In this activity, students use the absorption spectra of greenhouse gases to explore the nature of the greenhouse effect.

This is a computer-based activity in which students retrieve data from websites maintained by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Weather Service (NWS), and then use that data to test different hypotheses regarding streamflow and precipitation. Students import data from web sites into a spreadsheet program where they can construct scatter plots and perform simple statistical tests. The activity has two components, the first focusing on relations between streamflow and drainage basin characteristics (drainage area, slope, precipitation), the second focusing on trends in annual precipitation at two locations in the USA: Burlington, VT, and Boulder, CO. As part of the second component, students conduct a statistical test to determine if the long-term trends in precipitation are significant.

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This segment from Swift: Eyes through Time traces the history military officers and engineers discovering a strange phenomenon in the sky that astronomers now know are gamma-ray bursts.

This jigsaw style exercise challenges new geomorphology students to collect topographic data and analyze its accuracy and precision.

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Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students estimate travel times and costs of a driving/camping trip to visit national parks in Colorado.

This activity is acid-base titration lab where students determine the percent of calcium carbonate in an eggshell.

In this field-based exercise, students were given a tour of an abandoned mine site and asked to utilize a set of field measurements to describe the spatial details of metal transport. This drew on previous experience with field measurements and prompted them to work together to solve an observed chemical evolution of a contaminated brook. The exercise is an excellent example for students to bring together acid-base chemistry, redox chemistry, and thermodynamic concepts together to describe a reasonably complex system. The field component was completed in a full day, but we will be expanding this next fall for a 2 day exercise (weekend). The exercise was coupled with subsequent labs to complete analysis of the water samples and accomplish speciation calculations using PHREEQCI.

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Intended Audience: This activity was used for an introductory Geochemistry class, which contained students from sophomore level to master's students. We took the trip in mid-October, about as late as possible in Vermont, after they had gained some previous field experience and lab work in addition to an in introduction to these principles in class.

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This video follows biologist Gretchen Hofmann as she studies the effects of ocean acidification on sea urchin larvae.

Cluster of questions on acid rain deposition.

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This short video is an excerpt from the longer video Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification, produced by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). This short version summarizes the science of ocean acidification as well as the social implications.

Students research the acidification of freshwater streams and lakes, identify at least one of the sources, and determine how their daily activities contribute to the problem.

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Using the article "Stop Raising Awareness Already" by Cristiano and Neimand and a six-step template, students create a plan to show how they apply the knowledge learned throughout the term to make a broader impact. The students are asked to very narrowly choose a single action they want a group of stakeholders to take and develop a multiple-step plan to accomplish the action. The students are required to select and justify a targeted stakeholder, develop an action, identify a messenger that can influence their targeted stakeholder to take the action, develop a sticky message relating the "ask" to the goal of the campaign, and document their key assumptions imbedded in their action plan.

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This assignment is a 10-hour, out-of-class project where each student
designs and carries out an action plan to enhance sustainability.
Students select from a large suite of alternative actions, most of which
can be quantified for reductions in CO2 and energy consumption, as well
as in dollar savings.

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By far most field trips in structural geology and regional tectonics do NOT take place in large urban centers with a trip focus on mitigation of hazards. What is described here is an example of the instructional and learning opportunities associated with active tectonic examination of large population centers.

ACTIVE TECTONICS, HAZARDS, ACTIVE TECTONICS AND SOCIETY, URBAN GEOLOGY, EARTHQUAKES

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Selected resources provide three web-based activities to complement science lessons in an issue of Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The free, online magazine for Grades K-5 teachers explores the essential principles of climate literacy.

In the minerals and products activity, students match physical products with actual mineral samples, using observable properties as well as the minerals' chemical formulas and some products' ingredient lists.

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The discussion presented here is meant to augment, not replace, the pre-class reading, as well as to provide an introduction to concept maps.

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This short activity (10--15 minutes) for Unit 1 introduces students to the general relationship between economic development and resource use, and, particularly with the follow-up homework, the relationship among growing populations, increasing economic development, and natural resource extraction. The activity is intended to be completed by individuals or small groups but could also be used for a guided class discussion. This activity serves as a transition to Unit 2.

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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 and temperature trends and sea level rise. Students utilize the methods of geoscience such as systems thinking and using multiple lines of evidence to determine possible relationships and feedbacks among the data sets. Students use this data to construct their argument from evidence for a position paper in Activity 2.3.

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