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
- Climate Change 17 matches
- Climatology 7 matches
- Meteorology 32 matches
Geoscience > Atmospheric Science
4 matches General/OtherTheme: Teach the Earth Show all
- Early Earth 1 match
- Tsunami 1 match
- Water 18 matches
- Weather 32 matches
Teach the Earth > Teaching Topics
Grade Level Show all
- College Introductory 24 matches
College Lower (13-14)
28 matches General/OtherResults 1 - 10 of 41 matches
Understanding Doppler radar radial velocity fields part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Spatial Reasoning with GeoClick Questions:Examples
Aryeh Drager, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
This activity is designed to help students learn how to interpret Doppler radial velocity radar images with meteorological applications, as well as giving students a chance to practice their spatial skills.
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Lake Mixing Module part of Project EDDIE:Teaching Materials:Modules
This module was initially developed by Carey, C.C., J.L. Klug, and R.L. Fuller. 1 August 2015. Project EDDIE: Dynamics of Lake Mixing. Project EDDIE Module 3, Version 1. cemast.illinoisstate.edu/data-for-students/modules/lake-mixing.shtml. Module development was supported by NSF DEB 1245707.
Stratified lakes exhibit vertical gradients in organisms, nutrients, and oxygen, which have important implications for ecosystem structure and functioning. Mixing disrupts these gradients by redistributing these ...
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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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Bomb Cyclones - They're Explosive! part of Project EDDIE:Teaching Materials:Modules
Jacqui Degan, Cape Fear Community College
Storms can have devastating impacts on coastal communities. Typically, tropical storms like hurricanes get the most attention, but there are other types of storms that occur at more northern latitudes that can be ...
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Justice, Power, and Activism: What the Goldman Environmental Prize Winners Teach Us About Resilience and Democracy part of Curriculum for the Bioregion:Activities
Jason Lambacher, University of Washington-Tacoma Campus
This activity is a set of student-centered exercises that enable students to learn about the individual stories of Goldman environmental prize winners, the activism and organizing that grounds their work, and the underlying political and social contexts from which their struggles emerge. The lesson inspires critical reflection about justice, power, and democracy in green politics, and encourages ways to make personal connections to activism and environmental work.
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Unit 3: Culmination of Module in Town Hall Meeting part of Major Storms and Community Resilience
Patricia Stapleton, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Lorraine Motola, Metropolitan College of New York; Lisa Doner, Plymouth State University
Over the course of one week, students will apply and evaluate concepts in the context of their local community, culminating in the formulation and evaluation of Hazard Mitigation Plan recommendations presented in ...
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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 5: Circulation in the atmosphere - a map and cross section based jigsaw part of Earths Thermostat
Phil Resor, Wesleyan University; Allison Dunn, Worcester State University; Bob Mackay, Clark College
In this optional activity, students analyze maps of wind patterns from three levels in the atmosphere in order to infer global atmospheric circulation patterns and their role in balancing the radiation budget they ...
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Unit 3: Geologic Record of Past Climate part of Carbon, Climate, and Energy Resources
Callan Bentley, Piedmont Virginia Community College
Students will be introduced to a few of the different methods used in paleoclimatology, including isotopic ratios as paleotemperature proxies. They will investigate the greenhouse gas connections of two ancient ...
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Unit 8. Impacts of Extreme Hydroclimatic Events part of Water Sustainability in Cities
Manoj Jha, North Carolina A & T State University
Unit 8 covers the basics of hydroclimatic extreme events with a focus on floods and droughts. Topics include introduction to floods and droughts, impact of urbanization on extremes, how to understand and predict ...
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Learn more about this review process.