Investigating Ponds and Streams: How clean is our water? part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students gather data on ponds and compare the results to determine the quality of the water.

Stream Study: Assessing the relative health of streams by macro-invertebrate collection and Identification part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students gather data on stream health by collecting macro-invertebrates at three different locations and then develop an experimental question through land use and topographic map research to explain differences in water quality.

Stream investigation: Investigate how a local stream might have an impact on our surrounding landscape. part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students will make stream observations to determine its geologic processes and influence to our local topography.

Erosion in Our World part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students find real-life examples of erosion in their school surroundings. Students will extend what they learned during stream table lessons about erosion, deposition, deltas, meandering streams, and dams.

Healthy Waters part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is an mock investigation into different macroinvertebrates found in the streams in your local city. Students will record and analyze data that will lead them to learn if the water quality is good or bad in their backyard.

Stream Study: An Investigation of an Aquatic Ecosystem part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field study where students gather data on a stream based upon their protocol. They will correlate their data with another group and present their results to the class. They will develop and defend in class a new experimental question for a spring study.

Middle School Stream Investigation: observing stream erosion, calculating stream discharge, and determining stream chemistry and turbidity part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This stream field investigation will allow students to look at stream erosional patterns, take measurements to determine discharge, and conduct a chemical and turbidity analysis of Garvin Brook in Stockton, MN. Based on this investigation students will create a presentation that includes a new testable question that may be carried out the following year along with a stream ecology study.

Investigating water quality through quantative and qualitative analysis of benthic macroinvertebrate sampling. part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
In activity is a Biology field lab where students will investigate the relative health of an aquatic system based on bioindicators. Students will then summarize and reflect upon their findings.

Investigating how terrain and watersheds are connected part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
In this activity students will gain an understanding of how terrain affects a watershed. Students will use maps and Google Earth to "get a picture" of the terrain within their watershed. They will use this knowledge to create an investigation of their stream which will help answer student generated questions about the connection of terrain and water systems.

Mapping the Glaciers part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This earth systems field lab begins with an in-class guided inquiry experience which uses Minnesota Geological Survey 3-D maps of the upper Midwest to determine where they believe glaciers may have had an influence. They will determine this by looking at landscapes and compiling their own evidence from the maps. They will also offer evidence for a hypothesis they generate which involves the direction that the glacier was traveling. The two-day lesson ends (after student presentations on their findings about glaciers) with a field investigation of one of our parking lot snow banks. Students will compare and contrast what they know about glaciers, with one of our parking lot snow banks, determining any similarities with how the landscape may have appeared during the Pleistocene.

Soils Mapping part of Teach the Earth:Teaching Activities
Students collect a soil near their house or other location, analyze it using grain size, plot the locations and collectively create a soils map of campus or larger area. This exercise can be tailored for many ...

Investigating the Minnesota River's Glacial History Near Henderson, MN. part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students make observations in the Minnesota River valley, discuss their findings amongst other student groups, and describe how those observations fit with the general geology of Minnesota.

Illinois Caverns Field Trip part of NAGT:Our Work:Past Projects:Teaching in the Field:Field Trip Collection
Kathleen Bower, Eastern Illinois University Intended Audience: Middle school through undergraduate students. Location: Waterloo, Illinois Show Daily Itinerary HideMiddle School students tend to finish the caving ...

Diversity of Life in Your Neighborhood part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This is a field investigation on diversity of life where students count the number of kinds organisms in two locations. Students report their results on posters and propose reasons why there might be difference in diversity between the locations.

Using Benthic Marcoinvertebrates Captured by Rock Baskets to Determine Biodiversity in a River. part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
In this ecology investigation, students will build and place rock baskets to collect benthic macroinvertebrates in a local waterway. They will observe and identify their macroinvertebrates and use the data to determine the pollution tolerance index for various areas of a river.

Geologic History Field Investigation - Minnehaha Falls part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is an inquiry-based field investigation of the geologic history of the Minnehaha Falls and St. Anthony Falls areas of Minneapolis. Students will be introduced to rocks and the stories rocks tell in a genuine geologic context, rather than as samples in the classroom.

Geological forces changing the landscape at Minnehaha Falls part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation of the geological features of Minnehaha Falls, how they have changed and why, how they are changing and what could be done to preserve the falls.

Natural Stream Tables part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation on stream tables.

Investigating local stream discharge part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students calculate stream discharge, develop and complete an investigation involving the stream, interpret their findings, and report to their peers.

Measuring Discharge and Flow in the Rum River part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students observe, predict, and gather data on steam velocity, erosion, and discharge.