This site features Flash animations that illustrate how the Global Positioning System (GPS) works. The animations depict how GPS signals are derived, compare geostationary and polar orbits, and explain satellites, ground control, and user segments, which comprise the three main GPS components. These resources are suitable for use in lectures, labs, or other teaching activities.
This site from the "On the Cutting Edge" workshop series contains a variety of educational and supporting materials for both students and faculty teaching in the emerging field of geology and human health. You will find links to internet resources, books, teaching activities, and a group listserv, as well as posters, presentations and discussions from the spring 2004 workshop on Geology and Human Health.
This site features a collection of visual resources about glaciers. Diagrams, images and animations reveal how a glacier forms, advances and retreats. These resources can be integrated into lectures, labs or other activities.
This site features Flash and QuickTime animations related to groundwater. They contrast the permeability of gravel, sand, silt, and clay, as well as the speed of groundwater movement in rivers, lakes, and aquifers. They also outline the hydrologic cycle, discussing infiltration, percolation, and the water table, exhibit groundwater overdraft and the resulting formation of a cone of depression, and show how groundwater entering fractured bedrock can become superheated and pushed to the surface, erupting as a geyser. The animations can be paused and rewound to stress important points. These resources are suitable for use in lectures, labs, or other teaching activities.
This website provides an easy-to-understand introduction to the basics of optical mineralogy. Topics include the polarized light microscope, mineral shape and cleavage, relief, color and pleochroism, interference colors, extinction angles, twinning, opacity, vibration directions and mineral identification. The site features short, clear descriptions accompanied by photographs and drawings. This website would be useful as a concise introduction to the use of a petrographic microscope in identifying minerals.
This site provides access to a spectrum of web-based visual resources and supporting material that can be used to teach students about paleoclimate through geologic time. Visualizations include simple animations, GIS-based animated maps and paleogeographic maps, as well as numerous illustrations and photos. Resources can be integrated into lectures, labs, classes, or other activities about paleoclimate and land cover and land use change over time.
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.
This site features Flash animations that illustrate various facets of the rock cycle. The visualizations depict rock-forming processes, such as erosion, transportation, deposition, cementation, crystallization, subduction, and eruption, that create sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. They also show cooling environments that result in varied crystal sizes and demonstrate igneous rock classification. The animations can be paused and rewound to stress important points. These resources are suitable for use in lectures, labs, or other teaching activities.
This clearinghouse site provides an abundance of resources about copyright laws and fair use, including links to legal documents and legislation, internet and web resources, tutorials, resources for librarians, FAQ's, and a monthly newsletter.
This site from the "On the Cutting Edge" workshop series offers a variety of resources for faculty members who teach undergraduate structural geology. There are collections of classroom activities, internet and computer resources, useful articles and maps, presentations from the summer 2004 workshop on teaching structural geology, working groups and a discussion forum, and lots of creative ideas for teaching structural geology. Students will also find the site useful for supplementing class lectures and researching topics of interest.
Nonlinear physics is a catch-all term for the study of the dynamics of driven, open, non-equilibrium systems. Our group is mainly concerned with the phenomenon of pattern formation. When a nonlinear, dissipative system ( that is, one with friction ) is driven hard enough, it will often undergo a symmetry-breaking instability which takes it to a regular pattern state. The pattern is a dynamical state sustained by the driving forces which can have a high degree of periodic order and symmetry, even while it is producing and exporting entropy. Patterns are simple examples of emergent, self-organized structures which exist under non-equilibrium conditions. Surprisingly ordered nonequilibrium patterns are found in many different places in nature, including convection cells in fluids, spirals in oscillatory chemical reactions, ripples on blown sand, and in many biological and geological processes. You can learn about our experiments on this site.
The complete contents of this algebra textbook are available here online. This text is suitable for high-school Algebra I, preparing for the GED, a refresher for college students who need help preparing for college-level mathematics, or for anyone who wants to learn introductory algebra. I am especially pleased to help homeschoolers. Includes a graphing applet, a prime factorization machine, and a prime number list. Brennan uses inserts to answer common questions as the lesson goes on, helping the student master new ideas. A printable version is also available on the website. This resource is part of the Teaching Quantitative Skills in the Geosciences collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/quantskills/
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 and may be incorporated into lectures, labs, or other activities.