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.



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Results 1 - 10 of 10 matches

How Do We Know Where an Earthquake Originated? part of EarthScope ANGLE:Educational Materials:Activities
Jeffrey Barker (Binghamton University) & Michael Hubenthal (IRIS)
Students use real seismograms to determine the arrival times for P and S waves and use these times to determine the distance of the seismic station from the earthquake. Seismograms from three stations are provided to determine the epicenter using the S – P (S minus P) method. Because real seismograms contain some "noise" with resultant uncertainty in locating arrival times of P and S waves, this activity promotes appreciation for uncertainties in interpretation of real scientific data.

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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Unit 2.2 - Basic Critical Zone Concepts part of Critical Zone Science
Ashlee Dere, University of Nebraska at Omaha; Susan Gill, Stroud Water Research Center
Students will learn about geoscience-specific methods used to analyze data in the Critical Zone from data-driven activities and short presentations by their peers. The topics include the use of carbon isotopes, ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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InTeGrate Developed This material was developed and reviewed through the InTeGrate curricular materials development process.
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Unit 1.1 - CZ Overview part of Critical Zone Science
Tim White, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
The Critical Zone encompasses the external or near-surface Earth extending from the top of the vegetation canopy down to and including the subsurface zone of freely circulating fresh groundwater. Complex ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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InTeGrate Developed This material was developed and reviewed through the InTeGrate curricular materials development process.
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Exploring Spreadsheets with Microsoft Excel part of Introductory Courses:Activities
Eileen Herrstrom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This activity takes place in a laboratory setting and requires ~1.5-2 hours to complete. Students work with a large set of earthquake data, examine types of charts available in Excel, and use a spreadsheet to ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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Activity 2.2: Issue Investigation part of Exploring Geoscience Methods
Jeffrey D. Thomas, Central Connecticut State University; Scott Linneman, Western Washington University; James Ebert, SUNY College at Oneonta
During Activity 2.2, students download, organize, and analyze geoscience data sets of sea level trends, terrestrial ice sheet trends, and intensity of tropical cyclones as well as forecast models of atmospheric CO2 ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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InTeGrate Developed This material was developed and reviewed through the InTeGrate curricular materials development process.
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A Bird's Eye View: Exploring Your Region part of EarthLabs for Educators:Earth System Science
The lab activity described here was adapted by Erin Bardar of TERC for the EarthLabs project. Summary and Learning Objectives In this Lab students focus their attention on an area significantly larger than their ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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A Year in the Life of the Earth System part of EarthLabs for Educators:Earth System Science
The lab activity described here was adapted by Erin Bardar and Sarah Hill of TERC for the EarthLabs project. Summary and Learning Objectives Students have been examining Earth as a system of interacting parts, ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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Syllabus Quiz part of Online Teaching:Activities for Teaching Online
Karin Kirk, Freelance Science Writer and Geoscientist
This quiz helps students make sure they understand the important policies of the course before they embark into the course. Because students in online courses need to digest all of the course rules by reading ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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Gorge to Shore - Columbia River Gorge and the Oregon Coast to Northern California part of NAGT:Our Work:Past Projects:Teaching in the Field:Field Trip Collection
Jennifer Thomson, Eastern Washington University
Drs. Jenny Thomson and John Buchanan, Department of Geology, 130 Science Building, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA 99004 509 359-2286; Drs. Suzanne Schwab and Robin O'Quinn, Department of Biology, ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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Global Change in Local Places part of Earth Exploration Toolbook:SHALDRIL
DATA: SHALDRIL Core Data; NOAA Pollen data TOOL: GeoMapApp SUMMARY: Import Antarctic sediment core data files into GeoMapApp to create maps and graphs. Use data to infer past climate conditions based on current vegetation distributions.

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
Learn more about this review process.