Unit 4: Daisyworld part of Modeling Earth Systems
Students explore Daisyworld, a model of a self-regulating system incorporating positive and negative feedbacks. Daisyworld is a planet on which black and white daisies are the only things growing. The model ...

Unit 1: Introduction to Systems Thinking – What is a System? part of Systems Thinking
This unit introduces systems and systems thinking. The unit is easily adaptable to any course and includes an introduction of terminology, motivation for using systems thinking, and practice reading, as well as ...

Pangaea Breakup part of GEODE:GEODE Teaching Resources
A Google Earth animation files was developed to show the Pangaea breakup. The animation is utilized to illustrate the evidence for plate tectonics and plate motion. Three student exercises are build around this ...

Wakemup Pluton part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Students work through a set of questions about a geologic map of an igneous intrusion and surrounding rock units. These questions focus students' attention on the topography, geomorphology, lithology, and ...

A Grand Tour of the Ocean Basins part of GEODE:GEODE Teaching Resources
The Tour Stops are arranged in a teaching sequence, starting with continental rifting and incipient ocean basin formation in East Africa and the Red Sea and ending with the oldest surviving fragments of oceanic ...

Isopach Maps part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Students complete several short, in-class exercises related to understanding isopach maps. We use Play-Doh models to illustrate features revealed in the isopach maps and to support student understanding of the ...

Modeling Folds: Block Diagrams and Structure Contours part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Working in small groups, students build Play-Doh models of 3 folds (one upright, one vertical, one plunging). They slice each of their models to create 3D block models, sketch block diagrams of each fold, and ...

Exploring Marine Sediments Using Google Earth part of GEODE:GEODE Teaching Resources
This exercise uses empirical data and Google Earth to explore the surficial distribution of marine sediments in the modern ocean. Over 2500 sites are plotted with access to original data. We recommend first ...

Unit 1.1: Mapping Ecosystem Services part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
In this activity, students are introduced to the concept of ecosystem services, provided with a tool for exploring these services in particular landscapes, and led through a few examples so that they will be ...

Google Earth Exercises for Structural Geology part of Visualization:Examples
Students use imagery taken from Google Earth to create photo-geologic maps of areas with various structural styles. Concepts include basic geologic mapping principles, remote data set interpretation, ...