In this activity, students investigate soil erosion and how a changing climate could influence erosion rates in agricultural areas. This activity is part of a larger InTeGrate module called Growing Concern.

Students in groups of two create a 4-minute educational video, brochure, and poster on an aspect of soil erosion, soil conservation, and/or watershed health for agricultural regions within the midwestern states. This is a half term project and the materials are presented in a forum towards the end of the semester. The project is aimed to help students learn to pitch science to a wide audience and provide practice (indirectly) applying scientific principles to conservation efforts.

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The four exercises give students an opportunity to use their knowledge of graphs, algebra, and maps to solve simple geological problems.

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This activity is a guided inquiry investigation where students gather data on rate of water falling on erosion. Student will interpret their data, and develop a conclusion from the data. The data will lead to further questions, which can be developed by the students.

This activity provides an approach to teach field methods that is programmed to avoid common pitfalls in teaching field methods to students. The two common problems that are avoided is familiarity with equipment and improved group function.

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This NASA video explores the relationship between climate and agriculture. The video discusses the variability of climate impacts in different regions, as well as the effects of population growth and higher demands for food in areas that already struggle to supply food for the people. The video highlights the need for accurate, continuous, and accessible data and computer models from NASA satellites to track and predict the challenges farmers face as they adjust to a changing climate.

This course is a client-based land analysis and site planning project. The primary focus of the course changes from year to year. This year the focus is on Japan’s New Towns.
Students will review land inventory, analysis, and planning of sites and the infrastructure systems that serve them. They will also examine spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, stormwater runoff, parking, traffic and off-site impacts, as well as landscaping. Lectures will cover analytical techniques and examples of good site-planning practice. Requirements include a series of assignments and a client-based project.

The students will analyze soil samples and determine the percentages of sand, silt and clay in each sample.  The students will also conduct a soil analysis to determine the pH and the amount of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus in each sample.

This group activity charges students with teaching their colleagues about the biogeochemical cycle of one key soil element (e.g., either C, N, S, P, Ca, or Fe). Students are given a single class period to summarize their knowledge and to develop a lesson that includes (1) an organized, 5-8 minute oral presentation, (2) a graphical, conceptual model of their assigned element's soil-biogeochemical cycle, and (3) a list of discussion questions with which to engage their colleagues on the other teams. A second class session is used to refine and to expand upon the submitted models as necessary.

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Students collect soil samples from places of interest around campus and run a series of basic soil analyses to make conclusions about how soil fertility relates to the biological community and human management.

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This is one of 4 homework assignments given to students throughout this introductory soils course. The main goal of these assignments are to give the students practice with the mechanics of problem solving, conversion, and soil profile descriptions.

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In order to introduce soil properties, students will determine the texture and color of a variety of local soils brought in by their classmates. Each student will describe their soil to the class, indicating where the soil came from and any interesting features regarding the site. Students will group the soils based on this little bit of knowledge and then re-evaluate their groupings after texture and color have been determined. This activity concludes with a discussion of regional soils and variations in soils.

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In this interactive, students learn all about soil and how to conserve it. Students are walked through a series of questions and scenarios to help them learn about the connection to the carbon cycle and climate change.

This mini-workshop is a brief introduction to the use of the polarized light microscope for thin-section analysis of soils, known as micromorphology. It assumes only a rudimentary knowledge of mineralogy and sedimentary petrology. Participants have an opportunity to describe and characterize soils with different properties in thin section. Applications to environmental geology and hydrogeology are also mentioned.

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Students will have been through lectures on weathering & erosion, sediments and soils. Students go to the field and pull soil cores across a hill. They describe & measure the horizons, determine soil texture and structure. Using the data, they create a fence diagram and verbally describe what they see. Then they relate the changes in the soil profile downhill to climate, weathering, and the local geology. Students get to learn how to express information in multiple ways & make connections between "different" lecture topics, creating a continuity in the class.

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This geotechnical project will introduce you with the concept of using soils as construction materials.This project involves characterizing soils using various laboratory analyses and applying the Unified Soil Classification System in naming the soil.

Keywords: Geotechnical, Mass Wetness, Grain Size Analysis, Atterberg Limits

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Field characterization of soil profiles in coniferous and deciduous settings; sample collection of soils from different horizons; laboratory analysis of soil moisture, soil organic carbon (by loss on ignition), and grain size distribution (by sieving)

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During the first activity, students use materials to create an apparatus and process to investigate the ultimate destination for water delivered to a system. Students make quantitative measurements and compare two different soil substrates. The first activity results in a mental schema for how water ultimately flows through a system.

Students will embody a specific person who is impacted by climate change and engage in conversations during a mixer. In these conversations, the students will learn how people from around the world are impacted by climate change.