Measuring the Inclination and Declination of the Earth's magnetic field with a smartphone
Avradip Ghosh, University of Houston-University Park
The poles of the Earth's magnetic field are not precisely aligned with the geographic north and south poles and, in fact, vary continuously. This activity introduces to students the Earth's magnetic ...

Working with Point Clouds in CloudCompare and Classifying with CANUPO
Sharon Bywater-Reyes, University of Northern Colorado
This exercise will walk you through 1) basic operations and use in CloudCompare, and 2) use of an Open-Source plugin in CloudCompare called CANUPO (http://nicolas.brodu.net/en/recherche/canupo/) that allows for ...

Getting started with Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry
Beth Pratt-Sitaula, EarthScope
Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry method uses overlapping images to create a 3D point cloud of an object or landscape. It can be applied to everything from fault scarps to landslides to topography. This ...

Geological Mapping of a Virtual Landscape
Mark Helper, The University of Texas at Austin
This virtual mapping exercise is part video game, part map prediction and interpretation. You will navigate a virtual landscape to "collect" outcrops and their field notes, recording your observations on ...

Virtual Geologic Mapping Exercise at Lough Fee
Steve Whitmeyer, James Madison University
The Virtual Geologic Mapping Exercise is designed to simulate an introductory field mapping exercise. Students load a KML file in Google Earth that includes real outcrop data in the form of dots and orientation ...

Measure surface reflectance and albedo with smartphone apps
Jessie Turner, Old Dominion University
Using smartphones, students can measure the reflectance and albedo of water and other earth surfaces in the field. This is a great activity to reinforce the central concepts used in remote sensing. The smartphone ...

Karst Hydrogeology: A virtual field introduction using Google Earth and GIS
Rachel Bosch, Northern Kentucky University
Students will have the opportunity to select and virtually explore the hydrogeology and geomorphology of a karst landscape using Google Earth, lidar data-sourced DEM(s) and geologic maps, and GIS software (QGIS) ...

SIGkit (Software for Introductory Geophysics toolkit) for modelling and visualization of data
Charly Bank, University of Toronto
Predicting what geophysical data may look like and making basic inferences from data are critical learning outcomes of introductory geophysics courses whether they happen in a classroom or in a field setting. This ...

Introduction to Terrestrial Laser Scanning
Sharon Bywater-Reyes, University of Northern Colorado; Beth Pratt-Sitaula, EarthScope
In this assignment, students analyze terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data in a similar manner as done previously with structure from motion (SfM) data, earlier in the course. Students compare and contrast the SfM ...

Using concept sketches for field trip wrap-up
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
This is a post-field trip assignment in a structural geology course. Students create a set of concept sketches, with a short introduction, to illustrate the structural features and geologic history of the area, ...