This activity is a field investigation of the geological features of Minnehaha Falls, how they have changed and why, how they are changing and what could be done to preserve the falls.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This is a 10-day field experience class that focuses on the geology of the Grand Staircase of the Colorado Plateau, culminating in a rim-to-rim backpack trip across the Grand Canyon, Arizona. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Module
The basic concepts of geology will be considered to address the widely ranging textures and compositions of rocks and sediments formed in a wide range of environments. These variations in turn can affect soil formation and many related Critical Zone processes and architectures. This unit requires substantial reading to cover basic concepts of geology: the rock cycle, plate tectonics, geologic time, erosion, weathering, and deposition, so that students have a firm grasp on how geology relates to and controls CZ processes. This background knowledge is accessed through a review of web sites and a scientific papers. An in-class activity uses the U.S. Geological Survey's National Geologic Map Database to identify resources for understanding and classifying the geology of a region. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Module
This video segment from NatureScene examines the landforms of Death Valley and how they came to be.
Material Type: Lecture
GS106 is a survey course providing non-science majors a broad background in earth science. No previous science background required. This course introduces the following themes: The scale of the Universe Scientific models Scientific literacy Science is observable Scientific models evolve Nuclear chemistry and physics Earth materials Plate tectonics Global change Energy resources Astronomy Cosmology Course Outcomes: 1. Have an understanding of the basic concepts, processes, and analytical tools related to the study of the universe. 2. Develop experimental skills and knowledge relating to the gathering and interpretation of scientific information. 3. Evaluate and articulate the relevance of atomic science, geology, atmospheric science, and astronomy on personal, local and global levels. Here is a list of materials you will need to purchase ASAP for your labs in this course. For the Mineral Identification Lab in Credit Unit 1 Module 1, you will need: Mineral kit - http://www.hometrainingtools.com/mineral-study-kit/p/RM-MISTUDY/ Glass plate and porcelain plate - http://www.hometrainingtools.com/mineral-test-kit/p/RM-TESTKIT/ For the Rock Identification Lab in Credit Unit 1 Module 2, you will need: Rock kit - http://www.hometrainingtools.com/rock-study-kit/p/RM-RKSTUDY/
Material Type: Full Course
This activity is a field investigation where students will increase their knowledge of SE MN geology including rock layers, fossils, and Karst topography. They will also learn how Karst Geology impacts our water quality.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This activity is a field investigation where students gather geological information of a designated area and identify the geological features they documented.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This manual is about structures that occur within the Earth’s crust. Structures are the features that allow geologists to figure out how parts of the Earth have changed position, orientation, size and shape over time. This work requires careful observation and measurements of features at the surface of the Earth, and deductions about what’s below the surface. The practical skills you will learn in this course form the foundation for much of what is known about the history of the Earth, and are important tools for exploring the subsurface. They are essential for Earth scientists of all kinds. The course that this document supports is about doing structural geology. It’s not possible to be a good geologist (or to pass the course) just by learning facts. You have to be able to solve problems. Do your lab work conscientiously and get as much as possible done during lab sessions when instructors are available to help you. This manual consists of both readings and lab exercises, which alternate through the text. The readings are designed to be read and understood outside the lab sessions, whereas the labs contain specific instructions and questions to be completed. Before each lab, be sure you have covered the readings that come immediately before it.
Material Type: Textbook
An in class demonstration of the vastness of geologic time using a 1000-roll sheet of toilet paper and unrolling it around the room. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab
We use these Google Earth Exercises (GEE) in the undergraduate structural geology course. Students construct a complete geologic map of each 'field area' outside of class; in class, the students display their map and discuss their observations, interpretations, assumptions, and reasoning. This exercise promotes discussion among the students, and also provides students with the opportunity to develop speaking skills, as well as 'on-your feet' reasoning and analysis. Mapping can be done digitally using graphic software such as Adobe IllustratorTM or using hard copy images and overhead transparencies. (Digital mapping requires that the students have knowledge of working with, and access, to a graphics program such as Adobe IllustratorTM). Students also draw stratigraphic columns and cross-sections as needed; and they determine a relative sequence of events for each 'field' area. Cross section lines are included in the .kmz (Google Earth) file (not on the map images). This allows the instructor to move cross-section locations as needed. We have 3-4 students display and discuss maps for each exercise (usually takes about 30-45 min.); we encourage student to question their classmates; with time, our encouragement becomes less necessary. We have students construct geologic maps on transparencies and display the maps via an overhear projector keeping the LCD projector free to run Google Earth. Students can use Google Earth (flying to specific locations, or zooming in and out, or viewing specific locations from different perspectives) during their presentation to illustrate or support their interpretation, and logic path that lead to that interpretation to the class. This provides the opportunity for students to see how different people interpret the same area; they also learn that although each maps is different, each map tells a similar story; that is first-order relationships emerge from the family of maps constructed by their fellow classmates. After each discussion, all of the students display their maps on a side table in the classroom, providing the students with the opportunity to compare all of the maps of the same area. As a result they clearly see that all maps are different, yet each can be valid, and they also see how others handled both geologic relations, and, at a more basic level, clarity and neatness in presentation. As the semester progresses we see a sharp increase in the quality of the maps, both geologically and in terms