Global Patterns
Federica Raia, The City College of New York
Based on my research on how best to enhance students' understanding of complex systems, I utilize various activities to support pattern recognition, a fundamental skill to understanding complex systems ...

Assessing the Impact of Ocean Acidification on Reef Building Corals
Elizabeth Crook, University of California-Irvine
This activity introduces students to an actual data set that explores the impacts of ocean acidification on tropical coral reef ecosystems. Students are first given a scenario for a field site in the Caribbean and ...

Abrupt climate change, greenhouse gases, and the bipolar see-saw
Kathleen Johnson, University of California-Irvine
In this activity, students work with paleoclimate proxy data (d18O, CH4, CO2)from the Byrd and GISP2 ice cores. Students prepare a graph of paleoclimate data and use the graph to answer several questions about the ...

Calibrate Peer ReviewTM: Petroleum Geology of the Persian Gulf Region
Elizabeth Heise, The University of Texas at Brownsville
Students explore the origin and distribution of oil and gas in a region of global significance, the Middle East, including the geologic history and the socio-political and environmental issues associated with ...

Take A Hike Assignment
Anne Jefferson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Students are assigned to take a hike in a location of their choice and write a concise summary of their observations of Earth Science features and processes. This assignment is used near the end of an Earth Systems ...

Genomics of microbial communities in Thermopolis Hot Springs
Suki Smaglik, Laramie County Community College
The hot springs (52°C) in Thermopolis, WY contain abundant microbial mats, including mineral-rich filamentous bacteria. While cooler than nearby Yellowstone, Thermopolis contains a number or rare or unique ...

Active Learning and Lasting Impacts: Reflective Writing in a Field-Based Geobotany Course for Teachers
Amy Ellwein, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
In this upper-division, week-long, residential field geobotany course for K-12 in-service and pre-service teachers, participants make observations and interpretations in both the field and lab every day. At the end of each day, participants write about their experiences, self-confidence, and perceived competence as an amateur scientist during a reflective writing exercise, for which instructors provide feedback each evening.