Principles of relative and absolute age dating can be challenging for students to visualize in how they apply to a sequence of rocks, particularly on a urban campus lacking outcrops. To better engage students in active learning of these concepts, a series of clues and historic photographs of campus buildings from Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta are provided as an activity that students can do in small groups during class or on their own. Teams of students work to put the images in chronological order similar to how a sequence of rocks is interpreted based on Steno's Laws, principles of faunal succession using fossils, and data on numerical ages as determined by radiometric methods. The activity can be used as a means for exploration or reinforcing material. The addition of reflection questions allows students to draw parallels from the exercise to their learning of specific geological concepts. This place-based approach through the lens of familiar urban landscapes has been a meaningful way for students at the introductory level to "read rocks" as represented by the growth of their own campus over the last 100 years.

The Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) Collection is a database of reviewed educational climate and energy science resources for grades 6-16. CLEAN helps teachers find quality resources and provides guidance for teaching about these topics. The collection has also been aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), allowing secondary teachers to support student learning goals. The CLEAN resources stand-alone and can thus be used by educators to supplement or build their existing curriculum. CLEAN has also developed a template of how resources can also be organized into NGSS-aligned units that teachers can use to integrate climate and Earth science into their classes. In this share-a-thon, we will describe how to use the collection and teaching resources.

During this Share-a-Thon, we will provide a quick overview of the new GLOBE Weather Curriculum and attendees will have the opportunity to try out our Mylar balloon investigation within Lesson 5: "How does air move and change when a storm is forming" and a variety of other activities. The University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is proud to share a new free NGSS-based unit about the science of weather for 6th-8th grades. GLOBE Weather is a new five-week curriculum that includes investigations of weather phenomena through activities, demonstrations, data collection, and data analysis.

We have a color-coded timeline from the formation of the earth to the present at a scale of I inch = 20 million years. Colored zones include: 1) first life;, 2) first complex life; 3) Paleozoic; 4) time during which Middle Tennessee rocks were deposited (Ordovician – Devonian); 5) Mesozoic, with time of dinosaurs striped; 6) Cenozoic, 7) Pleistocene, 8) Holocene. Specimens of "life" are toy replicas of fossils and extant organisms. The exception is "earliest life" which is represented by a jar of pond scum. Participants pick an organism and place it next to the place on the timeline corresponding to their guess of the first appearance of that group of organisms. Typically this results in organisms spread all along the timeline. After retrieving their organism, participants match the color on the underside of the organism to the zone of the same color on the time line. The result is that almost all familiar organisms are clumped near the "now" end of the timeline. The immensity of geologic time and the relatively recent appearance of complex animals are clearly illustrated without referring to unfathomably large numbers of years. The activity holds the interest of both children and adults.

In this exploration, students work in groups to develop a watershed-based plan to control flooding. Students are first given information about a historic downstream flood and then work together to develop multiple ideas for flood management actions. They then jigsaw with other groups to develop the following details about one or more of the actions. 1. Recommendation/Description of Proposed Action 2. Advantages (Why undertake this action? What will it accomplish?) 3. Costs 4. Responsible Parties (government, landowners, schools, conservation groups, etc) 5. Time Frame 6. Controversy (drawbacks, challenges and anticipated objections). Students then explain their recommendation(s) to their original groups who then choose their top two ideas to recommend to the class. Learning Outcomes Achieved: Students apply scientific knowledge of river processes and the hydrologic cycle to a real life situation Students analyze interactions between human society and natural processes Students apply critical thinking to evaluate ideas originating outside of their groups Students analyze multiple ideas to synthesize a final plan, integrating their initial concepts with new information gleaned through the jigsaw portion of the activity

The Permeability and Hydraulic Conductivity Lab incorporates both the falling head and constant head methods to determine the coefficient of permeability of various granular materials. The permeameters and accessories are made with inexpensive off-the-shelf materials for less than . Aside from most of the parts being ready for assembly, only a small amount of cutting and screwing is necessary using common hand tools in order to create a basic functioning system. Once the permeameters are produced and tested for leaks, setting up the lab is designed to be quick and easy. For instructors with access to a makerspace, or simply access to a 3D printer, additional hardware can be 3D printed from files located on the VT Geosciences MEDL website (https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/geos-medl/permeameters). The development of physical materials used in this lab was made possible through the 4VA Collaborative Endeavors Project: Improving Hands-on Groundwater Hydrology Education at 4-VA Institutions, which was funded by a 4-VA grant (https://4-va.org/).

