Deep Sea Microbes Jigsaw part of IODP School of Rock 2020:Teaching Activities
This activity will help students to explore characteristics of microbes that live in the deep sea. This activity can be conducted as a jigsaw or research project, and can be used with face-to-face, remote, and ...

The Pangea Puzzle part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Students learn how to use the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) to produce maps of fossils on the present-day Earth's surface, as well as past continental configurations. They will then use these maps to understand ...

Using "Dante's Peak" to Discuss Response to Risk part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Teaching about Risk and Resilience:Activities
In this classroom activity, students watch the movie "Dante's Peak" up to the point where Harry Dalton's supervisor arrives and talks to the town council. Students then compare and contrast Harry's assessment and advice to that of his supervisor, discuss the reaction of the town council members, and develop their own recommendations for how the scientists and town should proceed.

Discovering Plate Boundaries part of NAGT:Our Resources:Teaching Resources:Teaching Materials Collection
Students work collaboratively using data maps to discover plate tectonic boundary processes. Data sets used are earthquakes, volcanos, seafloor age, and topography. Show other versions of this activity Hide The ...

A River Runs Through It: an exploration in land use and water resource management part of Environmental Geology:Activities
This is an in-class activity where students learn about the interconnectedness of land use, water quality, and water resource management. Students are assigned a river front parcel of land to develop, unaware that ...

Introduction to Scientific Journals part of Undergraduate Research:2014 Workshop:Activities
In this activity, students are introduced to locating and reading peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. It helps ease students into the process of locating, reading, and using journal publications. This ...

Introduction to well logs for use in the petroleum industry part of Sedimentary Geology:Sedimentology, Geomorphology, and Paleontology 2014:Activities
This exercise uses a suite of well logs (aka electric logs) to interpret lithology within a stratigraphic section and to determine fluid content within borehole rocks.

Landscape Evolution Debate part of Sedimentary Geology:Sedimentology, Geomorphology, and Paleontology 2014:Activities
Students are assigned to read one of the three papers on tectonic geomorphology (landscape evolution) published by Nature in 2003 (Burbank et al., Dadson et al., and Reiners et al.). All also read the editorial by ...

Arctic Climate Curriculum, Activity 2: Do you really want to visit the Arctic? part of Climate Change:Activities
This jigsaw activity is designed for students to become familiar with several datasets of Arctic weather data, collected in Eureka on Ellesmere Island. Students join a role-playing activity to read and interpret ...

VEPP: Volcanic activity and monitoring of Pu`u `O`o, Kilauea volcano, Hawaii part of NAGT:Our Resources:Teaching Resources:Volcano Exploration Project: Pu`u `O`o:Examples
Brief three-line description of the activity or assignment and its strengths: This is a 10-week group project for a Volcanic Hazards elective course, for undergraduate geology students. Students will access and ...

Introduction to Carbonate Equilibrium part of Hydrogeology:Hydrogeology, Soils, Geochemistry 2013:Activities
The activity asks students to make observations about what occurs when two effervescent antacid tablets are placed into a beaker of water. The Students work together in groups. There are three parts to the ...

Global Patterns part of Complex Systems:Teaching Activities
Based on my research on how best to enhance students' understanding of complex systems, I utilize various activities to support pattern recognition, a fundamental skill to understanding complex systems ...

Greenhouse Emissions Reduction Role-Play Exercise part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Role Playing:Examples
When the science is so clear, why is it so difficult to make agreements that will reduce our impact on climate change? This exercise is designed to help students explore that important question in an active and ...

Taking the Pulse of Yellowstone's "Breathing" Volcano part of Structural Geology and Tectonics:Structure, Geophysics, and Tectonics 2012:Activities
In this activity, students learn about volcanism in Yellowstone National Park, focusing on its history of eruptions, recent seismicity, hydrothermal events, and ground deformation. They learn how scientists monitor ...

An Experiential Pedagogy for Sustainability Ethics: The Externalities Game part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Games:Examples
The Externalities Game is a non-cooperative game that teaches students about the concept of environmental externalities and allows them to directly experience the moral dimensions of collective action problems. It has been particularly effective for teaching students about the moral aspects of the climate change. Grades are used to create the tension between earning individual grade points at the expense of group benefit. This is part of a research project funded by the National Science Foundation.

Geologic Puzzles: Morrison Formation part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Interactive Lectures:Examples
Images of faulted strata, tilted turbidites, and beach rocks bring the field into the classroom, giving students practice in doing what geoscientists do. These images are examples of geologic puzzles.

To Drill or Not to Drill? A Case Study in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge part of Environmental Geology:Activities
To Drill or Not to Drill is a multidisciplinary problem based learning exercise, which intends to increase students' knowledge of a variety of topics through a real world environmental topic. In addition, ...

Radiocarbon dating project part of Rates and Time:Teaching Activities
This is an example of an activity used in a Quaternary Geochronology course, in which a small group of students (3-4) is tasked with transforming a set of activity measurements into radiocarbon ages and calibrated ...

Living with Volcanoes: An Introduction to Geoarchaeology part of Environmental Geology:Activities
This activity introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of geoarchaeology through a case study of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. It combines short lectures with questions requiring analyses of a ...

Mark Abolins: Geol 1030 Introduction to Earth Science/Geol 1031 Introduction to Earth Science Lab at Middle Tennessee State University part of Integrate:Teaching for Sustainability:How the Community is Using InTeGrate Materials:Instructor Stories
My course is introductory general studies Earth Science, taught in a flipped instruction format with a large amount of active learning during the "lecture" period. Transition from "traditional lecture" to "flipped instruction" happened during 2013-2014 through involvement in the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) course redesign work group and the Tennessee Board of Regents Course Revitalization Initiative. Students use Pearson's "MasteringGeology" to complete pre-class assignments consisting of both publisher and original content, and they participate in active learning during the "lecture" period. A course response system (clicker remote and app system) is used to assess in-class learning and attendance.