Angle of Repose part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Eric Baer, Highline Community College
A student activity to determine the angle of repose and what factors determine the angle of repose.

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: Rate of Lava Flow part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Question In 1983, an eruption began at Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii that has proved to be the largest and longest-lived eruption since records began in 1823. Lava has poured out of the volcano at an average rate of ...

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: Percentage of Copper in Ore part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Question Suppose that you are building a new house. It will take about 90 kg (198 pounds) of copper to do the electrical wiring. In order to get the copper in the first place, someone needs to mine solid rock that ...

BotEC: The San Andreas Fault's Rate of Movement part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Peter Kresan
Question: The San Andrea is an active fault zone, marked by frequent earthquake activity. The crust southwest of this strike-slip fault (including Los Angeles) is sliding to the northwest relative to the other ...

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: Energy Released in an Earthquake part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Question A magnitude 8.5 earthquake (such as the 1964 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska) releases about 1x1018 joules of energy. The atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima released about 1.5x1013 joules of energy. How ...

Question of the Day: ANWR Drilling Policy part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Question of the Day developed by William Prothero, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Students analyze the interplay between science and politics on the issue of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Introduction to Texas Hurricanes part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Oney Fitzpatrick, Jim Jordan, and Jim Westgate - Lamar University, Beaumont, TX
Students graph data from 20th century hurricanes that affected the state of Texas. Along the way they answer questions that ask them to interpret what they see represented on the graphs.