Browse K-12 Earth Systems Teaching Activities

Browse the collection of teaching activities and projects that explore Earth's systems, including the lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, and hydrosphere. You can refine your search by using the search box or selecting the terms on the right side of the page.


Results 1 - 10 of 915 matches

Unit 3: Codorus Creek Case Study: Measuring and Interpreting Seismic Refraction Data
Using seismic refraction data in a case study for urban renewal. Andy Parsekian, University of Wyoming, aparseki@uwyo.edu Download a ZIP file of this Unit
This unit presents an applied case study example and the associated concepts related to designing a seismic survey and analyzing the data. It discusses parts of the instrument and presents practical experience ...

Activity 3: Introduction to Systems Diagrams
Cameron Weiner, Middlebury College
Students learn that systems diagrams can be useful to simplify and visualize complex problems. Working individually and with partners, students identify the system elements missing from a pre-made school water ...

Activity 8: Equilibrium Experiment
Cameron Weiner, Middlebury College
Students explore the systems thinking concepts of equilibrium and nonequilibrium with a water pouring experiment. Students complete the activity at home or virtually with videos. Water is poured from a top ...

Lesson 3: The Value of a Water Footprint (High School)
Kai Olson-Sawyer, GRACE Communications Foundation
Session 1 of this lesson begins with a quick activity to get students thinking about their direct and virtual water use. It introduces a few new ideas for virtual water use that may surprise students, including the ...

Expedition Sediments: Mud's journey through the watershed
Jessie Turner, Old Dominion University
Expedition Sediments is a game-in-a-lesson that allows students to explore the movement of sediments through watersheds by moving around the classroom. Through a fun game, this lesson explores how grains of ...

Understanding Doppler radar radial velocity fields
Aryeh Drager, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
This activity is designed to help students learn how to interpret Doppler radial velocity radar images with meteorological applications, as well as giving students a chance to practice their spatial skills.

Using Ecological Forecasts to Guide Decision Making
This module was developed by W.M. Woelmer, R.Q. Thomas, T.N. Moore and C.C. Carey. 21 January 2021. Macrosystems EDDIE: Using Ecological Forecasts to Guide Decision-Making. Macrosystems EDDIE Module 8, Version 1. http://module8.macrosystemseddie.org. Module development was supported by NSF grants DEB-1926050 and DBI-1933016.
Because of increased variability in populations, communities, and ecosystems due to land use and climate change, there is a pressing need to know the future state of ecological systems across space and time. ...

Lesson 1: Water Resources and Water Footprints (Middle School)
Kai Olson-Sawyer, GRACE Communications Foundation
This lesson helps students understand why Earth is considered the "water planet." Students analyze how much of Earth's water is available for humans to use for life-sustaining purposes, and they ...

Detecting Cascadia's changing shape with GPS | Lessons on Plate Tectonics
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Research-grade Global Positioning Systems (GPS) allow students to deduce that Earth's crust is changing shape in measurable ways. From data gathered by EarthScope's Plate Boundary Observatory, students discover that the Pacific Northwest of the United States and coastal British Columbia — the Cascadia region - are geologically active: tectonic plates move and collide; they shift and buckle; continental crust deforms; regions warp; rocks crumple, bend, and will break.

Activity 7: Limitations of Systems Diagrams
Cameron Weiner, Middlebury College
This activity teaches students about the value of planning, knowing, and explaining the limitations of a systems diagram. Students are taught to follow the following four steps when assessing the limitations of a ...