Students of paleontology, evolutionary biology and Earth history will be best able to critically analyze readings about evolution if they have first hand experience generating their own evolutionary hypotheses. In this lab exercise, students apply the principles of cladistics to create evolutionary trees of fun, familiar objects. The candy bar lab concept -- expanded here - came from Dr. Robert Gaines of Pomona College.

Part A -- Candy bars: The instructor provides about 12 "taxa" of candy bar. Students are welcome to taste the samples as they work, but make sure some of each bar is left for examination. Working in groups, students assign characters and states to the candy taxa, decide what's synapomorphic, and sketch a cladogram (tree), marking where new characters or states arise. Toward the end of the period, groups share their findings with the rest of the class, and together all students decide on the best tree. As students discuss the validity of their characters and argue about how to arrive at the most parsimonious tree, they will begin to comprehend the rules -- and pitfalls -- of cladistic analysis. At this point, the instructor might have them actually enter character data into a computer program such as MacClade, and project the tree results for all to see and discuss.

Part B -- Get creative!: After the candy bar lab, the students' homework assignment is to construct a cladogram and evolutionary hypothesis about a group of objects of their choosing. Ideas for "taxa" include models of car (characters could include hatchback, 4WD, sunroof, number of seats, engine capacity, etc.), board games (spinner or dice, number of players, cards used, etc.), or rock bands (members, instruments, genre, etc.). Just about anything -- biological organisms excluded -- with enough characters and states can be used, and students enjoy coming up with unique approaches. Students will hand in a character matrix, hand-drawn tree with character transformations indicated, and an evolutionary narrative explaining the relationships among their group and discussing constraints and biases. Depending on the time allotted, and the instructor's expertise, this could go a step further with students entering character data into PAUP and/or MacClade to obtain computer-generated trees.

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In this multi-step lab, students explore the concepts of seismic wave propagation through materials with different mechanical properties, and examine seismic evidence from a recent earthquake to infer Earth's internal structure and composition. They calculate the diameter of Earth's core by comparing a model to recorded seismic data, then explore mechanical differences between the lithosphere and the asthenosphere, and then examine models of the boundary between the lithosphere and the asthenosphere. This lab is designed to be done with an instructor present to answer questions and guide students to conclusions.

Getting students to "put on paleontologists' hats" before their first fossil-hunting field trip allows for a more enriching field experience. Rather than handing out an instructor-prepared field guide (that few students read, anyway), the students essentially work up their own geologic/paleontologic interpretation of a site, using a custom toolkit they develop through classroom and homework exercises.
The activity begins with a worksheet that can be completed in groups during class (recommended) or as homework. Students are asked to imagine scenarios of fossil preservation, suggest factors that influence the completeness of the fossil record, and think of ways that fossil assemblages can give clues to the stratigraphic position and paleoenvironment of a rock formation. The instructor is involved as a guide, introducing concepts and terminology as needed. Students will also discuss -- with help from a textbook, specimens, or slide presentation - how the characteristics of major fossil groups might be used to identify a fossil in outcrop (for example, the coil of a gastropod, the pinnules of a crinoid).
Next, each student is assigned to be an expert on one taxon or faunal group that they will encounter on the trip. This requires reading a fossil identification guide or instructor-prepared handout. They will make an "expert's notecard" to bring along on the field trip, and will be expected to find and present examples of their fossil(s) on the field trip. The taxonomic level or groups assigned will vary depending on the fossil assemblage and the class size.
The activity culminates with the field experience, during which students keep a detailed field notebook (bringing along their in-class worksheets for reference). In the field, students will identify modes of preservation, assist one another as "experts" in fossil identification, and discuss the paleoecological and paleoenvironmental setting of the geologic section. After the field trip, the class compiles a faunal list for the site. Each student writes up an interpretation based on their individual observations and those made as a class.
This set of activities can be streamlined if, for instance, the field trip is only a small unit of a general geology course. Rather than using open-ended discussion questions on the preliminary worksheet, the instructor can assign reading or give a lecture that covers modes of preservation and other concepts that students will use to complete the worksheet. The goal remains, however, for students to think about what they will observe at the outcrop BEFORE they are on the rocks.

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This is a great activity for class sizes ranging from small seminars to lecture classes. It's particularly appropriate for courses that relate hazards/volcanism to culture, society, and human interest subjects like risk management. I designed it for a Volcanoes and Society class.

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In this activity, students will investigate the questions: What are the benefits/costs of 3 varieties of shower head types: standard, low flow, massage spray? Which would be best for a homeowner? For the university dorms?

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Analyzing an outcrop for the first time is challenging for many students. In an effort to prepare students for their field trip, this exercise gives students practice with basic outcrop analysis before going into the field. Although this exercise is not a substitute for a field experience, it requires students to think about what they should be observing and noting at an outcrop before visiting an actual field site. First, students watch a short video tutorial on analyzing an outcrop. Then, they are given a color photograph of an outcrop and a hand sample and complete a field notebook entry for the outcrop.

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Astronomy students learn how to use the Hertsprung-Russel diagram by plotting stellar data. HR diagram then reveals evolutionary stage of stars.