of clarity and neatness, likely a direct result of students both viewing their classmates maps, and having their maps viewed by classmates. Peer pressure can be a wonderful learning tool. Each exercise focuses on a different area. An individual exercise or any combination of exercises maybe used at the instructor's discretion to compliment topics in either lecture or lab. The exercises, as presented, are ordered in such a way that they take the student progressively from relatively straightforward map areas to increasing complicated map areas. We begin the geologic mapping sequence using a Venus mapping exercise available on the SERC site http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure04/activities/3875.html in order to get the students to feel comfortable identifying and delineating patterns; we develop concepts about material units versus structural elements (and in some cases primary verses secondary structures; please see the Venus exercise for the range of students goals, which we do not repeat here). The first Google Earth Exercise, (GEE1) follows the SERC exercise 'Visualizing Inclined Contacts' by Barbara Tewksbury http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure/visualizing_inclined.html . Our GEE1 exercise is included below with all credit to Barbara Tewksbury. Subsequent exercises (GEE2, GEE3, etc.) include: faults and topographic interactions; folds and topographic interactions; faults and crosscutting dikes; refolded folds. These exercises may be used in any order and/or positioning within a course. We find that both the repetition of GEE exercises, and the progression of increasing complexity of the exercises, allow the students the opportunity to develop their individual skill sets. Although mapping can be completed by the students during, or outside of class time, we find that having the students do this outside class allows each student the opportunity to move at their own pace, which seems important for our students and their learning. Discussion during class time is a critical part of the learning process. These exercises can be easily replicated for your favorite field area or an area your think exemplifies an instructive structural style. We encourage other educators to apply this idea to other areas and submit the new Google Earth Exercises to SERC as well. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This quiz game is intended to help students review for an upcoming exam. Topics of questions are randomly determined by spinning a wheel. Teams answer questions using electronic CPS handhelds. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
Studying rock types, weathering processes and human history in a cemetery. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This geologic map shows Tertiary and Quaternary rock formations, volcanic and surficial deposits, faults, contacts, and other geologic features in Yellowstone National Park. The map is freely downloadable as a PDF file.
Material Type: Diagram/Illustration
Students learn about the variables governing the brittle and ductile behavior of rocks, the simple geological structures associated with differential stress, and look at and apply real data to evaluate the depth to the brittle-ductile transition in the crust and how that depth can change temporarily due to sudden changes in stress introduced by large earthquakes. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Data Set, Lesson Plan
students are asked to resolve how many days each of 5 volcanologists spent at a volcano and what day they started for the volcano. There is also a second part where students are asked to do some additional research about volcanoes on the web. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab
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 climate episodes, the cold "Snowball Earth" of the Neoproterozoic and the hot "Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum" (PETM) of the Cenozoic. The unit emphasizes the grand challenges of energy resources and climate change by grounding these issues in an understanding of ancient climate from a systems thinking perspective. Students will gain a more robust appreciation for the record of the movement of carbon between atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere over geologic time, and how various components of the Earth system respond to those perturbations. The unit practices geoscientific habits of mind, such as comparing modern processes to ancient analogues recorded by geologic processes, as well as the importance of converging lines of evidence, and recognition of Earth as a long-lived, dynamic, and complex system. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Module
This field mapping and map-making exercise is a capstone project for a course on Geological Maps. Over a weekend (~12 hours of field work), students collect lithologic and structural data from outcrops scattered over a one square mile area. Back in the classroom, students digitally compile their field data (outcrop, structure measurements, traverse locations) into ArcMAP. They infer geologic linework (faults and contacts) and units from this data in ArcMAP and then export these data layers into Illustrator. In Illustrator, they add ancillary map components (a cross section, description of map units, correlation diagram, map symbol legend,...) to create a final map at a 1:10,000 scale. Their maps are printed out on 11"x17" paper and saved as a pdf file. This exercise helps the students to appreciate how field data is collected and how these geologic facts are interpretively organized into a four-dimensional picture that is a geologic map. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This book provides an overview of the criminal justice system of the United States. It is intended to provide the introductory student a concise yet balanced introduction to the workings of the legal system as well as policing, courts, corrections, and juvenile justice. Six chapters, each divided into five sections, provide the reader a consistent, comfortable format as well as providing the instructor with a consistent framework for ease of instructional design.
Material Type: Textbook
Short Description: In this survey text, readers will explore the foundations of American education through a critical lens. Topics include the teaching profession, influences on student learning, philosophical and historical foundations, structures of schools, ethical and legal issues, curriculum, classroom environment, and the path forward. Word Count: 76121 (Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)
Material Type: Textbook
Introductory Statistics follows scope and sequence requirements of a one-semester introduction to statistics course and is geared toward students majoring in fields other than math or engineering. The text assumes some knowledge of intermediate algebra and focuses on statistics application over theory. Introductory Statistics includes innovative practical applications that make the text relevant and accessible, as well as collaborative exercises, technology integration problems, and statistics labs.
Material Type: Textbook
