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 10 matches
- Climatology 4 matches
- Meteorology 1 match
Geoscience > Atmospheric Science
Theme: Teach the Earth Show all
- Intro Geoscience 12 matches
Teach the Earth > Teaching Environments
Grade Level
Online Readiness Show all
Online Adaptable
12 matchesResults 1 - 10 of 12 matches
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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Climate Change Module part of Project EDDIE:Teaching Materials:Modules
This module was initially developed by O'Reilly, C.M., D.C. Richardson, and R.D. Gougis. 15 March 2017. Project EDDIE: Climate Change. Project EDDIE Module 8, Version 1.
Scientists agree that the climate is changing and that human activities are a primary cause for this change through increased emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. There have been times in ...
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Unit 1: Ocean Introduction part of Ocean Sustainability
MICHELLE KINZEL, Southwestern College; Astrid Schnetzer, North Carolina State University; Cara Thompson, Arizona State University at the West Campus
In this unit, students explore the role of ocean circulation in climate modification and bioproductivity. The activities require students to interpret the effect of horizontal and vertical seawater movement on heat ...
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Unit 2: Ocean Conditions: Ancient to Modern part of Ocean Sustainability
MICHELLE KINZEL, Southwestern College; Astrid Schnetzer, North Carolina State University; Cara Thompson, Arizona State University at the West Campus
Students will be provided with seawater pH and carbon dioxide concentration (pCO2) data spanning as far back as 1850. They will describe trends in pH, pCO2 and atmospheric CO2 concentration, outline why these ...
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Unit 1: Energy, Space, and Earth's Effective Temperature part of Earths Thermostat
Allison Dunn, Worcester State University; Phil Resor, Wesleyan University; Bob Mackay, Clark College
This unit is designed to engage students by introducing them to patterns in recent climate and investigating possible reasons for recent changes. Students work in small groups to plot and analyze real-world ...
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Unit 3: Energy Flows and Feedback Processes part of Earths Thermostat
Bob Mackay, Clark College; Allison Dunn, Worcester State University; Phil Resor, Wesleyan University
In this unit, we use energy flows within the climate system to introduce climate feedbacks and system diagrams. The class session uses an interactive lecture approach having students work on multiple tasks ...
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Unit 4: Earth's radiation balance - a map and graph-based jigsaw part of Earths Thermostat
Phil Resor, Wesleyan University; Bob Mackay, Clark College; Allison Dunn, Worcester State University
In this two-day activity spanning Units 4 and 5, students analyze spatial variation in climate through a map-based jigsaw exploration of NASA's Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy Systems (CERES) Energy ...
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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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Melting ice cubes part of Oceanography:Activities
Mirjam Glessmer, University of Bergen
Explore how melting of ice cubes floating in water is influenced by the salinity of the water. Important oceanographic concepts like density and density driven currents are visualized and can be discussed on the ...
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Ocean Gyre Circulation and Patterns of Global Primary Productivity part of Oceanography:Activities
Megan Jones, North Hennepin Community College
This teaching activity provides a visual framework for understanding the relationship/connection between ocean gyre circulation and primary productivity. Students demonstrate their own understanding of surface ...
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