Instructor Stories

This module has been successfully used in introductory geoscience courses at community colleges on both coasts and at a research university in the middle of the country.

If you are interested in online teaching, the bottom of the Summary for each unit includes guidance for our best estimation of how online-appropriate that unit is. The InTeGrate project also has advice on using similar resources in Online or Hybrid Courses.

Webinar about teaching this module: Using GPS Data to Teach about the Earth in Introductory Undergraduate Courses: Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Water Cycle, and Ice Mass Change

Karen Kortz: Introductory Geology at Community College of Rhode Island: This introductory geology class was for non-science majors and included a focus on how people affect Earth and how Earth affects people. The module was taught spaced out throughout the semester, taking up one 75-minute lecture and three two-hour labs. The instructor found that most students gained confidence in reading and interpreting graphs and applying findings to real-world issues.

Jessica Smay: Physical Geology lab at San Jose City College: San Jose Community College is a Hispanic-serving institution with many first-generation college students. The activities from the module were done in the lab portion of the course or at home as homework and spread out throughout the semester. Some of the presentation material was included in the lecture sessions. Students particularly liked how the module showed science relating to everyday life both because they all have GPS in their phones and because the data studied has such societal implications.

Aaron Wood: How the Earth Works lab at Iowa State University: Iowa State is an R1 land-grant university and Iowa's largest university. The module was taught sequentially over weeks 2–6 of the semester in this stand-alone weekly 2-hour lab period. Well over half the students are not STEM majors, but the instructor found that working with the GPS data gave students a great introduction to the noise and uncertainty in real data, ways of formulating and testing hypotheses, debating hypotheses with classmates, and how to make scientific predictions based on incomplete observations.