This lesson explains the application of relative dating for volcanic features in the ocean.
This lesson discusses the similarities and difference between Samoa and Hawaii. Both Samoa and Hawaii are island chains in the Pacific and thought to be the result of hotspots.
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Yellowstone hotspot track
Provenance: Nicole LaDue, NIU
Formative assessment questions using a classroom response system ("clickers") can be used to reveal students' spatial understanding. Students are shown this diagram and told, "The tectonic plate has moved southwest over this hotspot. If the plate started moving north, click where you expect the next caldera will form."
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This lab project is in two parts. In the first part students are given a map of Snake River Plain volcanic centers with a range of dates of eruptions. Based on what they know about hot-spot tracks, they use the map and reported isotopic ages to calculate a range of values for the relative velocities of the North American Plate and the Yellowstone hot spot. In the second part, students are given a map of the distribution of a volcanic ash from the Yellowstone volcanic field, with thickness of the ash where known. Students are asked to contour the map to show how the ash is distributed, and think about the factors that affect that thickness, both during and after the eruption. In both parts of the lab students have to deal with real data that is incomplete in some cases, and usually occurs as a range of values. Students must make decisions about how to treat incomplete data sets that do not have absolute values.
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Calculation of a carbon footprint resulting from common breakfast choices illustrates the importance of contextualization.
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Perhaps the first skill needed for successful quantitative reasoning is the ability to understand a single number. Newspaper headlines over the last year have used some amazingly large figures when discussing the national debt, bailout funds, corporate bonuses, or economic stimulus packages. Millions, billions, and trillions of dollars are often encountered in such stories. The ability to process these large values and compare their relative values is essential in understanding the financial nuances to such articles. This example contains two in-depth approaches to understanding large quantities.
This inquiry lab activity allows the students to explore limiting reagents with a simple acid and base reaction.
Students utilize ice core data to develop a simple climate model, test it and then analyze, through reading IPCC materials, what other variables might need to be included in a model that more accurately predicts climate response to forcings. They are then asked to reflect on the use of models in scientific inquiry and on climate skeptics view of climate models.
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This activity helps students understand how mixtures are formed. They will make predictions regarding the rate of mixing. Students should report that the variation of heated water and crushed sugar creates the shortest mixing time.
This writing assignment is in lieu of a laboratory activity during the discussion of nuclear chemistry within the general chemistry curriculum.
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This activity is a classroom demonstration where students observe how clouds are formed.
In this activity students will investigate a landform (such as a waterfall or lake) in the field and apply the scientific method to come up with a geologic hypothesis. The focus of the activity is on making observations of the natural environment and fostering a "sense of place."
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Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module. Students analyze the percentage of change in the diversity of the US compared to New York City over 20 years.
This activity is a lab investigation is which students will design and conduct an experiment related to movement of materials through a cell membrane. Modified from a lab I received from a fellow teacher, Jeanne M. Reed.
This is a guided inquiry in which the students determine how a light bulb works.
This classroom activity is an inquiry based lesson where students observe and measure temperature changes in order to determine which fabrics are best at keeping in heat.
This activity is a investigation where students observe soil and rocks, record their similarities and differences, interpret their findings, and are guided to develop a new investigable question.
SSAC Physical Volcanology module. Students build a spreadsheet to examine how magma viscosity varies with temperature, fraction of crystals, and water content using the non-Arrhenian VFT model.
SSAC Physical Volcanology module. Students build a spreadsheet to examine how magma viscosity varies with temperature, fraction of crystals, and water content using the non-Arrhenian VFT model.
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SSAC Physical Volcanology module. Students build spreadsheets to estimate melt density at high temperatures and pressures from the thermodynamic properties of silicates.