A hands-on lab to explore Superfund, Toxics Release Inventory and TOXMAP online data to examine geographies of hazardous waste, toxic releases into the environment and their connections with socio-economic, environmental and health impacts. The lab includes directed and self-directed components.

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This is a great activity for class sizes ranging from small seminars to lecture classes. It's particularly appropriate for courses that relate hazards/volcanism to culture, society, and human interest subjects like risk management. I designed it for a Volcanoes and Society class.

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Students are asked to respond in a way they choose (as a class) to a geologic or weather related hazard. They begin with a study of the event, its causes and local effects. They then research the needs of the people affected. They research charities that serve the population affected. They choose a response (again, as a class). They educate the campus community about the geology/geography of the event, the needs and solicit donations.

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In this activity, students investigate data from Hurricane Ivan, the September 2004 storm that devastated the Caribbean Islands and the Alabama Gulf Coast before looping across Florida and back into the Gulf of Mexico, where it regenerated into a new storm system. They will analyze data on the storm's location, windspeed, and barometric pressure, develop study questions, and map the hurricane's position at selected intervals.

Students learn what causes hurricanes and what engineers do to help protect people from destruction caused by hurricane winds and rain. Research and data collection vessels allow for scientists and engineers to model and predict weather patterns and provide forecasts and storm warnings to the public. Engineers are also involved in the design and building of flood-prevention systems, such as levees and floodwalls. During the 2005 hurricane season, levees failed in the greater New Orleans area, contributing to the vast flooding and destruction of the historic city. In the associated activity, students learn how levees work, and they build their own levees and put them to the test!

The EERC at the University of Bristol has developed an Earthquake Engineering Competition that challenges secondary school students to design and make small scale models of buildings that can withstand strong earthquakes. Provided on the website are tips for model design and construction, load testing advice, and a gallery of models organized by various characteristics.

This activity is a student based inquiry looking at various natural disasters and their impact.

Students are are introduced to Excel and its capabilities by building some simple spreadsheets.

Students continue their introduction to Excel by building spreadsheets that estimate the risk of a major earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone to Benton County, Oregon.

Learners modify elements of a tsunami wave tank to investigate the affect that near-coast bathymetry (submarine topography) and coastal landforms have on how far a tsunami can travel inland. Damaging tsunami are most commonly produced by subduction zone earthquakes, such as those that occur in Alaska.

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Students learn about the weighted mean by building spreadsheets that apply this concept to the average density of the oceanic lithosphere.

Students learn about the weighted mean by building spreadsheets that apply this concept to the average density of the oceanic lithosphere.

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Freshmen enrolled in the Spaceship Earth Living Learning Community conduct research on a real project that is formulated and conducted during a 2-semester academic year.

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This activity introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of geoarchaeology through a case study of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. It combines short lectures with questions requiring analyses of a variety of data sets relating to volcanic hazards. It requires no background in geoscience or archaeology and is aimed at students from both the physical sciences and the humanities, from high school through freshman year.

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Many people live in regions prone to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, but the hazards and risks inherent in our communities may be very different. Making connections with learners from another location is a great way to share knowledge and practice science communication skills. Video conferencing applications like Zoom and Skype make it possible to connect with learners anywhere in the world. This activity provides a simple protocol, and a form for submitting a request to connect with a classroom teacher in Anchorage, Alaska.

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This lesson teaches middle and high school students to understand the architecture of GPS -- from satellites to research quality stations on the ground. This is done with physical models and a presentation. Then students learn to interpret data for the station's position through time ("time series plots"). Students represent time series data as velocity vectors and add the vectors to create a total horizontal velocity vector. They apply their skills to discover that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is rifting Iceland. They cement and expand their understanding of GPS data with an abstraction using cars and maps. Finally, they explore GPS vectors in the context of global plate tectonics.

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This activity spans two in-class sessions of 1-1.5 hours each, and includes both a small group activity focused on a set of volcanic case studies and a full-class role-playing activity where the class must decide, as a fictional town, how to respond to a nearby volcano exhibiting increased activity.

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This video segment adapted from NOVA relates the dramatic story of vulcanologists trying to predict the timing of the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

In this lesson, students will be amateur mycologists--collecting and analyzing various mushrooms. Through observation and discussion, students will gain knowledge of the basic anatomy of mushrooms, their life cycle, and their method of reproduction through spores. Students will learn to create spore prints of mushrooms and label and preserve their spore prints, just like a mycologist. Students also will learn that by comparing spore prints, they can identify different mushroom species.

Students are introduced to our planet's structure and its dynamic system of natural forces through an examination of the natural hazards of earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, tsunamis, floods and tornados, as well as avalanches, fires, hurricanes and thunderstorms. They see how these natural events become disasters when they impact people, and how engineers help to make people safe from them. Students begin by learning about the structure of the Earth; they create clay models showing the Earth's layers, see a continental drift demo, calculate drift over time, and make fault models. They learn how earthquakes happen; they investigate the integrity of structural designs using model seismographs. Using toothpicks and mini-marshmallows, they create and test structures in a simulated earthquake on a tray of Jell-O. Students learn about the causes, composition and types of volcanoes, and watch and measure a class mock eruption demo, observing the phases that change a mountain's shape. Students learn that the different types of landslides are all are the result of gravity, friction and the materials involved. Using a small-scale model of a debris chute, they explore how landslides start in response to variables in material, slope and water content. Students learn about tsunamis, discovering what causes them and makes them so dangerous. Using a table-top-sized tsunami generator, they test how model structures of different material types fare in devastating waves. Students learn about the causes of floods, their benefits and potential for disaster. Using riverbed models made of clay in baking pans, students simulate the impact of different river volumes, floodplain terrain and levee designs in experimental trials. They learn about the basic characteristics, damage and occurrence of tornadoes, examining them closely by creating water vortices in soda bottles. They complete mock engineering analyses of tornado damage, analyze and graph US tornado damage data, and draw and present structure designs intended to withstand high winds.