Students complete a scientific research project including asking a question, developing methods, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, and communicating results. The research question begins "What do other students think about _____" and students fill in the blank with a topic that interests them from the class. Although it is geoscience education research, it involves students in the process of science while learning about a topic of their choosing, making it an effective learning tool for all students.

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Introducción a los principios Scrum para actuar de acuerdo a ellos en un equipo de trabajo de un proyecto ágil

This course introduces students to basic rain garden design, water cistern development, and bioretention principles. Students will also explore the uses of landform, plants, and structure to shape space. Classes will include slide-illustrated lectures, class discussions, and project critiques. Through a combination of short practicum that includes rain garden design for residential, commercial, and government locations, students will be able to analyze and create a design that applies modern theories to questions of spatial organization, order, and selection of building materials. Students will translate research and case studies by applying building, drawing, and design critiques specific for the site design and present their findings to the community.

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Teaching sustainability through Habitat for Humanity.

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Students are asked to respond in a way they choose (as a class) to a geologic or weather related hazard. They begin with a study of the event, its causes and local effects. They then research the needs of the people affected. They research charities that serve the population affected. They choose a response (again, as a class). They educate the campus community about the geology/geography of the event, the needs and solicit donations.

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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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Students explore for water on Mars using impact crater morphology. During this lab, students: learn to use the equation writing and graphing capabilities in Microsoft Excel, thendevelop and apply an impact crater depth-diameter relationship in an effort to constrain the depth to a possible water-rich layer beneath one or more portions of the surface of Mars!

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This module includes 10 topics related to finding, evaluating, and presenting scientific information related to climate change or other interdisciplinary topics.

The ultimate goal is for students to prepare a paper and present it to their colleagues as though they were giving it at typical professional meeting such as American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, or American Quaternary Association. However, the technical level of the talk should be at a level that the class will understand and enjoy.

The topic should demonstrate scientific method rather than being merely descriptive or primarily applied science/technology. Students should use current literature. The presentation will be more interesting if the subject is somewhat controversial. The final product should demonstrate that the student understands and has gained the skills presented in all 10 topics.

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At Fort Lewis College, the Igneous & Metamorphic Petrology class, formerly a separate three-credit course required for the major, is now an elective course taught only when demand warrants, typically once every several years. This course was recast into an inquiry-driven research course with a field-intensive focus. This course was designed to complement and reinforce existing curriculum while sustaining student engagement with rocks and petrologic processes, as well as bolster meaningful student-faculty research opportunities.

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Students in our online, introductory geoscience courses are given the opportunity to participate in an environmental service learning project, led by the Center for Earth and Environmental Science (cees.iupui.edu), and reflect on the local and global impact of their service in a short writing assignment. The goals of the optional service learning participation are to (1) provide hands-on field experiences to students in online classes, (2) allow opportunities to connect course concepts to real-life environmental issues, and (3) increase students' environmental awareness, and (4) apply an understanding of sustainability to participation in environmental restoration projects. As part of a larger study with CEES, students complete a pre- and post-environmental awareness survey.

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The is a two part lesson designed to given in-service teacher an experience in field geology. The lesson is designed by Canyon de Chelly, AZ but can be used anywhere there are outcrops of two or more rock types.

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The primary goal of this lab is to develop basic ArcGIS skills for geomorphology students and give them a taste of what is possible in GIS. The lab is written for the GIS novice, and thus includes detailed instructions for small tasks. The GIS basics are taught via an exploration of river meandering and bank and bluff erosion in a local (turbidity-impaired) stream in Duluth, Minnesota: Amity Creek. The students visited Amity Creek the previous week and mapped in all locations along the river corridor with clear evidence of recent landsliding. This lab leads them through how to bring those field-collected GPS data into ArcGIS to both create maps and make measurements. They also look at river meandering over time at a single site where recent bluff stabilization work was completed to slow channel migration and lower the amount of fine sediment from entering the stream.This lab could be adapted to other locations, although I have also included all of the data specific to this site.

