Engineering and Geoscience Activities

These activities have been submitted by faculty from a range of disciplines. The activities use a wide array of pedagogic approaches to address integrating geoscience and engineering.


Help

Results 1 - 17 of 17 matches

Using GPS data to analyze crustal strain -or- Where is the boundary between the Pacific and North American plates?
Laurel Goodell, Princeton University
Students determine and interpret crustal strain along the Pacific/North American plate boundary in southern California. They do this by using GPS time series data to plot strain ellipses in the study area, first by hand (to understand how the method works) and then by using provided Matlab code.

Assessing Water Resource Demand in New York City
Kyle Monahan, Clarkson University
An exercise assessing the water demand of New York City and population dynamics underlying that demand is provided. Visualization of first order water resource estimates using precipitation data and a known water storage volume are used to draw conclusions about drought risk and the sustainability of NYC water supplies.

Runoff Generation from Varying Land Surfaces
Freddi-Jo Bruschke, California State University-Fullerton
Experimental lab activity and lesson exploring runoff generation from different types of land surfaces.

Examining your Earthquake Hazard
Eric Baer, Highline Community College
An exercise for helping students determine and understand their seismic hazard.

Evaluating Reuse Opportunities for Recovered Building Materials
John Duggan, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Students investigate opportunities to reuse recycled building materials as a substitute for the use of virgin materials through comparative life cycle assessment and consider regulatory acceptance and market feasibility issues.

Think Like a Geologist Field Trip to Downtown San Jose
LeAnne Teruya, San Jose State University
Urban geology fieldtrip designed for civil engineering students taking an introductory geology class.

How to Create a Well Log for Use in Geothermal Bore Field Design
Kevin Amende, Montana State University-Bozeman
This activity is intended to provide a foundation in soil classification and well log creation for mechanical engineers who would like to design geothermal bore fields. Having an understanding of geoscience allows mechanical engineers to make educated decisions when trying to associate soil thermal properties for these designs.

Hyporheic Board Game
Susa Stonedahl, Saint Ambrose University
The Hyporheic Game is an ideal board game for introductory geoscience, environmental, or chemistry courses. This game introduces students to concepts of hyporheic exchange and the nitrogen cycle.

Using Real World Data to Study Soil Foundation Structure Interaction
Thalia Anagnos, San Jose State University
Soil-Foundation-Structure-Interaction (SFSI) is an important consideration when studying the impact of earthquakes on structures. A video and an online module introduce students to some basics concepts of SFSI.

Physical model of the failure of an unreinforced structure during an earthquake
Vince Cronin, Baylor University
This activity allows students to explore one of the principal reasons why so many people are injured or killed during an earthquake. Through the failure of a small model building on a simple shake table and comparison with photographs of actual buildings destroyed in earthquakes, students pursue an understanding of how to prevent these disasters through better building practices.

Numerical Algebraic Modeling of Earth's Atmosphere using MSExcel
Mookesh Dhanasar, North Carolina A & T State University
This activity was designed to incorporate Mathematical Modeling, Algorithm Development, Scientific Programming, Data Visualization and Analysis in a High School STEM activity to model the Earth's Atmospheric Model.

Finding Soil Material for a Construction Project
Tej Gautam, Marietta College
For this activity, students will prepare soil maps and data tables. Using 'Web Soil Survey (WSS)', a small area around Marietta City will be chosen and possible sites for acquiring soil as a construction material for an engineering project will be determined.

Data analyses for water resources design parameter
Manoj Jha, North Carolina A & T State University
Students use historical time series of streamflow data and perform statistical analyses to develop flow duration curve and other relevant analyses. Finally, they interpret the usefulness of these analyses to use in the design of water resources structures.

Mohr Circles
Dan Morgan, Vanderbilt University
This lab will give students practice plotting Mohr circles, interpreting experimental data for creating new fractures and pre-existing cracks, and how pore-pressure and earthquakes affect materials.

Air and Water Quality Optimization Related to Open Pit Mining
Mark Koopman, University of Utah
The module is not sufficiently developed to be summarized.

Learning to integrate geophysics into engineering projects using a comprehensive set of interactive, online, scenario-based resources
Francis Jones, University of British Columbia
This online activity is a four part interactive learning scenario involving application of geophysics in a groundwater contamination and site characterization setting. Learning objectives focus on decision making about designing, interpreting and contributing the geophysical components for a complex geologic / geotechnical project.

Simulating Mineral Industry Drilling and Processing Lab
Joel Aquino, University of North Georgia / Hall County Schools
Students simulate two processes applied by the mineral industry - drilling and mineral processing. In the drilling activity, students create a 3D model of a hidden object inside a shoebox by using bamboo skewers as their drilling machines. The second activity on mineral processing challenges the students to design and implement a flowchart on how to separate the individual components of a water-oil laden mineral mixture.