This film chronicles the introduction of the hula hoop, a toy that set off one of the greatest fads in United States history. According to Wham-O, the manufacturer of the hoop, when the toy was first introduced in the late 1950s, over 25 million were sold in four months. This short scene illustrates the difference between a movement along a demand curve and a shift of the entire curve, a subtle point that many students struggle with.

This lesson guides students to learn the science behind cloning, explore the benefits and consequences of human cloning, and communicate their knowledge and points of view. Students begin by reading an article titled Primer on Ethics and Cloning by Dr. Glenn McGee, available for free on the AIBS's ActionBioscience.org website. The lesson provides questions for the instructor to guide a class discussion about the article. Instructors can then choose from different activities to engage students further in this issue. One activity has students role play advisory teams providing information to a committee on the ethical issues of human cloning. The teams conduct research online, keep a journal recording their research paths, and answer questions in presentation format. Another activity has students researching and presenting information on human cloning. Through their research students can learn about cloning technology and related laws, as well as the perspectives of groups or individual scientist's viewpoints. Included are web site evaluation worksheets that are useful for student internet searches on any topic.

Through a discussion board, students comment and respond to paper topics on the human impacts on sharks.

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Selecting one environmental situation students will learn about some basic human rights norms and then analyze that environmental situation in terms of those human rights norms.

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Lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, learners are the medium that P and S waves travel through in this simple, but effective demonstration. Once "performed", the principles of P and S waves will not be easily forgotten. This demonstration explores two of the four main ways energy propagates from the hypocenter of an earthquake as P and S seismic waves. The physical nature of the Human Wave demonstration makes it a highly engaging kinesthetic learning activity that helps students grasp, internalize and retain abstract information.

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This lab gives students a bare-bones introduction to one GIS software package, ArcMap. I hope that students will get comfortable with how GIS programs layer data, and that they will begin to appreciate the power of GIS for solving a wide variety of problems. Students access freely available shape files, and make a map of Lake Mead, the largest human-made reservoir in the United States. (It formed behind the Hoover Dam when that was constructed on the Colorado River in the 1930s.) Then, they compare the mass of water lost to evaporation from the surface of Lake Mead to the evaporation that was occurring from the surface of the pre-dam river. Finally, they make a map of some other location affected by human activities. This activity could easily be expanded to have students calculate the amount of sediment that has been trapped behind Lake Mead, because sediment depths are also available online.
Designed for a geomorphology course
Uses online and/or real-time data

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1) The students read an article from the literature on humans as geomorphic agents as an introduction to order-of-magnitude calculations.
2) The class discusses the article in a 50-minute class
3) The students complete a problem set that introduces them to dimensional analysis, walks them through a comparison of the article's results to natural geomorphic rates, and explores how the author derived the article's final numbers.
4) Once the students are done with the problem set, the class discusses the results and implications as a group.

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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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Students will be required to answer a series of simple questions for this assignment based on material covered in lecture. This assignment also allows students the experience of searching a website for more specific information about hurricane statistics that are not covered in lecture. Hurricane Katrina will be discussed in lecture. Students will see where Katrina falls relative to other major hurricanes while answering the questions.

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This homework assignment is given in the first two weeks of class. Students receive one or two lectures that cover the topics of atmospheric layers, temperature and pressure profiles, concepts of atmospheric mass and pressure and measuring (i.e. dropsonde) instrumentation. At the beginning of each lecture I briefly show them the tropical update from the NOAA National Hurricane Center web site; if there is an active storm, I show where I go to get more info, such as the projected storm track and storm history (for example, from Intellicast Hurricane Tracking). Then, for this assignment, I reintroduce them to these hurricane information web sites and demonstrate how to find the historical data on tropical storms (such as from the Unisys Hurricane Data Archive), and how to copy and paste text data into word and/or excel, as a tab- or space-delimited file. I point out some problem areas with this data-grabbing method, such as headers that get lost from their associated data column or date information that may not format as dates.
I then hand out the assignment, which asks them to:

Find data on a current or recent (this year) tropical system, provide the name and year of the storm and the reference web site, and plot the wind speed and pressure variables against time. Students should label the axes and give a descriptive title to the chart.
Describe what they notice in the graphed data and if it seems believable (this allows students to decide if they have done the task correctly by using their understanding of the data).
Predict what will happen if the storm a) intensifies or b) weakens.
I then provide another data set (of any long-duration tropical storm that formed, weakened and later re-intensified) and ask them to go through the same process of plotting and interpretation.
I tell them that some future climate predictions are for more storms with lower central pressures and ask which of the two charts best represents that future scenario, and why.

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In this project, students analyze the costs of gasoline nationwide. They also investigate the cost-effectiveness of purchasing a new hybrid vehicle as opposed to purchasing a new vehicle that runs solely on gasoline.

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This activity provides the hydrogeology students an exercise to understand specific discharge, hydraulic conductivity, and porous media. They will actually use a Darcy column to gather data on porous media, as well as calculate and understand the hydrologic properties of the materials.

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