigger life cycle changes. Phenology is a way of recording the time when events, ...
Construction of a Korjinski Diagram
Terri Woods, East Carolina University
An interactive powerpoint presentation walks students step-by-step through the process of generating a Korjinski diagram for the system K20-Al2O3-SiO2. Students will use the triangular diagram from the previous ...
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Virtual Field Trip to the Cagles Mill Outcrop, Indiana
Max Christie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
During this virtual field trip students will write sedimentary facies descriptions, draw a stratigraphic column, and develop a set of paleogeographic maps of the Cagles Mill Spillway outcrop. This site is a ...
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Biodiversity
Robin Collins, Champlain College
In this module, students will analyze data from the Florida Keys Reef Visual Census (FKRVS), a long-term monitoring effort of key reef fish populations in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Students will calculate the species richness as well as the Shannon index and Pielou's evenness index across different years of data and between different reef types. Furthermore, students will explore how years with high frequencies of hurricanes impact these measures. The module culminates with students writing a summary finding of how reef types and hurricane frequency will impact the FKRVS in the future.
Mineral Identification
Katryn Wiese, City College of San Francisco
Mineral Identification online (developed for remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic); students will explore the various characteristics of minerals and then apply them to identify unknowns.
Introduction to Structure Contours
Basil Tikoff, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students construct structure contour lines for a "dipping bed" in our classroom and on a geologic map. In my class, this is a multi-day activity. In part 1 of this exercise, students use "topographic ...
Introduction to Modeling Folds
Basil Tikoff, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students make Play-Doh models of synclines and anticlines, including one of a plunging fold. They use these models to answer questions about what these structures look like in map view and cross-sectional view.
Pinpointing Location with GPS Demonstration: How GPS Works (Part 2)
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Using string, bubble gum, and a model of a GPS station, demonstrate how GPS work to pinpoint a location on Earth.Precisely knowing a location on Earth is useful because our Earth's surface is constantly changing from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tectonic plate motion, landslides, and more. Thus, scientists can use positions determined with GPS to study all these Earth processes.
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Hypoxia in Coastal Marine Ecosystems
Annette Brickley; Kathy Browne, Rider University; Gabriela Smalley, Rider University
Aquatic ecosystems are home to a complex intersection of physical and biological factors and an intersection of natural and anthropogenic factors. In the Chesapeake Bay, low oxygen events have occurred periodically ...
Introduction to Evolution (Historical Geology)
Amber Kumpf, Muskegon Community College
This is a guided question note sheet with interactive elements linked within for an online course in Earth History or Historical Geology. NOVA evolution lab is one component, along with other introductory videos ...
Wakemup Pluton
Basil Tikoff, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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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Spectral Seismology Module
This module was initially developed by Soule, D. S., M. Weirathmuller, G. Kroeger, and R. Darner Gougis. 20 March 2017. EDDIE: Spectral Seismology. EDDIE Module 10, Version 1. https://d32ogoqmya1dw8.cloudfront.net/files/enviro_data/activities/spectral_seismology_module-student_.v2.pdf. Module development was supported by NSF DEB 1245707 .
This module that is based on a conceptual presentation of waveforms and filters. "Spectral Seismology" will engage students using seismic and acoustic signals available through Incorporated Research ...
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Quaternary mapping in Bells Canyon as an introduction to ArcGIS Pro
Karen Gran, University of Minnesota-Duluth
This lab is intended to take a GIS novice and introduce them to mapping in ArcGIS Pro by producing a Quaternary map of Bells Canyon in Utah. It can be used as a first GIS exercise to introduce select skills to the ...
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Sedimentary Rocks Identification
Katryn Wiese, City College of San Francisco
Sedimentary Rock Identification online (developed for remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic); students will explore the various characteristics of sedimentary rocks and then apply them to identify unknowns.
Frequency of Large Earthquakes
Jennifer Pickering
Using the IRIS Earthquake Browser tool, students gather data to support a claim about how many large (Mw 8+) earthquakes will happen globally each year. This activity provides scaffolded experience downloading data and manipulating data within a spreadsheet.
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Relative and Absolute Geologic Time with Maps and Spreadsheets
Eileen Herrstrom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This activity takes place in a laboratory setting and takes ~1.5-2 hours to complete. Students apply stratigraphic principles for relative dating and basic equations of isotopic systems for absolute dating and ...
Modeling Unconformities
Basil Tikoff, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students make models of various kinds of unconformity: disconformity, angular unconformity, and buttress unconformity. They examine those models from a variety of perspectives and consider how each one appears in ...
Introduction to Terrestrial Laser Scanning
Sharon Bywater-Reyes, University of Northern Colorado; Beth Pratt-Sitaula, EarthScope
In this assignment, students analyze terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data in a similar manner as done previously with structure from motion (SfM) data, earlier in the course. Students compare and contrast the SfM ...
Using StraboSpot for Field Sedimentology & Stratigraphy
Casey J. Duncan, New Mexico State University
This module uses StraboSpot (free mobile app for iOS and Android devices and web API, backend database) and two Utah datasets to facilitate teaching field methods related to sedimentology and stratigraphy. The data ...
Pangaea Breakup
Steve Whitmeyer, James Madison University; Mladen Dorevic, Old Dominion University
A Google Earth animation files was developed to show the Pangaea breakup. The animation is utilized to illustrate the evidence for plate tectonics and plate motion. Three student exercises are build around this ...