Our curriculum team of community college students and myself will share activities developed to bring a better understanding of "sense of place" related to South Padre Island geo-ecosystems. One of the longest barrier islands in the world, the area allows us to develop several activities putting the island into geologic and biologic context (e.g. nesting corridor for 5 species of sea turtles and bird migration) since it can be used to better understand modern Gulf of Mexico and bay (Lagunas Madre and Atascosa). Geared toward K-12 and early college applications, using Process of Science and Earth Science Literacy Initiative connections. Translated working title: Cerca de Nosotros o Aparentemente Lejos de Usted: South Padre Island Como un Entorno Global Importante

The topics of Earth history and mineral resources form the two main themes for this three-day field trip to the Blue Ridge geologic province of southeastern TN and southwestern NC. The route includes stops at the Ocoee Gorge (TN), Ducktown (TN), Murphy (NC), Nantahala (NC), Cowee (NC), Franklin (NC), Winding Stair Gap (NC), Buck Creek (NC), and Corundum Knob (NC). Field observations are focused on answering the following questions: 1. How can minerals (and the rocks in which they occur) inform our knowledge of Earth history, in this case, the Blue Ridge geologic province in easternmost Tennessee and westernmost North Carolina? What can we deduce about ancient geologic environments, ore-formation, crustal structure, plate tectonics, and mountain building events from a study of the minerals and rocks that occur in this area? 2. How have mineral resources effected this region over time? What minerals have been extracted for economic profit in this area, where are they concentrated, and how has the environment been modified as a result of natural processes (such as weathering) and human activities (such as ore mining and processing) over time? What is the state of post-mining environmental restoration in this region today?

Virtual 3D geologic models created using photogrammetry are an extremely useful tool that can increase student access to hand samples and outcrops. A small community of geoscientists, teachers and students have been experimenting with photogrammetry software over the past four years to create a repository of freely-accessible geologic models on Sketchfab.com. In the absence of a geology-specific photogrammetry instruction manual, individuals used varying methods of lighting, photography and processing to generate models that were serviceable representations of the actual rock samples. Thanks to continued experimentation and advances in photographic capture and processing techniques, the ability to create high resolution 3D models has dramatically improved over the past three years. This poster will present several new techniques used to create extremely high-definition 3D models of rock specimens. Techniques, tips and tricks will include: How to create an inexpensive photo tent and turntable. How to create shadowless, even lighting. How to capture an entire specimen by using pixel targeting. Raw image processing. Improved Agisoft Metashape workflow.

'Climate Investigations' uses our internet app called 'Polar Explorer: Sea Level' developed from publicly available data from both the physical drivers and the human impacts of climate change. The goal of the activity is to use data to drive discussion around our changing climate. The data is organized into chapters like a book with each one introduced by a question. Topics include areas like "What is sea level?"; "Why does sea level change?" "Where is it changing now?" "What about the past?" etc. Students can approach the data in several ways: (1) We have generated a set of questions that can guide them to think about evidence of climate change as well as causes and impacts, or (2) We can use question prompts for students to generate their own questions from the data and then this can be used to generate discussions in class. (1) is done as a group discussion or in teams while (2) starts with independently generating questions which are then discussed as a group.

In this activity, students are tasked with selecting locations for NOAA Weather Radio transmitters for the state of South Carolina. To guide the students' spatial thinking, students are asked to consider what types of locations would be viable (i.e. cities/towns with existing towers and related infrastructure) and what types of locations would not be viable (i.e. lakes or national parks). Students are encouraged to provide weather radio coverage to the entire state as inexpensively as possible (i.e. with as few transmitters as possible). To accomplish that goal, students use a paper map of South Carolina and transparencies sized to the range of a weather radio transmitter to create an arrangement of sites with 'optimal' coverage. After the students have created their plan, the instructor demonstrates how a geographic information system (GIS) can be used to evaluate their plans (i.e. calculating the percent of state area or population with coverage) and how the GIS can be parameterized to find a mathematically optimal solution. Students have an opportunity to apply spatial thinking skills to a real-world problem and gain an appreciation for the utility of GIS to address spatial problems.