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
Theme: Teach the Earth Show all
Grade Level
Online Readiness
Results 1 - 10 of 12 matches
Unit 1: The Food-Energy-Water Connection part of Food as the Foundation for Healthy Communities
Richard D. Schulterbrandt Gragg III, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University; John Warford, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University; Cynthia Hewitt, Morehouse College; Akin Akinyemi, Florida State University; Cheryl Young, Heritage University
This unit is designed to function as three days of instruction in an introductory urban planning, environmental science/studies or public health course.
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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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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 4: Case Study Analysis part of Mapping the Environment with Sensory Perception
Lisa Phillips, Texas Tech University; Kate Darby, Western Washington University; Michael Phillips, Illinois Valley Community College
In this unit, student groups will evaluate different environmental case studies to critically investigate qualitative and quantitative data analysis, collection, and inquiry. Students will begin to consider ...
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Unit 1: Introduction to Soils and Society part of Soils, Systems, and Society
Kathryn Baldwin, Eastern Washington University; Jennifer Dechaine, Central Washington University; Rodger Hauge, American Geophysical Union; Gary Varrella, Washington State University-Spokane
In this unit, students engage in a scaffolded class discussion designed to encourage students to move from a broad focus on science relevancy to locally important societal issues relevant to soils. They then relate ...
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Unit 3: Soil Investigation and Classification part of Soils, Systems, and Society
Jennifer Dechaine, Central Washington University; Kathryn Baldwin, Eastern Washington University; Rodger Hauge, American Geophysical Union; Gary Varrella, Washington State University-Spokane
In this unit, students work in small groups to collect and record data about soils using various soil testing and classification methods at a series of stations. The methods they use are relevant to the societal ...
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Unit 2: Community-Based Participatory Solutions part of Food as the Foundation for Healthy Communities
Richard D. Schulterbrandt Gragg III, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University; John Warford, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University; Cynthia Hewitt, Morehouse College; Akin Akinyemi, Florida State University; Cheryl Young, Heritage University
The introduction and examination of the food, energy, and water connection—as a system in Unit 1—established the dictates of human dependency on and human modification of the environment. We continue a logical ...
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Unit 3: Natural and Agricultural Erosion Rates part of A Growing Concern
Sarah Fortner, Carleton College; Martha Murphy, Santa Rosa Junior College; Hannah Scherer, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ
Students will identify their perceptions of erosion by examining images of mountain and agricultural landscapes and discussing which environment is more erosive. They will use geospatial figures to compare erosion ...
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Environmental Geochemistry Class Project part of Hydrogeology:Hydrogeology, Soils, Geochemistry 2013:Activities
Carey Gazis, Central Washington University
This is a inquiry-driven class research project on a local environmental geochemistry question that is accomplished during three-hour laboratory sessions each week. Students are divided into groups that will share ...
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