Monitoring Lead in an Urban Community Garden part of Service Learning:Activities
Jennifer Latimer, Indiana State University
Each spring, students in a 300-level field course collect samples from urban community gardens to monitor soil lead concentrations.

Extending Mineralogy by Electron Microprobe Analysis part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
John Goodge, University of Minnesota-Duluth
This lab is designed to be a highly interactive lab session for a petrology course, where instructors provide a minimal level of essential background and then the entire group works together to explore mineral ...

Using spring water chemistry to understand groundwater inputs part of Hydrogeology:Hydrogeology, Soils, Geochemistry 2013:Activities
Rebecca Frus, University of New Mexico-Main Campus
The assignment will begin with teaching proper water collection and use of equipment for hydrochemical field work. Once the class is familiar with sample collecting technques, the class takes a field trip to ...

Pet Rock Project: A Semester-long Exercise for Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Darrell Henry, Louisiana State University
The pet rock project is a semester-long project in which each student randomly selects an igneous or metamorphic rock from the instructor or brings in a rock from an appropriate locality, and follows all of the ...

Weathering of Igneous, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary Rocks in a Semi-Arid Climate - An Engineering Application of Petrology part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Wendy Harrison, National Science Foundation; Ric Wendlandt, Colorado School of Mines
Students examine soils developed on igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks near Denver, Colorado. The 2-week exercise includes sample collection, description, and preparation, determining clay mineralogy by ...

Crystallization of Magmas part of Geochemistry:Activities
John Ayers, Vanderbilt University
Students use three methods to explore the crystallization behavior of a rock of known composition at 1 atmosphere pressure. This laboratory exercise illustrates various approaches used by geochemists and ...

Environmental Geochemistry poster project part of Hydrogeology:Hydrogeology, Soils, Geochemistry 2013:Activities
Jodi Ryder, Central Michigan University
This is an independent case study project completed in pairs. The students should investigate an example of natural geochemistry and then use a poster format to share their findings with the class.

Spatial and Temporal Tracer Test Data Analysis part of Hydrogeology:Hydrogeology, Soils, Geochemistry 2013:Activities
Kenneth Carroll, New Mexico State University-Main Campus
This is an assignment I worked on with Dr. Brusseau (University of Arizona) for his Contaminant Transport class. In this problem solving exercise, students are provided data sets that could be obtained by ...

Chemical Differentiation in the Palisades Sill part of Petrology:Teaching Examples
Matthew Gorring, Montclair State University
The purpose of this assignment is for students to synthesize field observations, petrography, and whole-rock chemical analyses in order to investigate chemical differentiation processes in a basaltic magma chamber. ...

What does the core/mantle boundary look like? part of Deep Earth:Activities
Suzanne Baldwin, Syracuse University
This activity explores how earth scientists infer what materials are present at the core mantle boundary and what this boundary might look like. It provides students with the opportunity to contribute to the ...