Exemplary Teaching Activities
Beginning in 2011, On the Cutting Edge began a process to review the extensive collection of activities submitted by workshop participants and members of the geoscience community. With the transition of the On the Cutting Edge program into NAGT the review process is now being used to broadly review online teaching activities relevant to NAGT's community of Earth educators. Through this review processes activities are scored on 5 elements: scientific veracity; alignment of goals, activity, and assessment; pedagogical effectiveness; robustness; and completeness of the description. The activities that score very highly in these areas become part of the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection and are featured below.
You may also be interested in the full collection of teaching activities.
Subject: Geoscience Show all
- Ground Water 14 matches
- Snowpack and Snow Melt 3 matches
- Surface Water 20 matches
Geoscience > Hydrology
11 matches General/OtherTheme: Teach the Earth Show all
Grade Level
Online Readiness
Results 1 - 10 of 33 matches
Unit 2: Monitoring surface and groundwater supply in central and western US part of Eyes on the Hydrosphere: Tracking Water Resources
Jonathan Harvey (Fort Lewis College) and Becca Walker (Mt San Antonio College)
In Unit 2, students learn how the techniques for water budgeting (covered in Unit 1) can be used to monitor both groundwater (High Plains Aquifer) and surface water (western mountain watershed) systems. Students ...
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Lake Modeling Module part of Project EDDIE:Teaching Materials:Modules
This page was initially developed by Carey, C.C., S. Aditya, K. Subratie, and R. Figueiredo. 1 May 2016. Project EDDIE: Modeling Climate Change Effects on Lakes Using Distributed Computing. Project EDDIE Module 4, Version 1. Module development was supported by NSF DEB 1245707 and ACI 1234983.
Note: An updated version of this module is available as part of the Macrosystems EDDIE project. Please visit the Climate Change Effects on Lake Temperatures module to view and download module files. We recommend using the updated Macrosystems EDDIE version of the module, as the Lake Modeling module materials have not been maintained with R code and software updates.
Lakes around the globe are experiencing the effects of climate change. In this module, students will learn how to use a lake model to explore the effects of altered weather on lakes, and then develop their own ...
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Unit 1: Climate Change and Sea Level: Who Are the Stakeholders? part of Understanding Our Changing Climate
Bruce Douglas, Indiana University-Bloomington; Susan Kaspari, Central Washington University
How are rising sea levels already influencing different regions? This unit offers case study examples for a coastal developing country (Bangladesh), a major coastal urban area (southern California), and an island ...
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Unit 3: Monitoring groundwater storage with GPS vertical position part of Measuring Water Resources
Bruce Douglas, Indiana University-Bloomington; Eric Small, University of Colorado at Boulder
This unit shows how GPS records of surface elevation can be used to monitor groundwater changes. Students calculate secular trends in the GPS time series and then use the original and detrended records to identify ...
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Unit 4: Water budget assessment of a California drought part of Measuring Water Resources
Bruce Douglas, Indiana University-Bloomington; Eric Small, University of Colorado at Boulder
The California Drought of 2012–2016 had significant social and economic consequences. This final unit focuses on this drought as a case study for measuring the hydrologic system so that we can better understand ...
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Unit 1: Introduction to the hydrologic cycle and stakeholder analysis part of Measuring Water Resources
Bruce Douglas, Indiana University-Bloomington; Eric Small, University of Colorado at Boulder
This unit introduces the hydrological cycle to provide context for the module as a whole. It particularly focuses on those portions of the hydrological cycle that take place on land and that form the basis for ...
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Capstone Project: Urban Water Portfolio part of Water Science and Society
Students will use the skills and knowledge they have developed throughout the course to develop a water portfolio for the future for a given water-critical city. They will need to estimate the city's water ...
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Unit 3: Crops and Irrigation Patterns in the United States part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
Chris Sinton, Ithaca College
This unit is designed to allow students to quantitatively assess how much water is used for irrigating crops and how this varies across the United States. This unit also has students link water use to the economic ...
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Unit 2: Water Footprints part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
Robert Turner, University of Washington-Bothell Campus
Unit 2 opens a window into water accounting and reveals intensive water use that few people think about. How much water goes into common commodities? Have you considered how much water it takes to support our ...
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Unit 1: What is Sustainability in the Context of Water? part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
Robert Turner, University of Washington-Bothell Campus
In this three to four class unit, students will: Assess the case for a global water crisis and its relevance in America. Expand their understanding of sustainability as a contestable concept and movement. Consider ...
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Learn more about this review process.