Examining Short-Term Tree Growth and Environmental Variables near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Laura Guertin, Penn State Brandywine
The Smithsonian Institution's Global Tree Banding Project is a citizen science program that contributes to research about tree biomass by tracking how trees respond to climate. Students around the globe are ...

Earthquake Hazards: The next big one?
John Taber, EarthScope Consortium
In this activity, students explore of the concept of probability and the distribution of earthquake sizes, and then work to understand how earthquake hazards are described by probabilities. Students then work in ...

Building a Local Stratigraphic Column: A research-based assignment for an introductory course
Jennifer Hargrave, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Students build a stratigraphic column for a pre-selected area through the compilation of a series of individual research projects. Students are required to conduct introductory field research as well as a ...

Geoscience education research project
Karen Kortz, Community College of Rhode Island
Students complete a scientific research project including asking a question, developing methods, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, and communicating results. The research question begins "What ...

Student-designed Authentic Research Projects in a Non-major Environmental Geology Course
PRAJUKTI Bhattacharyya, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Student-designed, data-based authentic research projects can be useful tools for incorporating a dimension of authentic research in non-major science courses. Such an approach has been followed in a geoscience ...

Introduction to Scientific Journals
Avery Shinneman, University of Washington-Bothell Campus
In this activity, students are introduced to locating and reading peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. It helps ease students into the process of locating, reading, and using journal publications. This ...

Florida River Project - individual and group research project
Kim Hannula, Fort Lewis College
The Florida River Project is a semester-long project involving (1) an individual project in which students pose a scientific question and use existing data to test their hypothesis, and (2) a group project in which ...

Building Content Knowledge in a Student Research Team
Deanna van Dijk, Calvin University
At the beginning of a course-based research project, each student in a research team is asked to read primary literature related to the team investigation. A mix of provided readings and readings found by the ...

Developing Student Ability to Ask Scientific Questions
Kaatje van der Hoeven Kraft, Whatcom Community College
This activity is a two-part (three week) lab in which students initially develop a claim (non-scientific) and learn how to use evidence to support a claim. They then are provided with a scientific research question ...

Semester Long Martian Research Project
Erin Kraal, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
These project materials scaffold students through a semester-long, original research project. This specific project was developed using the online planetary science database JMARS. Weekly assignments guide ...