Introduction to MATLAB for Oceanographic Data
Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, Stockton University
This activity introduces students to loading and plotting data in MATLAB. Students explore scalar and vector time series and profile data commonly used in the field of Oceanography using data sets from publicly ...

Numerical Simulation Basics: Part II – Boundary Conditions & Numerical Stability for a Finite-Difference Equation
Jim Boyle, Western Connecticut State University
This is the second and last activity teaching numerical simulation basics to students in a junior-level physical oceanography course. In the first activity students program solutions for a 1st order differential ...

Numerical Simulation Basics: Accuracy and Model Validation for a Finite-difference Equation
Jim Boyle, Western Connecticut State University
This activity teaches students a few of the basic concepts for numerical simulation of physical systems by modeling the simple and well-known problem of free-fall. The recursion relation for the finite-difference ...

Numerical Simulation Basics: Part II – Boundary Conditions & Numerical Stability
Jim Boyle, Western Connecticut State University
This is the second and last activity teaching numerical simulation basics to students in a junior-level physical oceanography course. In the first activity students program solutions for a 1st order differential ...

Visualizing Relationships with Data: Exploring plate boundaries with Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and GPS Data in the Western U.S. & Alaska | Lessons on Plate Tectonics
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Learners use the GPS Velocity Viewer, or the included map packet to visualize relationships between earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate boundaries as a jigsaw activity.

Isostasy and Global Elevation Patterns
Stephen Schellenberg, San Diego State University
This investigation explores the basic process of isostasy and its explanatory power for the observed bimodal distribution for global elevations. In Part A, the densities of representative rock samples of granite ...

Measuring Plate Motion with GPS: Iceland | Lessons on Plate Tectonics
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
This lesson teaches middle and high school students to understand the architecture of GPS—from satellites to research quality stations on the ground. This is done with physical models and a presentation. Then students learn to interpret data for the station's position through time ("time series plots"). Students represent time series data as velocity vectors and add the vectors to create a total horizontal velocity vector. They apply their skills to discover that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is rifting Iceland. They cement and expand their understanding of GPS data with an abstraction using cars and maps. Finally, they explore GPS vectors in the context of global plate tectonics.

Detecting Cascadia's changing shape with GPS | Lessons on Plate Tectonics
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Research-grade Global Positioning Systems (GPS) allow students to deduce that Earth's crust is changing shape in measurable ways. From data gathered by EarthScope's Plate Boundary Observatory, students discover that the Pacific Northwest of the United States and coastal British Columbia — the Cascadia region - are geologically active: tectonic plates move and collide; they shift and buckle; continental crust deforms; regions warp; rocks crumple, bend, and will break.

Activity 10: Feedback Loops Applied
Cameron Weiner, Middlebury College
Students apply the vocabulary and concepts from the Activity 9: Feedback Loop Introduction to assess and create earth science feedback loops with the LOOPY online modeling program. (Optional) The students then ...

Modeling Mono Lake's Water Balance
Phil Resor, Wesleyan University; Gregory Hancock, College of William and Mary
In this activity students build a hydrologic model of Mono Lake in MATLAB and then use the model to evaluate the California State Water Board's 1994 decision regulating diversions from the watershed and ...