Ice Core Gateway: Vostok Ice Core CO2 Data
The Vostok ice core has a long record of global carbon dioxide concentrations, with variations caused by factors other than photosynthesis and human activity. Ice core data sets from three different authors are available for download. Users can also link to other NOAA paleoclimate projects and information.
Transnational Pollution: Why Are You Dumping on Me?
This lesson familiarizes students with the different types of transnational pollution, and gives them an opportunity to role-play in a hypothetical case of transnational pollution involving the Danube River. The major goal of this activity is to show students that an incident in one nation may well have serious environmental consequences for other nations. Additionally, it will give students an opportunity to role-play complex roles that are meaningful and consequential to global concerns. The l
Runaway Greenhouse Effect Exercise
This activity, Runaway Greenhouse Effect Exercise, discusses "Why is Venus so much hotter than the Earth?" This is a collaborative problem-solving exercise about the greenhouse effect on Venus. Students role-play biologists, coal geologists, space warfare experts, astronomers, pollution-control scientists, and hydrophysicists. Each student gets a copy of the appropriate briefing sheet (there are 6) containing some information important to solving the problem, much of it quantitative. On this Sta
Oceans of Kansas
Oceans of Kansas is the unofficial, but highly useful, web page of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History. To find content, scroll to the middle of the page. The website contains information on exhibits, articles with photographs of fossils and paintings about marine reptiles and fish who flourished in the Western Interior Sea. The site also contains an online collection of full-text paleontology papers, and a links page.
Viewpoint on Causes of Global Warming - An Assignment Using Anonymous Electronic Peer Review With a
Studies exist that suggest human activities are not causing warming of the Earth. This electronic peer review assignment gives students the opportunity to write about their viewpoint on this highly-debated issue while providing anonymous commentary to a peer's report. This example is part of the Starting Point collection and includes information about learning goals, context, teaching notes and materials, and assessment. Further references and resources are also provided
Post-Settlement Erosion and Deposition
In this example, a field laboratory in introductory geology becomes a test of a hypothesis: Does the model proposed by Stanley Trimble for Coon Creek, Wisconsin adequately describe the history of post-European-settlement erosion and deposition in a small drainage in southeast Minnesota? This field lab is detailed on the site, which describes leaning goals, a context for this lab's use, teaching notes and downloadable handouts, and assessment recommendations. There are additional references and l
Investigative Case-Malama Keone'o'oi
This Starting Point teaching module highlights a case study of Malama Keone'o'oi. Students will learn techniques for conducting a local environmental assessment in an ecologically sensitive area. Identification of native plants and methodologies for sampling will be taught in the classroom and then reinforced in the field. The module also includes a community awareness and conservation aspect. Users will find information regarding learning goals, context for use, teaching notes and tips, teachin
Groundwater Pump Test
In this lab, students conduct a groundwater pump test and interpret aquifer properties. Creating a use context for this lab, this website describes the learning goals, provides teaching notes, materials and assessment recommendations, and links the user to additional resources and references. This laboratory activity is part of the Starting Point Collection.
Linkage and Arms Control
Henry Kissinger, U.S. national security adviser from 1969 to 1973 and then secretary of state until 1977, was the dominant figure in creating the foreign policy of the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations. This video segment deals with the concept of "linkage": interlocking U.S. arms-control negotiations with leveraging Soviet behavior and policy.
Kissinger's interview conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: "One Step Forward" touches on points contained in his blueprint for de
India's Non-Nuclear Course
Chandra Shekhar Jha was India's foreign secretary from 1965 to 1967. In this video segment, Jha explains why India cannot exclude the future possibility of owning nuclear weapons. The key to disarmament, he insists, rests with the nuclear nations that are 'adding to their stockpiles' and 'preparing for war. 'Jha's interview conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: 'The Haves and Have-Nots' begins with his recollections of his devastating post-war tour of Japan with Prime Minister Jawaharl
Split Britches
'Split Britches' is the story of three women from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, set sometime in the 1930's, whose squabbling is often pacified by periods of singing.
Kissing Booth, The
Documentary-style piece in which four celebrities (Quentin Crisp -author, Emily XYZ -poet, Joe Morton -actor, Spider -musician) talk about kissing, seduction, relationships, love, sex, and romance in the U.S., England, and South Africa. Speakers muse about the subjects and talk about their own personal experiences. Shots of speakers talking directly to the camera are interspersed with straightforward and computer-enhanced scenes of couples kissing. Approximately 28 minutes in length.
Freefall
At the opening of 'Freefall,' Gaby Agis is seen getting dressed in Western-influenced clothing. She runs through alleyways and streets. Meanwhile, on neighboring rooftops, women are dancing together across vast spaces. Agis eventually makes her way to one of these rooftops. In the second section, Agis and another woman are partnering together against a wall of aluminum siding. They bounce off one another and the wall. Following this, Agis makes her way into an area filled with lush vegetation. H
River Systems: Process and Form
This site provides access to a number of visual resources and supporting material about physical processes acting in rivers and floodplains. Visualizations include simple animations, visual output from numerical models, sediment transfer movies, and numerous static illustrations and photos. Resources can be integrated into lectures, labs, classes, or other activities about fluvial processes and landscape evolution over time.
Weather and Climate
This site features visual resources and supporting data that illustrate the relationship between weather and climate. Resources are divided by topic including climate resources, weather forecasting, warnings and data, and evidence for global warming. Visualizations and data sets include GIS-based animated maps, static maps, simple animations, and links to real-time stream gauge data. This site provides an array of visual resources that help demonstrate the difference between weather and climate
Waterfall Formation and Nick Point Migration
This site provides a variety of visual resources about waterfalls. Flash animations show how waterfalls, plunge pools and gorges are created by the erosion of underlying rock by flowing water. A QuickTime movie gives examples of large-scale waterfalls from around the world, and an interactive diagram illustrates how falling water is used to generate hydroelectric power. These resources are suitable for integration into lectures, labs, or other activities.
Processes of River Erosion, Transport, and Deposition
This site features Flash animations and QuickTime movies that illustrate some of the processes associated with river erosion, transport and deposition. Topics include sediment transport processes, such as saltation, sliding, rolling, suspension, and dissolved load; depositional processes, such as the spatial distribution of gravel, sand and clay as a stream enters a lake; and sediment transfer processes, such as sand bar migration and the concept of a graded stream. The site also features 25 Qui
Plate Tectonic Movement Visualizations
This collection provides a wide array of visual resources and supporting material about plate tectonic movements. Visualizations include simple animations, GIS-based animated maps, paleogeographic maps and globes, and numerous illustrations and photos. This collection is not exhaustive but does represent some of the best sources for teaching. Resources can be incorporated into lectures, labs, or other activities.
Mountains and Mass Wasting
This lecture discusses physical and chemical processes that break down rocks and rock debris transportation mechanisms. Physical weathering includes abrasion, fragmentation, frost wedging, and thermal expansion and contraction. Chemical weathering includes solution, oxidation and hydration, and hydrolysis. The lecture notes are supported by images such as photographs, satellite photos, and diagrams depicting glacial features and frost wedging.
Moisture Animations
This site features GIFs, Java applets, MPEGs, and Flash animations that illustrate various forms of precipitation and moisture. They include an animation of air parcels and water vapor colliding with condensation nuclei which results in condensation and cloud formation, an interactive precipitation animation applet that allows the user to set wet and dry bulb temperatures to see if snow, ice, freezing rain, sleet, super cooled droplets, raindrops, or drizzle will fall, an animation of lake effec
