Len Vacher

Nitrate Levels in the Rock Creek Park Watershed, Washington DC, 2: Variability part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students calculate standard deviation and z-values to examine a possible outlier in a positively skewed data set.

Just How Faithful is Old Faithful? Finding Order in Random Behavior part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum/Geology of National Parks Collection. Students create a histogram to examine the time between geyser eruptions of Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park.

What Does the Mean Mean? Describing Eruptions at Riverside Geyser, Yellowstone National Park part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum/Geology of National Parks module. Students study measures of central tendency in a bimodal dataset of eruption intervals.

Deciviews from Look Rock, Great Smoky Mountains National Park: How Hazy is it? part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum/Geology of National Parks module. Students calculate the haze index and standard visual range from concentrations of particulate matter.

Shifting Sands: Quantifying Shoreline and Dune Migration at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students use weighted averages and data from air photos from 1939 to 2005 to calculate the rate of retreat of the shoreline and the advance of the front of dunes along the shoreline.

Comparing Stream Discharge in Two Watersheds in Glacier National Park part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students study how discharge per unit area varies with elevation in the high country of Glacier National Park from USGS hydrograph data from Swiftcurrent Creek and its tributary Grinnell Creek..

A Percentage Stroll through Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students calculate percentages and percent differences to compare various measures of fumaroles, mud pots, hot springs and geysers in this introduction to hydrothermal features at Yellowstone NP.

Yellowstone! A National Park on a Hot Spot part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students use foundational math to study the velocity of the North American Plate over the hot spot, the volume of eruptive materials from it, and the recurrence interval of the cataclysmic eruptions.

Dunes, Boxcars, and Ball Jars: Mining the Great Lakes Shores part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students estimate the volume of sand in Hoosier Slide, a large dome-shaped dune quarried away in the 1920s from what is now Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. They also estimate the number of boxcars to carry the sand, and the number of Ball jars produced from it.

Mapping Coastal Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise at Point Reyes National Seashore part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum/Geology of National Parks module. Students work with a color-coded conditional-formatted spreadsheet map to work through a USGS report applying a coastal vulnerability index.

Salmon Use of Geomorphically Restored Streams at Point Reyes National Seashore part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students work with salmon-trace streambed data to study whether removal of a spawning run barrier was effective

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.

Mined-Over Matter: Remembering Copper Mining at Keweenaw National Historic Park, Upper Peninsula Michigan part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum/Geology of National Parks module. Students calculate the amount of rock removed and the value of copper produced at the great Keweenaw District up to 1925.

Spreadsheet Warm Up for SSAC Geology of National Parks Modules part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. A tutorial, first module for the course, intended to introduce spreadsheets and the notion of math in an introductory geology course.

Flood Days and Good Canoeing Days at Congaree National Park part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
SSAC Geology of National Parks module/Geology of National Parks course. Students calculate probabilities using USGS hydrograph data, a spreadsheet of daily stage heights, and the COUNTIF function.

Let's Take a Hike in Catoctin Mountain Park part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students use a topographic map and spreadsheet to find how many Big Macs they burned off on a five-mile hike at Catoctin Mountain Park.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Take a Deep Breath on the Appalachian Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park: How Many Ozone Molecules Do You Inhale? part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students work with ratio and proportion and the concept of mole to calculate the number of molecules of ozone in a volume of air from concentration data.

Getting to the Point: Exploring Tectonic Motion at Point Reyes National Seashore part of Pedagogy in Action:Partners:Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:Geology of National Parks:Examples
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students use foundational math to calculate such earthquake-related numbers as fault displacement rate and earthquake recurrence interval associated with the San Andreas Fault at Point Reyes National Seashore.

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.

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.

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.

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 - 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.