This is a learning module that uses data to investigate the ways in which attitudes about inequality and its causes and solutions differ between social classes.

This group activity charges students with teaching their colleagues about the biogeochemical cycle of one key soil element (e.g., either C, N, S, P, Ca, or Fe). Students are given a single class period to summarize their knowledge and to develop a lesson that includes (1) an organized, 5-8 minute oral presentation, (2) a graphical, conceptual model of their assigned element's soil-biogeochemical cycle, and (3) a list of discussion questions with which to engage their colleagues on the other teams. A second class session is used to refine and to expand upon the submitted models as necessary.

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Students collect soil samples from places of interest around campus and run a series of basic soil analyses to make conclusions about how soil fertility relates to the biological community and human management.

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This is one of 4 homework assignments given to students throughout this introductory soils course. The main goal of these assignments are to give the students practice with the mechanics of problem solving, conversion, and soil profile descriptions.

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This mini-workshop is a brief introduction to the use of the polarized light microscope for thin-section analysis of soils, known as micromorphology. It assumes only a rudimentary knowledge of mineralogy and sedimentary petrology. Participants have an opportunity to describe and characterize soils with different properties in thin section. Applications to environmental geology and hydrogeology are also mentioned.

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Otterbein is in the process of developing a community garden on its newly opened Equestrian Science facility. This facility was a former industrial manufacturing location. The site was redeveloped through the Ohio Voluntary Action Program, the state's Brownfield redevelopment program. As part of the garden development, Otterbein sampled soils in the proposed garden area to verify that no hazardous constituents are present. This exercise challenges students to develop a map showing the location of the gardens and the analytical results.

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describing soils in natural exposures

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Field characterization of soil profiles in coniferous and deciduous settings; sample collection of soils from different horizons; laboratory analysis of soil moisture, soil organic carbon (by loss on ignition), and grain size distribution (by sieving)

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This chemistry activity was created to enhance student learning around solutions. It guides students through Phet simulations and then asks comprehension questions thereafter.

This is Experiment #2 in the Analytical Chemistry Lab sequence at MSU Denver. In this experiment, students will use spectroscopy to determine the concentration of iron in an unknown samples. Analytical techniques are covered including standard addition and how to accurately create standards.

Students download a comma-delimited data set that is a time series of stream discharge measurements and the concentration of a trace element in the stream. Given the concentration of this element in the precipitation and in the groundwater, the students analyze the data using spreadsheet software to separate the hydrograph into baseflow and quickflow components. Students produce a graph of their results. To do the analysis, students must derive an appropriate equation based on other equations presented in the text (Eqs. 1.2 and 1.3).

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After using the historical development of the Standard Model to develop introductory understanding, students link to OPAL and DELPHI data archives from CERN to identify and study the tracks from elementary particles.

Here is resource crafted by an experienced chemistry teacher to assist you and your students in learning stoichiometry.  Please feel free to use and modify to suit your needs in the classroom. 

To prepare for this lab activity, there are several preceding lectures on the basics of the hydrologic cycle, river systems, and sediment transport. We also introduce the watershed, including city maps of the land use in the area of the creek. Students read the relevant chapter in the textbook beforehand. Students collect the field data from the stream during the first week, and the second week focuses on teaching them to analyze the data, and to use spreadsheets to graph their results. A very detailed, formal report is handed in by each student at the culmination of the project.

The field experience requires students to collect and analyze data from four different stations along a local, impacted creek system. At each location students measure velocity and cross-sectional area, which they use to calculate the stream discharge. Students also collect data on the sediments by sieving and weighing samples, which they later use to generate cumulative sediment distribution curves. Water quality collected at each site includes total coliform, turbidity, nitrate concentrations, pH, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. Students are required to discuss all of these factors in their final report, and to assess whether the data are 'as expected' from the lectures and the reading. In addition, students develop and test their own hypothesis about the system. For example, they might choose to investigate whether sites with higher flow velocities correlate with higher sediment sizes.

This activity reinforces specific concepts about streamflow and sediment transport, and also illustrates how the field of geology contributes to our understanding of the interaction of humans and their environment.

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This textbook was developed as a result of a Round 12 Textbook Transformation Grant.

A Google Drive folder containing 10 labs for Organic Chemistry, as well as a table of contents and links to another open lab technique manual. Created for the Organic Chemistry courses at the College of DuPage.This resource will be updated as needed. For the Google Folder and most recent version, visit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17kCOjwvFzr1BUhUZRl5SHJ09CUedmvaR?usp=sharing

This writing assignment uses the "Sustainable Development Triangle" as a framework to critically evaluate an environmental issue of the student's choice. This learning activity provides an opportunity for an introductory chemistry student to use the sustainability's "Triple Bottom Line" as a tool to use material learned in the classroom to look at how environmental science helps inform economic and social/cultural factors in the development of sustainable solutions to our environmental challenges.

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This complex experimental investigation uses alkali halides (NaCl, KCl, and mixtures of both) to simulate the melting of alkali feldspars which melt at too high of temperatures to work with in lab.
Three hypotheses are tested:

It is possible to crystallize alkali-chloride salts from a magma with any composition between NaCl and KCl.
Because K+ and Na+ do not have the same ionic size, the atomic spacing in alkali chlorides will vary systematically with composition.
Alkali chlorides are equally stable at high (just below liquidus) and low (subsolidus)temperatures.

This project takes more than one class period, depending on how many students are in the class, because there will be lines at the scales, oven, and XRD. It is advisable to introduce the lab in class and have students complete various parts on their own time. There are three main parts.

Part one: Synthesize all alkali halide compositions at high temperature (hopefully above the solvus.
Part two: Put grown crystals back in an oven at lower temperature to see if they will unmix.
Part three: Write a report evaluating and interpreting all results, relevant graphs, and the above three hypothesis.

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The newly emerging field of Systems Geobiology requires linkage of biological processes with geological processes across broad scales of time (nanoseconds to eons) and space (nanometers to light years). Students are asked to specifically identify the scales of time and space across which Systems Geobiology research needs to be completed. They do this by making direct observations of a field photograph taken at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Students then translate 10 of their observations onto Powers of 10 charts. This is followed by a class discussion of their results on topics such as: What is missing? How will these analyses be synthesized across such broad scales?

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This assignment includes three reading assignments for students that (1) introduce the basics of stable isotope geochemistry, (2) explain carbon and oxygen isotopic shifts that result from volatilization and/or infiltration during metamorphism, and (3) apply real data to the Alta Aureole, Utah. Problems are assigned with each part. These start out very specific and become successively more open-ended. Classroom activities and suggestions for class discussion are included. This unit is intended to take two class periods, but Part 3 includes material on metamorphic reactions in carbonate rocks and T-X(CO2) diagrams. If these are new to the students, then they may require more time to understand. Problems in Parts 2 and 3 recommend using a spreadsheet for their solution and Excel files are provided as a starting point. This assignment integrates several lines of evidence, including stable isotope data, to a particular geological problem. Students manipulate a data set and interpret its meaning. This unit encourages students to think deeply about metamorphic processes on local and regional scales. For example, what happens to volatiles formed by mineral reactions and how might fluid flow occur over large distances during metamorphism.

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