Human Impacts on Sharks: Developing an Essay Through Peer-Review on a Discussion Board
Through computer technology (WebCT, Blackboard), students develop a paper topic (in this case, the human impacts on sharks) that is peer reviewed by additional students answering guided questions. This Starting Point page details the learning goals, context of use, teaching materials, and assessment method for this activity. Also included are useful references and resources and topics discussed.
Developing a Local Stratigraphy
In this lab activity students describe rock types in a variety of exposures to construct a regional stratigraphy. Learning goals, teaching notes and materials, equipment lists, and assessment recommendations are all provided on this website. Additionally, there are links to useful references and resources, including related field labs.
The Nancy Creek Challenge
The Nancy Creek Challenge is part of the Starting Point module. The Case study requires students to examine fish kill in Nancy Creek and identify the environmental conditions that favor life in a fresh water ecosystem. Students will work in small groups to assess the situation. The group will be allowed to gather resources from various places in an effort to develop a possible solution for the situation. The page also contains information regarding learning goals, context for use, teaching notes
Swampeast Missouri
In this Starting Point case study, students will explore wetland hydrology and biology. They will decide whether or not to restore a wetland or retain dams and drainage systems. Students will also examine the complexity of decisions regarding wetland restoration as well as investigate viewpoints of various stakeholders in the draining of wetlands. While the activity is set in Missouri, the case can apply to any wetland conservation or restoration project. Users can access information regarding l
Floodplains in the field
In this lab, students measure a topographic and geologic cross-section across a floodplain by simple surveying and augering techniques. Placing the lab context for use, this site provides learning goals and skills, equipment lists, teaching notes and materials, assessment recommendations, and links to further references and resources.
Planetary Climate Exercise
This MS Word document explains roles for a Planetary Climate role-playing exercise dealing with the atmospheres of Venus and the Earth. Roles include experts on coal, carbon dioxide, heat balance, spectroscopy, atmospheric transmission and the water cycle.
Interactive Lectures
Starting Point's introduction to Interactive Lectures, and more specifically their use in the entry level geoscience setting. This module on Interactive Lectures has strategies and specific examples of activities to involve students in large and small lecture-based classes. It includes discussions of what interactive lecture is, how and why it is used, and links the user to more specific examples and further resources.
TRMM Online Visualization and Analysis System (TOVAS)
This site provides users with a friendly web-based interface for visualization and analysis of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), gridded rainfall products and other precipitation data. It is applicable to variety of researches and applications, such as climate study and monitoring, weather events study and monitoring, agricultural crop monitoring, rainfall algorithm study, and data products comparison.
The Tofte Project
This site provides a description of a cabin in Tofte, MN on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The new owner of the cabin decided to remake it into a model of sustainable building practices. The site includes several dozen flash animations looking at sustainability from many angles as well as the specifics of the house and its surroundings.
A pdf of the project goals is available at http://www.tofteproject.com/misc/project_goals.pdf
Borders
'Borders' begins with a short dramatic piece that introduces the issues of complicity, resistance, and boundaries. This work continues to investigate these themes in the style of a documentary. In the prologue, actor Steve Buscemi plays Ted, a young scientist who goes to work at a large scientific research facility. Here he develops ideas that, much to the dismay and rebuff of his jealous fellow researchers who gather around a vending machine, are embraced by his supervisors. The young scientist
Sun's Impact on Earth's Temperature
In this activity, middle school students view NASA images and movies of Venus, Earth, and Mars to deduce weather patterns and manipulate computer models to test competing hypotheses. By completing this activity, the learner will compare weather patterns observed on Venus, Earth, and Mars; manipulate computer models to investigate the influence of solar distance and atmosphere; evaluate various solar system hypotheses using a computer model.
For Kids Only: Earth Science and Technology Enterprise
This site helps students learn about aerosols, ozone, air pressure, tropical rainfall and hurricanes, plate tectonics, earth science careers, and more.
StarChild: A Learning Center for Young Astronomers
The information and activities found in StarChild can be used to engage, excite, and educate students in your classrooms. Helps elementary school students learn about the sun and moon, planets, the asteroid belt, meteoroids and comets, astronauts and space suits, space travel and space probes, the Hubble space telescope, the Columbia accident, galaxies, the Milky Way, stars, quasars, black holes, cosmology, and dark matter.
Cosmology 101
This is is a primer on scientific efforts to understand the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe. Among the questions it explores: What types of matter and energy fill the universe? What is the age and shape of the universe? How rapidly is it expanding? The website examines the Big Bang theory, as well as tests and limitations of the theory.
Image Composite Explorer
The Image Composite Explorer is designed to be an easy first step into the realm of Earth system science, image processing, data analysis, and satellite remote sensing via your Web browser. Click to read About ICE and the rationale for its design; for an in-depth tutorial, read the ICE Users Guide; or jump right in to the Channel Islands example if you prefer to learn using a hands-on approach. A Teacher’s Guide is available for educators who wish to use ICE in their classrooms.
Solar Physics: The Sun Spot Cycle
This NASA website contains extensive information on sun spots and sun spot prediction. Users have access to several forms of graphical and numerical data such as sun spot numbers, the Maunder minimum, the Butterfly diagram, the Greenwich sunspot data and sun spot cycle predictions. The site also includes a wealth of information about the sun and NASA's ongoing sun research.
Great Duty
A short film about the angiography procedure and an example for its purpose. The film was made and include for my lecture about the angiography procedure. Enjoy!
X-Ray Vision, Crystallography
This site features a tutorial designed to allow students to gain an appreciation of how X-ray crystallography works. Using X-ray diffraction patterns to determine the arrangement of atoms in a molecule requires sophisticated mathematics. This activity depends only on light from an overhead projector passing through a ball-and-stick molecular model placed on the stage of the projector, making it an ideal introduction to x-ray diffraction.
The Terrestrial Environment
This site provides an illustrated lecture from a geochemistry course offered by Dr. Scott Wood at the University of Idaho. Topics include crystal chemistry, ionic substitutions in crystals, weathering (dissolution, redox reactions, acid hydrolysis, and kinetics), the solid products of weathering, and the chemistry of continental waters. The lecture presentation may be downloaded as a PDF document or a PowerPoint presentation. Reading and homework assignments, with answers, are also provided.
Practical Aspects of Mineral Thermobarometry
These pages provide information, tutorial material and worked examples for petrology students interested in extracting pressure-temperature information from rocks. It is assumed that you have completed a typical undergraduate petrology course. The sequence of topics, listed below, progresses from the acquisition of mineral analyses to computer-based P-T and phase diagram calculations.
