Laboratory Activity: The Sun and Climate part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Peter Selkin, University of Washington-Tacoma Campus
In this physical geography lab, students examine the relationship between solar altitude, solar declination, and temperature regimes. Using data collected in the field, mathematical relationships, and temperature records available on the Internet, students compare the insolation and climate in their location to that of other locations.

Temperature Profiles in Permafrost part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Kirsten Menking, Vassar College
Students use STELLA to create a model of heatflow in permafrost to attempt to replicate the findings of Lachenbruch and Marshall (1986), who used inflections in the geothermal gradient of Alaskan permafrost to search for evidence of climatic change.

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.

Time Series Analysis of Lehigh Valley Instrumental Climate Records part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Zicheng Yu, Lehigh University
In this lab activity the students will learn basic statistical and graph skills by analyzing real world climate data sets.

Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations: The Scale of the Atmosphere part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Barb Tewksbury, Hamilton College
Question Let's imagine a scale model of the Earth and use a basketball to represent the Earth. Now, let's get ourselves some packages of fruit roll-ups and start covering the basketball with layers of ...

Modeling Earth's Temperature part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Kirsten Menking, Vassar College
Students use the STELLA program to create hierarchies of models of increasing complexity to understand the absorption of solar energy by the Earth and its radiation of that energy back to space.

Daisyworld Lab part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Kirsten Menking, Vassar College
Students explore a STELLA model of Daisyworld, a self-regulating system incorporating positive and negative feedbacks.

Machines that change climate: Porsche 911 Turbo vs. Toyota Prius part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Kevin Harrison, McDaniel College
This problem illustrates how consumer decisions can influence carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, how to make back-of-the-envelope calculations, and demonstrates the power of exponential growth.

BotEC: The Scale of Earth's Atmosphere part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Peter Kresan
Question: Air is our most precious resource. Without food, we can live for weeks and without water, we can live for days. But without air to breathe, we survive about 4 minutes! If you visit the top of Mt. Lemmon ...

Genetic and Empirical Approaches to Classifying Climates part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Charles Dodd, Shoreline Community College
Students (in groups of 3-4) are given a hypothetical planet and create a genetically based climate regionalization. Students then interpret empirical data of various climate phenomena (precipitation, temperature, evapo-transpiration) from different locations on the planet, and apply these to the Koppen system of climate classification.