The Evolution of Earth through Time
Phil Stokes, The University of Arizona
This activity is designed for large freshman courses (>200 students) and is used in-class. The activity requires a short (15 minute) overview of Earth history before students have the opportunity to work through ...

Thermal Evolution of the Oceanic Lithosphere
Mark Behn, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The goal of this problem set is to evaluate the thermal evolution of the oceanic lithosphere. As discussed in class, temperature in the oceanic upper mantle is well described by a half-space cooling model, in which ...

Variation Diagrams and the Evolution of Thingmuli Lavas, Iceland
Jeff Tepper, University of Puget Sound
In this problem set students are provided with an EXCEL spreadsheet containing major element analyses of lavas frm Thingmuli Volcano in Iceland. They are asked to construct variation diagrams (Harker plots) and ...

Introduction to hydrologic model calibration
Matin Rahnamay Naeini, University of California-Irvine
In this exercise, we introduce the concept of model calibration for rainfall-runoff models. We specifically employ a synthetic precipitation data as input to the hydrologic model to generate synthetic runoff. The ...

The use of visualization and sketches of thin sections to encourage a better understanding of phase diagrams: Binary and ternary phase diagram exercises
Jennifer M. Wenner and Drew S. Coleman
In these homework exercises, students manipulate two- and three- component phase diagrams. At various points during their interpretation of melting or crystallization of a composition, they are asked to ...

Major Element Fractionation During Differentiation
, Illinois State University
This problem set introduces some of the more advanced uses of Excel to not only calculate how the chemistry of a magma changes with crystallization but also to see how the liquidus assemblage can drastically change ...

Finite difference modeling of hillslope diffusion
Dylan Mikesell, Boise State University
This activity introduces students to the finite difference solution of the hill-slope diffusion PDE. The students derive partial derivatives from Taylor Series expansions of the 2D topography function z(x,t). After ...

Visualizing Data from a Journal Article: A Critical Thinking Exercise
Jeannette Wolak Luna, Tennessee Technological University
This is a take-home exercise for junior or senior-level students in a Sedimentation/Stratigraphy course. It may be used to bridge topics of geomorphology, depositional environments and clastic sedimentology. The ...

Contractional Strain
Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
Students use gesture to describe the bulk deformation and local deformation apparent in images of a contractional analog experiment. Students then calculate bulk shortening and bulk thickening for the experiment and describe the structures accommodating that strain.

The Cosmic Calendar
Erika Grundstrom, Vanderbilt University
In this activity, one takes ALL of time, from the beginning of time (i.e., the Big Bang) all the way up to today, but one compresses it into one year. One can do this for all levels of students depending on how ...