What is the fate of CO2 produced by fossil fuel combustion? part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Paul Quay
A box model is used to simulate the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the industrial era and predict the future increase in atmospheric CO2 levels during the next century.

Estimating Exchange Rates of Water in Embayments using Simple Budget Equations. part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Keith Sverdrup, National Science Foundation
Simple budgets may be used to estimate the exchange of water in embayments that capitalize on the concept of steady state and conservation principals. This is especially true for bays that experience a significant exchange of freshwater. This exchange of freshwater may reduce the average salt concentration in the bay compared to seawater if it involves addition of freshwater from rivers, R, and/or precipitation, P. Alternatively, it may increase the average salt concentration in the bay compared to seawater if there is relatively little river input and high evaporation, E. Since freshwater input changes the salt concentration in the bay, and salt is a conservative material, it is possible to combine two steady state budgets for a bay, one for salt and one for water, to solve for the magnitude of the water flows that enter and exit the bay mouth. Students will make actual calculations for the inflow and outflow of water to Puget Sound, Washington and the Mediterranean Sea and compare them to actual measured values.

Calculation of the Magnitude of Lunar and Solar Tidal Forces on the Earth part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Randal Mandock, Clark Atlanta University; Randal Mandock, Clark Atlanta University
Project in which students calculate the magnitude of lunar and solar tidal forces on the earth. They calculate the solar tidal effect relative to the lunar tidal effect and the relative solar tidal effect for spring-tide conditions.

Gulf Anoxia Course Project part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Sadredin Moosavi, RCTC
In this activity students work in groups to investigate the problem of Gulf of Mexico hypoxia before developing mitigation strategies based on local contriubtions to the problem. The students present their ideas in a public meeting debate format from which a solution must be selected by the entire class.

How Biodiverse is Lake Superior? An exercise in proportions. part of SISL:2012 Sustainability in Math Workshop:Activities
Stephanie Kajpust
Students use critical thinking and algebra to measure and evaluate the biodiversity in Lake Superior.

Question of the Day: Ocean Waves #2 part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Interactive Lectures:Question of the Day
Surfers know that the best waves from distant storms have periods of about 14 seconds. The object of this activity is to compute how long it takes the 14 second period waves to travel 6,000 km across the pacific. ...