In this science activity, students investigate the water cycle by testing the water evaporated from leaves (transpiration) in a field experience. Students use elements of this information to track the water cycle through it's various stages.

This activity is a field investigation where students go out to a water source and observe erosion that has taken place.

This model-making activity gives students an opportunity visualize Newtonian forces acting on a single point as well as combined forces acting to produce synclines and anticlines in Earth's crust. Students will analyze models to interpret findings of plate movements.

This activity is a field investigation where students list plants and animals they observe. Students will organize their data as producers, consumers, or decomposers and create a food web showing how they affect each other. They will predict what will happen if the food web becomes imbalanced by extinction or over population.

This activity is a field investagation where students will discover answers to their questions about the rock cycle.

Dr. Beth Tonoany, a tropical population ecologist, is studying an unusual tree, Guaiacum sanctum, in the tropical forests of Central America. Interestingly, several local Ticos have told her that they use the tree for medicinal purposes. Students read the case and then answer questions designed to explore the process of screening and testing the medicinal value of plants identified as having potential health benefits. This case can be used in an introductory biology course, an introductory botany course, or any course which encounters ethnobotany as a component, such as a tropical biology course or a plant ecology course.

This case study describes experiments to seed the ocean with iron to encourage algae growth. It explores how human activities contribute to greenhouse effects and global warming, proposals to potentially counteract these effects and make the ocean more productive for commercial fishing, and the issues and possible unintended consequences of such activities. The case is appropriate for introductory biology, ecology, environmental biology, microbiology, and environmental microbiology classes as well as courses dealing with environmental policy.

In this activity, students conduct an investigation to purify water. They engineer a method for cleaning water, discover the most effective way to filter water, and practice conducting a scientific experiment. Through this activity and its associated lesson, student teams follow the steps of the engineering design process related to water treatment, as done by practicing engineers, including constructing and testing their designs.

This lesson will introduce students to environmental issues. Students will recognize environmental opinions and perspective, which will help them define themselves and others as either preservationists or conservationists. Students also learn about the importance of teamwork in engineering.

This case study explores the unintended side effects of chemicals introduced into the environment, specifically organic compounds that can act as environmental estrogens (chemical castration agents that can interfere with the sexual development of embryonic males). The case was developed for a non-majors chemistry course and focuses on the science that underlies the controversy surrounding the sale of the herbicide atrazine in the U.S. as well as the political and economic issues that impact this science.

In 1986, Lake Nyos, a volcanic lake located in Cameroon, Africa, released a huge amount of carbon dioxide gas, killing over 1,700 people and countless livestock and other animals in the area. This case, intended for use in a limnology or an aquatic biology course, explores that event, introducing students to concepts related to lake formation, thermal stratification, and dissolved gases. Students interpret graphs containing temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and conductivity data for the lake, and then synthesize these different types of limnological data to understand what happened.

In this interrupted case study, students view a documentary film about a coyote hunting contest and then assume the role of various stakeholders in coyote management in the western United States to explore issues associated with wildlife management. As part of this, students complete a number of associated activities in which they are asked to reflect upon their ethical perspective regarding wildlife management. The case would be appropriate for use in a wildlife management, ecology, mid-level biology, or environmental ethics course.

In this case study, students examine global water shortage problems in the context of the current Klamath Basin water crisis. Two main perspectives are addressed, agriculture and the environment, along with multiple other perspectives including Native Americans, hydroelectric dams, and the fishing industry. Students learn about and discuss competing interests for water and analyze and critique scientific data, maps, and graphs. The case was developed for a social sciences track environmental studies course. It could be used in an environmental science, ethics, or policy course as well as in water management or agriculture classes.

This activity is a active learning activity where students will observe and represent the layers of the Earth from the core to the lithosphere.

This activity is a guided inquiry where students will find their own lichen and classify it into one of three categories. They will collect, analyze, and present their finding to the class.

This case explores the question of whether there was ever life on Mars and in doing so explores how we define life. The backdrop for the case is the 1996 revelation by NASA of evidence of life on Mars. Through a fictionalized account of the events, the case explores what constitutes life as well as the ethics of announcing scientific discoveries directly to the public instead of following the traditional process of peer review and publication. The protagonist of the story is a young planetary geologist who must decide whether or not to join his colleagues at a press conference announcing the "discovery." Originally designed for a course in planetary geology, where it was used in the last class in the semester as a capstone experience, the case could also be used in a general biology class to discuss the characteristics of life.

In this case, developed for a course in Issues in Environmental Biology, students learn that water samples collected from a local river show elevated levels of fecal bacteria and atrazine, one of the most commonly used herbicides in the United States. A hearing has been called by the county to investigate the cause of the contamination, possible effects on aquatic life in the river, and what can be done to prevent a recurrence. In the ensuing debate, students must analyze and interpret data as they present the viewpoints of various stakeholders, ranging from the landowners' right to apply atrazine to control weeds, to the responsibility of fisheries biologists and water quality specialists to protect the environment.

This activity involves student teams classifying clouds into the main categories, making a poster of their findings, having a poster session and learning the vocabulary terms cirrus, stratus and cumulus.

This book making activity is a way to assess students knowledge of cloud types, their description, and the weather they bring.