This activity asks students to interpret (1) a geologic cross-section, then (2) the surface of another planet (Mars) in order to construct a logical sequence of events that explain how it came to look the way it does. Students need to use principles of relative dating, such as superposition, cross-cutting relationships, inclusions, original horizontality, or original continuity. An extension activity adds a few absolute dates and a couple of fossils to the original cross section and asks students to bracket the possible range of ages for an undated feature of the cross-section.

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This is a collection of mathematical problems about transits in the solar system. Learners can work problems created to be authentic glimpses of modern science and engineering issues, often involving actual research data.

The nitrogen cycle game helps you learn how nitrogen atoms move through various forms including soil, the atmosphere, plants and animals. Actions such as lightening, bacteria digestion, plant assimilation, plant death, animal death, herbivorism and nitrogen fixing plant bacteria move nitrogen from one form to another.

During Apollo 15 astronauts James Irwin and Dave Scott found a rock on the Moon that became known as the Genesis Rock.

This article describes common misconceptions held by elementary students about the history of the polar regions, fossils, and geologic time. The article provides ideas for formative assessment, teaching strategies, and the National Science Education Standards.

Students collect and analyze geological and biological materials for carbon content in order to investigate carbon through time. Implications for energy production now and in the future are explored in the context of carbon cycling in the oceans, the atmosphere, and the geosphere.

Using a combination of water, effervescent antacid tablets, dishwashing liquid and simple materials, students model volcanic eruptions to measure the intensity of explosivity and develop their own scale.

This set of lecture notes introduces metamorphic grade and type (contact, regional, cataclastic, hydrothermal, burial, shock), and classification of metamorphic rocks. Further topics include texture, protolith, bulk chemical composition, and metamorphic facies. The notes contain definitions and a small number of instructional illustrations. This resource is part of the Teaching Petrology collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/petrology03/index.html

This is an exercise that is used in an undergraduate, non-major course titled "Coral Reefs: Biology, Geology & Policy". The course uses this popular environment as a proxy for environmental decline in general and has two broad goals beyond the course content: 1) to encourage science majors to think about complex environmental problems outside the context of their individual major, and 2) to help non-majors understand the scientific thought process in the context of their own personal interests and opinions.The computer model described here was built to provide a user-friendly interface that is visually stimulating but non-"threatening" to math-phobic students. It runs on FREE software that can be run on any computer. It can be run and modified by an instructor or student with no modeling skills.For this exercise, it demonstrates how losses of grazing fish and/or the addition of nutrients to the reef system will reduce the relative abundance of corals and algae on the reef - leading to eventual decline. The main lessons for the students are:1) If you increase a particular stress, there is often little or no change until suddenly the system rapidly declines.2) If multiple stresses are added, the pattern is more complicated but basically the same. 3) Once the system collapses, simply returning to the "safe" side of the collapse threshold has no result.The Big Picture: All of this is referred to as "non-linearity" and demonstrates that on the reef (as in most natural systems), it's a LOT easier (and cheaper) to not "break it" in the first place than it is to "fit it" once it crashes.
Coral Reefs
Computer Model
Modeling
Environmental change
Diversity
Reef Decline
Anthropogenic Stress

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At the University of Vermont, instructors used land use change, driven by development of the University of Vermont campus and recent student occupancy of surrounding neighborhoods in Burlington, Vermont, as an opportunity for service learning and for teaching fundamental hydrologic and geologic skills. Students from a Geomorphology class, Geohydrology class and student senior research projects all worked on the preoject. In each of these studies, students worked closely with City and University staff and presented results at local forums, professional national meeting, and on the World Wide Web. These service-learning projects have received positive feedback from the students, city officals, and community members.

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This is a lesson about geologic history. Learners will work together to create models of volcanic lava flows and analyze the layers that form on a planet's surface. They will sequence lava flows produced by multiple eruptions. Students will be asked to observe where the flows travel, make a model, and interpret the stratigraphy. Students will use their volcanic layering model to demonstrate the relative dating and geologic mapping principles to later be applied to satellite imagery. The lesson models scientific inquiry using the 5E instructional model and includes teacher notes and vocabulary.

These lecture notes discuss the use of three component systems in metamorphic petrology. Common triangular plots used in metamorphic rocks are presented with annotated ternary diagrams. The presentation includes four criteria for reducing the number of components in a system to a workable number. There is also discussion of the issue of lost information when reducing the number of components in a system. This resource is part of the Teaching Petrology collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/petrology03/index.html

In this video segment adapted from Interactive NOVA, astronaut John Young experiences extreme temperatures on the Moon that are a result of the Moon's low gravity and lack of atmosphere.

This activity is a geology lab where students learn about fossils found in sedimentary rocks and show their understanding by writing a literary nonfiction paper from the perspective of one of those fossils.

Seventh-grade science teacher Alastair Inman takes what can be the dry subject matter of the history of the Earth and makes it an active learning experience for his class. Using a three-part method involving outdoor activity, multiple research methods, and a hands-on in-class project, students create a timeline of Earth's history that also incorporates their math skills and new vocabulary.

Required for all Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences majors in the Environmental Science track, this course is an introduction to current research in the field. Stresses integration of central scientific concepts in environmental policy making and the chemistry, biology, and geology environmental science tracks. Revisits selected core themes for students who have already acquired a basic understanding of environmental science concepts. The topic for this term is geoengineering.

Students can review stratigraphic concepts such as original horizontality and superposition. The white layers are pure snow, the tan layers are a mixture of gravel, sand, salt, clay and snow. Dark layers are clay-sand-rich, wet with water from melting snow (salt has caused the snow to melt).

The Journal of Geoscience Education article Fourth Grade Students Investigate Stratigraphy through Experiments and Photographs of Snow Layers provides an example of how this was used in the classroom.

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This interactive resource from the Exploratorium calculates your weight on other bodies in our solar system and offers an explanation of mass and weight and the relationship between gravity, mass, and distance.

Students will make observations of weathering on different rock types in a cemetery. Students will also make observations of rock types of the Minneopa Falls.

Introductory course to Geospatial Science and GIS! Includes syllabus, modules, quizzes, labs, assignments, and activities for a 10-week course.