The exercise uses an inquiry-based approached to overcome the fear of tackling mineral identification. Few instructions are given and students discover for themselves how to approach identification.

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Overview: This exercise serves as an introduction to histograms. Students are given a short introduction to histograms in lecture and reading. They are then broken up into different groups of 3-5 students. Students start by making a prediction about the distribution of the weights of the pennies they have been given. Each group then weighs their pennies and: 1) enter their data into a spreadsheet of results for the entire class and 2) each student must draw a histogram of their own results. Each group must then interpret their graphs and each student must explain in writing how their graphs either confirms or disproves their initial predictions. While students are working, the instructor creates a histogram of the data from the entire class. After students have completed the written part of the assignment, each group gives a short summary of their predictions, their results, and their conclusions.
Results: The students find that 2 sets of pennies have overlapping weights (mean = 2.5 g, stdev = 0.2 g), while the third set is slightly different (mean 3.1 g, stdev = 0.2 g). The instructor can then lead a discussion around the topic of variability and how to statistically evaluate whether or not different data sets are statistically similar. This discussion should include how to account for instrumental error. This leads into a discussion of the meaning of mean values and standard deviation. This discussion can also include a comparison of how the results from an individual group compares with the data set from the whole class: this serves as a good place to discuss how scientists determine how much data to collect for a given project. This and similar exercises are thus needed before students start to interpret their own data. Expected Outcomes: Students will gain an understanding of how to read a histogram and how to evaluate the meaning of mean values and standard deviations.

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In this activity, students are introduced to locating and reading peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. It helps ease students into the process of locating, reading, and using journal publications. This activity can be done entirely in class or a combination of in-class with homework assigned. It is a helpful way to lead students toward searching for and using the peer-reviewed literature in their own research.

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Intro to Graphing is a 2-phase exercise that introduces students to Excel for the purposes of properly storing their data and producing graphs.

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The Sierra Club has defined an issue that the Environmental Hydrogeology class will help address in this project: most of the surface waters in Memphis are under fish advisories and yet a portion of the population still subsistence fishes from these waters. Our main product we will produce for Sierra Club is a map of fishing sightings based on survey data we collect during the semester and a proposed sampling strategy to assess potential pollutants based on the knowledge the students gain in field and lab activities. We will also provide information on the percentage of survey participants that are aware of pollution issues in the local waterways and percentage that would be detered from fishing if they saw a sign. At the end of the semester, the students will hold an art contest to design better fish advisory signs, and designs will be made available to Sierra Club and the TN Dept. of Environment and Conservation.

Prior to beginning these activities, the students will have created a base map of Memphis in GIS during a previous lab and used it to consider questions of pollutant runoff from various urban spaces such as golf courses, roads, shopping centers, and City parks. (The instructions for this activity are included in the other materials section below under Creating a Base Map in GIS (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 30kB Feb7 10).) The base map will be used throughout the activities as field data and information from interviews/surveys are collected and added to the map for subsequent consideration of possible environmental justice issues.

The lab activities outlined require the students to conduct grain size analyses using samples that community members provide to them, calculate hydraulic conductivity, measure infiltration rates in the community, estimate impervious surfaces within the community, and subsequently model the transport of water within that community. Results of their work will be conveyed back to the community both through personal contact and via the Wiki page the students produce. Students will base their sampling recommendations by generalizing the concepts learned from these activities (and others during the semester) to apply the course material to the service project. The final map of sighting and recommendations for Sierra Club requires the students to apply concepts from previous activities and will be completed during the lab activity: Mapping survey results.

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We have been rearing salmon in our classroom for a long time, and the students love it. The project before this point was very teacher lead and much of the care, and set up was done for the students. We are excited to make a student-led project based unit that will better cover the content and incorporate the standards we are looking to teach.

In this lab activity students get to investigate a specific question (Does the Ozone Hole cause Global Warming?) and formalize their investigation as a briefing paper for the President of the United States. This activity is easily modified for other questions and thus usable in many different circumstances.

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