Converging Tectonic Plates Demonstration
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
During this demo, participants use springs and a map of the Pacific Northwest with GPS vectors to investigate the stresses and surface expression of subduction zones, specifically the Juan de Fuca plate diving beneath the North American plate.

Measuring Ground Motion with GPS: How GPS Works
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
With printouts of typical GPS velocity vectors found near different tectonic boundaries and models of a GPS station, demonstrate how GPS work to measure ground motion.GPS velocity vectors point in the direction that a GPS station moves as the ground it is anchored to moves. The length of a velocity vector corresponds to the rate of motion. GPS velocity vectors thus provide useful information for how Earth's crust deforms in different tectonic settings.

Pinpointing Location with GPS Demonstration: How GPS Works (Part 2)
Shelley E Olds, EarthScope Consortium
Using string, bubble gum, and a model of a GPS station, demonstrate how GPS work to pinpoint a location on Earth.Precisely knowing a location on Earth is useful because our Earth's surface is constantly changing from earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tectonic plate motion, landslides, and more. Thus, scientists can use positions determined with GPS to study all these Earth processes.

How do I use Semi-log or Log-Log plots? Understanding non-linear relationships in the Earth sciences
This module is undergoing classroom implementation with the Math Your Earth Science Majors Need project. The module is available for public use, but it will likely be revised after classroom testing. An ...

Risky Business: Using Games to Understand Farmer Decision-making in Sri Lanka
Thushara Gunda, Vanderbilt University
In coupled natural and human systems (such as farming), decision-making is rarely straightforward since it is influenced by myriad factors. This in-class role playing game allows students to step into the shoes of ...

The Heat is On: Understanding Local Climate Change
Dan Zalles, SRI International
Students draw conclusions about the extent to which multiple decades of temperature data about Phoenix suggest that a shift in local climate is taking place as opposed to exhibiting nothing more than natural ...

Analyzing the Antarctic Ozone Hole
LuAnn Dahlman, NOAA
DATA: Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) Images. TOOLS: ImageJ, Spreadsheet. SUMMARY: Animate and explore 10 years of Southern Hemisphere ozone images. Then measure and graph the area of the ozone hole over time.

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: Scale of the Himalayas
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Question Let's imagine a scale model of the Earth, and let's imagine that the Earth is the size of a basketball. Suppose that you wanted to build the Himalayas to scale on the surface of the basketball. ...

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: Height of the Himalayas
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College

Westward Ho! How Far is Yonder Mountain
Len Vacher—University of South Florida, Tampa FL 33620 This activity was developed for Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum. National Science Foundation, DUE 0442629.
PowerPoint module leading students through development of a spreadsheet to calculate the distance of a mountain peak from coplanar vertical angles shot from two points a known distance apart.