An exercise on the effects of flooding that took place in the upper Mississippi River drainage basin in 1993, using before and after satellite images.

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Analyze the effect of a 1996 controlled flood on a sandbar in Grand Canyon. This exercise uses Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst.

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In this 5.5 minute video Dr James Grime (Cambridge University, UK) explains why mathematicians don't classify the number 1 as a prime. He includes historical background and an explanation of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic.

This web page provides links to resources aligned to the CCSS that guide and support first grade mathematics teaching and learning. Tasks developed by the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service (MARS) and Problems of the Month, (POM home page is cataloged separately) developed by the Noyce Foundation are included. The activities were designed to measure students' ability to solve non-routine problems, explain and justify their solutions, and promote high level thinking skills. Resources are listed for specific grade 1 standards and are also organized by progression for an alternate search route.

This is a problem-based learning (PBL) group jigsaw activity. The scenario is:
Students are employees of a unit of the United Nations responsible for coordinating disaster relief after a major disaster (the 2004 Asian Earthquake and Tsunami) occurs. The agency needs to understand the situation in each country so that it can coordinate the work of various governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in the affected area.

Students are divided into Expert Groups (related to academic specialties such as Economics, Medicine, Political Science, Earth Science, etc.) and spend several days researching their topics. Students are then reassigned to one of seven or eight Country Groups, based on the countries most affected by the disaster. Each country group needs someone representing each expert group. In the scenario, these groups correspond to task forces that must determine what the situation is in each country and try to assess the current need for international assistance.

Students research their country, using internet resources, especially the CIA World Factbook and ReliefWeb, the information coordination website of the United Nations. At a large-group roundtable discussion, each group presents what it has found about its assigned country. As a final product, each student writes an individual report summarizing findings and making recommendations for disaster assistance.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Students are employees of a unit of the United Nations responsible for coordinating disaster relief after a major disaster (the 2004 Asian Earthquake and Tsunami) occurs. The agency needs to understand the situation in each country so that it can coordinate the work of various governments and NGO (nongovernmental organizations) working in the affected area.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this multi-part activity, students study seismograms from 3 different seismic stations recording the magnitude 9.0 Sumatra earthquake of December 26th, 2004. By comparing the arrival times of the P and S waves on each seismogram, students determine the distance from the epicenter to each station. Using that data, they can accurately map the location of the epicenter and the precise time of the earthquake. After locating the epicenter, students calculate the position of the tsunami generated by the quake at one hour intervals. From those determinations, predictions are made about how much time people had before the tsunami crashed onto their shores. Finally, students investigate some of the ways people can lessen the impact of the next great tsunami.

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This activity uses data collected from DART (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) stations in the Pacific following the 2011 tsunami generated off the coast of Japan. Students are required to map the wave front after 5, 10, and 15 hours to better understand the speed and propagation of the tsunami wave.

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This exercise uses the example of the March 28, 2014 M5.1 La Habra earthquake to teach about earthquake risk and resilience in southern California. Students will examine seismic waveforms recording during the earthquake, as well as read reports from scientific agencies and news outlets to answer basic questions regarding earthquake risk and resilience.

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This problem with multiple solutions offers an opportunity for students to practice simple addition and subtraction, work with number sentences (equations), and develop systematic work habits. Given cards containing the addition, subtraction and equal signs along with the digits 2, 4, 6, and 8. solvers are challenged to find as many ways as possible to arrange some or all seven cards to create true statements. The Teachers' Notes page offers suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, ideas for extension and support, printable cards (pdf) and a link to an interactive Flash applet.

This number challenge is an opportunity to reinforce mental arithmetic and order of operations while developing systematic work habits. Students are asked to use the numbers 4, 6, 6, and 8 (exactly once each) and the four basic operations to find as many ways as they can to represent the number 24. There are over 60 different ways! The Teachers' Notes page includes suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, ideas for support, and a link to a related article, Opening Out. (cataloged separately).

This Java applet game promotes mental math and strategic thinking skills using a card from Suntex's 24 Game. The player is presented with four numbers (1-9) on a card. The goal is to manipulate each of the four numbers only once so that the end result is 24. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and/or parentheses maybe used and the player must be able to enter the expression using the online calculator.

This activity is designed for a primary classroom (outdoors & indoors) investigation where students collect and investigate soil samples and describe the soils, looking for similarities and differences. Students develop a method of recording the data colleted and can present the information gathered.

This web page provides links to resources aligned to the CCSS that guide and support second grade mathematics teaching and learning. Tasks developed by the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service (MARS), Problems of the Month, (POM home page is cataloged separately) and videos of public lessons and number talks developed by the Noyce Foundation are included. The tasks were designed to measure students’ ability to solve non-routine problems, explain and justify their solutions, and promote high level thinking skills. They include the scoring rubric, student responses, and discussion of student understanding and misconceptions. Resources are listed for specific grade 2 standards and are also organized by progression for an alternate search route.

This page hosts a collection of geometric tasks in pdf format that are aligned to the CCSS standards 2.G1 through 2.G3. It also has links to supplementary literature and learning materials.

Play-Doh model of a geologic map

Provenance: Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Students analyze a geologic map of an angular unconformity that truncates a pair of dikes, with some topography. When students have deciphered the map and constructed a cross-section, I show them a Play-Doh model of the geology and ask them to compare it to their mental model of the area.

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This interactive Flash applet provides a Concentration-type game (called pelmanism in the UK) in which students must discern the properties of three-dimensional solids and their colors in order to match them in pairs. Spheres, cones, prisms and other standard 3-D shapes are hidden face down on cards. Time and number of trials needed to solve are recorded.

Using cameras mounted to drones, students will design and construct an experiment to take enough photos to make a 3-dimensional image of an outcrop or landform in a process called structure from motion (SfM). This activity has both a hands-on component (collecting data with the drone) and a computer-based component (creating the 3-dimensional model).___________________Drones can take photos that can be analyzed later. By planning ahead to have enough overlap between photos, you take those individual photos and make a 3-dimensional image!In this activity, you guide the students to identify an outcrop or landform to study later or over repeat visits. They go through the process to plan, conduct, and analyze an investigation to help answer their science question.The Challenge: Design and conduct an experiment to take enough photos to make a 3-dimensional image of an outcrop or landform, then analyze the image and interpret the resulting 3-d image.For instance they might wish to study a hillside that has been changed from a previous forest fire. How is the hillside starting to shift after rainstorms or snows? Monitoring an area over many months can lead to discoveries about how the erosional processes happen and also provide homeowners, park rangers, planners, and others valuable information to take action to stabilize areas to prevent landslides.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this lesson, students expand their understanding of solid waste management to include the idea of 3RC (reduce, reuse, recycle and compost). They will look at the effects of packaging decisions (reducing) and learn about engineering advancements in packaging materials and solid waste management. Also, they will observe biodegradation in a model landfill (composting).

This web page provides links to resources aligned to the CCSS that guide and support third grade mathematics teaching and learning. Tasks developed by the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service (MARS) and Problems of the Month, (POM home page is cataloged separately) developed by the Noyce Foundation are included. The tasks were designed to measure students’ ability to solve non-routine problems, explain and justify their solutions, and promote high level thinking skills. They include the scoring rubric, student responses, and discussion of student understanding and misconceptions. Resources are listed for specific grade 3 standards and are also organized by progression for an alternate search route.