Plate Tectonics with Maps and Spreadsheets part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Eileen Herrstrom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This activity takes place in a laboratory setting and requires ~1.5-2 hours to complete. Students learn about plate tectonic boundaries, earthquakes in a subducting slab, and volcanic hotspot tracks.

Earthquake Seismograms and Spreadsheets part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Eileen Herrstrom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This activity takes place in a laboratory setting and requires ~1.5-2 hours to complete. Students read and interpret seismograms, determine the epicenter of an earthquake by triangulation, and learn how to enter ...

Virtual Field Trip to Mt. Vesuvius part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
Katherine Kelley, University of Rhode Island
This is a virtual field trip to Italy's Mt. Vesuvius, which explores the 79AD eruption of the volcano. Students explore the excavated cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as the different types of ...

Birth of a River in Yellowstone National Park part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
Erika Elswick, Indiana University-Bloomington
The Madison River headwaters, in the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park, are formed by the joining of the Firehole River and the Gibbon River. This location provides an opportunity for students to ...

Virtual Field Trip to Laki Fissure part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
Katherine Kelley, University of Rhode Island
This is a virtual field trip to Iceland's Laki Fissure, which explores the 1783 eruption as a type example of a large historical lava flow eruption that had a significant impact on the local human population ...

Pinpointing Location with GPS Demonstration: How GPS Works (Part 2) part of Geodesy:Activities
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.

Mt. St. Helens Topographic Profiles part of Geodesy:Activities
Eileen Herrstrom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This activity takes place in a laboratory setting and requires ~1-1.5 hours to complete. Students study topographic maps of Mt. St. Helens before and after the eruption of May 18, 1980, and draw two topographic ...

Relative Dating with Art part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Jennifer Cholnoky, Skidmore College
This activity asks students to make observations of an artwork and to deduce the sequence of events or processes that occurred during the creation of the piece.

Geology of Mammoth Cave National Park part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
Students analyze topographic and geologic maps, through a set of guiding questions, to figure out why western Kentucky is home to the world-famous cave system at Mammoth Cave National Park.

Fossils under your Feet: Using the Paleobiology Database to explore local fossils part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Rowan Lockwood, College of William and Mary
In this activity, students will explore what types of fossils have been found in their local area, where they were discovered, and how old they are, using the Paleobiology Database (PBDB).