Survey Mark Hunting Activity Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Adapted with permission. Geodesy is the science that measures and represents the size and shape of Earth. In the United States, survey reference points are developed and maintained by NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS). In this activity, you will find data on the location and description of survey marks in your area and—if you like—search for them through a variation of geocaching. [Read More]

Take the Pulse of Your Classroom Activity Source: Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) and Suitable Systems Background Elastic waves that move through the Earth are called seismic waves. Want to study them more closely? SeisMac is a free application that displays the output from the Sudden Motion Sensor in recent Mac laptops as a real-time, three-axis, acceleration graph, or, more commonly, a seismogram. Once your class has received some instruction on seismic waves, the following activity can leverage SeisMac technology to help students understand how a seismometer records ground motions. [Read More]

Texas Rocks Activity Source: Houston Geologocial Society. Adapted with permission. Geologic maps can tell you a lot about the rocks beneath your feet. You can use the legend with the map to figure out what rock types are in various geographic areas. The legend can also tell you in what geologic period those rocks formed. Geologists use such maps to help identify where natural resources are and where natural hazards are likely to occur. [Read More]

The EarthTrek Gravestone Project Activity Source: Geological Society of America. Adapted with permission. Raindrops contain more than just water. In addition to the small particles of dust around which water drops form, raindrops can contain chemicals found in the atmosphere. Often rain is slightly acidic. This “acid rain” can chemically affect (weather) materials it touches. The amount of weathering differs from place to place and changes over time. Marble, a stone commonly used to make gravestones, is mostly made up of the mineral calcite. [Read More]

The Great Ocean Conveyor Activity Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Adapted with permission. In January 1992, a container ship headed to Tacoma,Washington, from Hong Kong, China, lost 12 containers during severe storm conditions. One container held a shipment of 29,000 bathtub toys. Ten months later, the first of these plastic toys began to wash up onto the coast of Alaska. Driven by the wind and ocean currents, these toys continued to wash ashore during the next several years, and some even drifted into the Atlantic Ocean. [Read More]

The Slope of Land in Your Community Activity Source: Adapted from the American Geosciences Institute’s EarthComm: Understanding your Environment Background Landslides constitute a major geologic hazard. They are widespread, occurring in all 50 states, and cause $1-2 billion in damages and more than 25 fatalities on average each year. Landslides commonly occur with other major natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods (USGS Learning Web). The slope of the land and the materials under ground must be considered when planning how to build on the land in a community to lessen landslide risk. [Read More]

Third From the Sun Activity Source: “Third From the Sun,” University of California at Berkeley, 2001. Adapted with permission. Background Since our beginnings, we humans have had a narrow view of our home - Earth. For many years, standing on the ground and looking around or climbing a mountain and squinting down were the most useful ways people had of trying to understand the planet’s surface. Only in the past few hundred years have we been able to better understand what the planet really looks like. [Read More]

Traveling Nitrogen Activity Source: Windows to the Universe. Adapted with permission. Nitrogen is an element that is found both in living things and the nonliving parts of the Earth system. In this classroom activity, students play the role of nitrogen atoms traveling through the nitrogen cycle to gain understanding of the varied pathways through the cycle and how nitrogen is relevant to living things. For the teacher: To prepare, set up nitrogen reservoir stations around the classroom (or outside). [Read More]

Watch Out for Landslides Activity Source: Adapted with permission by the Association of American State Geologists, from AGI’s Earth System Science in Your Community. Background Landslides not only are dangerous — causing on average more than 25 deaths and over $1 billion in damages a year — but are also widespread, occurring in all 50 states. Compounding the hazards, these natural disasters often occur along with other similar natural phenomena, such as floods or earthquakes. [Read More]

What’s Down There? Activity Source: SEED (Shlumberger Excellence in Educational Development) with permission. Throughout the Earth’s history, the cycle of erosion and deposition by water and wind has added layer upon layer of rock, soil, and organic material to the surface. Most sedimentary rock is beneath the surface. To learn about sedimentary rock layers that we cannot see, geoscientists drill and bring up core samples of rock layers. Information from core samples, combined with that from other imaging techniques, allows geoscientists to map the depth and thickness of sedimentary rock layers below the surface. [Read More]