This video segment adapted from NOVA features the youngest rock formations in the Grand Canyon, lava dams, and how they are subject to the eroding power of water.

Average inquiry level: Guided inquiry
This activity introduces students to the basic concepts of Groundwater and its movement. The lab format includes hands-on activities that allow students to construct their own aquifers, manipulate these physical models, and evaluate the behavior of the system. Students move through a series of steps to develop a basic groundwater system, assess the behavior of water and contaminants within that system, and then consider the implications of those behaviors in a natural setting including in their own water sources.

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In this interactive game, students work in three "resilience teams" to solve community challenges that arise during the course of an extreme drought event by using available individual and community resources.

This interactive game has students work in three “zone response teams” to solve community challenges that arise during the course of an extreme flooding event by using available individual and community resources.

The purpose of this investigation is to facilitate understanding of the basics of cloud formation involving the changing state of water. This activity should enhance the understanding of the change of state concept, which is important in the study of meteorology.

This classroom activity allows students to use water surface temperature, bathymetric data and weather data to look at trends in the water temperature of the Great Lakes. The exercise asks students to make predictions, and then use the data to answer questions. The site contains everything that is needed for the exercise, including student handouts, maps, links to data sources, and background information and questions for discussion.

This course, is designed to be a descriptive and analytical overview of water organs, availability, location and flow. It will be examined in the light of problems, possibilities and policy and consider historical perspectives.

The course deals with the principles of hydrology of catchment areas, rivers and deltas. The students will learn:

1). to understand the relations between hydrological processes in catchment areas
2?. to understand and to calculate the propagation of flood waves
3). to understand hydrological processes in deltas
4). to draft frequency analysis of extremes under different climatological conditions.

This lesson has students explore how the gases trapped in ice cores over the last quarter of a century can be used to understand how Earth's atmosphere has changed in the past.

The lectures introduce a number of topics that are important for IWRM and the modeling exercise. The lectures introduce water management issues in the Netherlands, Rhine Basin, and Volta Basin. The role-play is meant to experience some of the social processes that, together with technical knowledge, determine water management.

This research paper assignment is designed for my Junior level Hydrology course for majors. The intent of the project to to make sure my students can conduct literature reviews, outline a research project and obtain practice in formatting their work for publication. Getting my students prepared to enter the workforce and/or graduate school with these skill sets is imperative for their future success, since in the sciences we write more than we conduct research.

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GEO 131: Introduction to Physical Geography is an OER course that provides a comprehensive overview of Earth's natural systems and the forces that shape its physical landscape. Students will explore key topics such as weather, climate, hydrology, ecology, geology, and tectonics. Through both lectures and hands-on lab exercises, students will examine the processes of volcanism, erosion, soil formation, and glaciation, and learn to apply geographic theories to real-world issues. The course emphasizes understanding the distribution of natural features and the scientific principles that explain Earth's physical geography.

This activity is a field investigation where students calculate stream discharge, develop and complete an investigation involving the stream, interpret their findings, and report to their peers.

This activity is a field investigation in which students will gather data from a stream to calculate the discharge. They will need to interpret their findings and examine what factors could change the discharge of a stream over time.

This activity is a classroom quick lab where students explore sand, soil, and water in relation to absorption and permeability.

This is a interdisciplinary field investigation where students form observations and gather data to estimate stream discharge.

This activity is used in my groundwater flow modeling class (GEOS-724), a class for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. In advance, the students receive an introduction to MATLAB and basic programming constructs, and background on the use of finite difference discretizations for solving partial differential equations.

The problem being solved here is a (relatively) simple steady-state, linear groundwater flow problem. The code presents different numerical methods for solving a seminal groundwater flow problem - the Toth problem (as solved by J. Toth http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JZ068i016p04795/abstract). The solution to the Toth problem shows that if the water table is a muted expression of surficial topography, then groundwater organizes itself into groundwater flow "cells" of varying expanse.

This problem - which is familiar to most groundwater modelers - provides a baseline for discussing differences in solution methods for numerical models. In this script, different solution styles tested include: 1) A "direct" matrix inversion method which is exact but somewhat memory intensive; 2) An iterative but relatively inefficient "point Jacobi" method; and 3) A more efficient Gauss-Seidel iterative method.

After running this script, students are asked to explore aspects of the solutions and comment on their benefits and drawbacks. For example:
-Which solution method appears to be the most accurate, based on the problem statement (for instance the students should check that streamlines do not intersect no-flow boundaries)
-Which solution requires the least / most memory to compute?
-Which solution is the fastest to compute?
-Which solution obtains the most reasonable mass balance?
-How do the solutions perform if the discretization is increased or other parameters are varied (such as iteration "convergence" parameters)?

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This activity can be used to teach concepts how different densities of liquids can be layered and/or how the salinity of water affects the movement of ocean water.

This activity is a field investigation where students observe, predict, and gather data on steam velocity, erosion, and discharge.

This stream field investigation will allow students to look at stream erosional patterns, take measurements to determine discharge, and conduct a chemical and turbidity analysis of Garvin Brook in Stockton, MN. Based on this investigation students will create a presentation that includes a new testable question that may be carried out the following year along with a stream ecology study.