Len Vacher

Frequency of Large Earthquakes -- Introducing Some Elementary Statistical Descriptors part of Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:General Collection:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students examine the number of large earthquakes (magnitude 7 and above) per year for 1970-1999 and 1940-1999. QL: descriptors of a frequency distribution.

How Large is a Ton of Rock? -- Thinking about Rock Density part of Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:General Collection:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students build spreadsheets to calculate the edge length of cubes and diameter of spheres of various rocks starting with their mineralogic composition.

Earth's Planetary Density: Constraining What We Think about the Earth's Interior part of Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:General Collection:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students build spreadsheets to forward calculate the Earth's aggregate density from combinations of densities and thicknesses of the Earth's four shells.

The Floating Lithosphere - Isostasy part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Students are asked to numerically and then analytically determine the relations governing the depth of compensation.

Density of Earth - Using Some Field Data part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
This module addresses the problem of how to determine the density of the earth and has students do some field experiments to get the data they need to answer the problem.

Density of the Earth - How to Solve It part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
This module addresses the real problem of determining the density of the Earth and invites the student to figure out how to solve the problem.

Density of rocks - How large is a ton of rock? part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
This module addresses the problem of how to determine the size of a ton of rocks of a given composition and invites the student to figure out how to solve the problem.

The Floating Lithosphere - Eureka! part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
In this module, students examine Archimede's Principle in general and as it applies to Isostacy.

The Floating Lithosphere - Cross Section of North America part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
In this module, students calculate the pressure at the depth of compensation along a cross section of North America.

Scaling Galileo's Solar System - Times part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
In this module, students are asked to look at how long it takes for planets and moons to complete their orbits, and how fast they are going.

The Earth's Shells - Density vs. Depth part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
In this module, students are asked to devise a way of graphically plotting the density variations with depth in the Earth.

The Earth's Shells - Thicknesses and Densities part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
This module explores the combination of densities and shell thicknesses that produce an aggregate density of the Earth of 5.5 g/cm3.

How Large is the Great Pyramid of Giza? -- Would it make a wall that would enclose France? part of Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:General Collection:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students calculate the volume of the Great Pyramid and, following Napoleon, estimate whether its volume is large enough to make a wall around France.

How Far is Yonder Mountain? -- A Trig Problem part of Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:General Collection:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students use Polya's problem-solving heuristic to find the distance of a peak using vertical angles sighted from a wagon train heading toward the peak.

Density of Rocks - Some Applications part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
This module studies some applications of being able to determine the density of rocks.

Scaling Galileo's Solar System - Size of the Globes part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
In this module, students determine the sizes of the various planets in the solar system given a particular scale. At this scale, they are also asked to compare the planet sizes to the grain sizes of different sediment types.

Scaling Galileo's Solar System - Locating the Globes part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
In this module, students are asked to produce an angular measure of the planets' position based on their scaled orbital distances and periods. To plot the position of the planet on a campus map, they are also asked to convert polar coordinates to Cartesian coordinates.

Kepler's Third Law - The Equation part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
In this module, students are asked to devise a simple relationship between the sidereal period and orbital radius.