Virtual Geological Mapping Field Trip - Glens of Tekoa, New Zealand part of Teaching Activities
Travis Horton, University of Canterbury; Katherine Pedley
Geological mapping involves the observation, recording, presentation and interpretation of field data, all fundamental skills required by practicing geologists. This virtual geological mapping exercise enables ...

Evolution of Extinct Animals part of Teaching Activities
Phil Novack-Gottshall, Benedictine University
A classroom/lab activity using the Paleobiology Database to produce and interpret diversity curves for various groups of important and popular extinct animals, such as trilobites, ammonites, and dinosaurs. Activity ...

Sea Ice Predictive Model part of Teaching Activities
Joceline Boucher, Maine Maritime Academy
This is a quick (~25 min) classroom activity designed to stimulate thinking about sea ice, climate change, and differences between Arctic and Antarctic conditions.

Greenhouse Effect Lab part of Teaching Activities
Krista Larsen, Carleton College
In this lab, students measure temperature changes inside soda bottles (one with CO2 added, the other with only air inside) as incandescent light is shined on them to model the Greenhouse Effect.

Modeling Rare Plant Distributions Using ArcGIS part of Teaching Activities
Elizabeth Crook, University of California-Irvine
In this activity, students work with rare plant occurrence data from the Nature Reserve of Orange County, California to create species distribution maps in ArcGIS. Students are given shapefiles of species ...

Exploring Primary Productivity part of Teaching Activities
Catherine Hill, Arizona Western College
Interacting with Data: Using interactive on-line graphs and datasets created by the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) from data collected from six oceanic arrays using hundreds of instruments, students can ...

Petrographic Microscope Home Kit for Smartphones part of Teaching Activities
Lynne Elkins, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
This is a useful set of design instructions to build a home microscope kit for illustrating the properties of polarizing/petrographic microscopes with a smartphone camera. It can be used for any number of class ...

Lesson 1: Water Resources and Water Footprints (High School) part of Teaching Activities
Kai Olson-Sawyer, GRACE Communications Foundation
This lesson helps students understand why Earth is considered the "water planet." Students analyze how much of Earth's water is available for humans to use for life-sustaining purposes, and they ...

Mapping Plate Tectonic Boundaries part of Teaching Activities
Nathan Toke, Utah Valley University
In this classroom activity, students will work in groups to observe how patterns of topography, bathymetry, earthquake locations and depths, and the location of volcanoes vary across regions of the Earth. They will ...

Activity 1: Systems Thinking Vocabulary Introduction part of Teaching Activities
Cameron Weiner, Middlebury College
This 30 minute activity introduces systems and systems thinking vocabulary. The activity uses a bathroom sink to introduce simple systems vocabulary. At the end of the activity, students think about the importance ...