Tracking Sea Level and Paleoenvironments with Fossils part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Pete Berquist, Virginia Peninsula Community College
Students use the Paleobiology Database Navigator to examine changes in sea level in southeastern North America throughout the Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene Periods. They will plot the change in distribution of ...

Old Sticks in the Mud: Hazards of Lahars from Mount Rainier Volcano part of Curriculum for the Bioregion:Activities
Patrick Pringle, Centralia College
Volcanic debris flows (lahars) flow long distances, bury and aggrade river valleys, and cause long-term stream disturbances and dramatic landscape changes. Students will evaluate the nature, scale, and history of ...

Teaching geologic time and rates of landscape evolution with dice part of Rates and Time:GSA Activity Posters
Kate Ruhl, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Landscape evolution provides a convenient framework for understanding geologic time and rates because students can observe how processes like erosion and deposition shape their surroundings. In this example, students build 3-D sandbox models based on topographic maps and design and stage a "virtual adventure race." Sandbox landscapes are used to illustrate erosional processes,while local examples are used to discuss landscapes as transient or steady over different time- and length scales. Dice experiments illustrate radioactive decay and the shape of the age equation curve, and 14C dating, geochronology and thermochronology are introduced as "stopwatches" that start when a plant dies, a crystal forms, or a rock nears the surface and cools to a certain temperature. The sandbox model and thermochronometer "stopwatches" are combined to measure erosion rates and rates of landscape change. Ultimately, model rates (cm/hour) calculated from stopwatch times on the order of seconds can be related to geologic rates (km/My) calculated from real million-year-old samples.

Humans as Geomorphic Agents part of Geomorphology:Activities
Catherine Riihimaki, 2NDNATURE Software
An introduction to order-of-magnitude calculations and reading quantitative journal articles.

Multiple temporal scales of landscapes and landforms part of Rates and Time:Teaching Activities
Phil Stokes, The University of Arizona; Marguerite Forest, Florida Gulf Coast University; Steven Semken, Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus
This exercise provides students with a timescale and list of geomorphic landforms and processes. The activity requires that students utilize their knowledge of process-driving mechanisms to place landforms and ...

Chemical Weathering part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Kira Lawrence, Lafayette College
This field trip assignment brings students to a local cemetery to collect data related to the age and extent of weathering of limestone and igneous tombstones. Students then analyze the data they collect using ...

Paleotempestology Lab part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Kira Lawrence
Paleotempestology Lab: this lab activity is designed to help students gain experience in relative and absolute dating techniques as well as a sense of how scientific investigations proceed.

Geomorphology Problem Set part of Geomorphology:Activities
Kathleen Nicoll, University of Utah
This is an example of an exam//problem set I assigned to my Geomorphology class, which is a General Education offering at the U of Utah. The questions are rather generalized, but they can be answered to varying ...

Ordering Geologic Events and Interpreting Geologic History: The Grand Canyon part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Jennifer Wenner, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
This activity is designed to have students re-examine rocks they looked at earlier in the semester and use them to interpret some of the geologic history of the Grand Canyon.

Geomorphology Field Research Project part of Geomorphology:Activities
Jeff Marshall, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
This research project allows students to integrate and apply their geomorphic knowledge in a comprehensive study of a local landscape. Working in teams, they investigate uplifted alluvial deposits along the ...