Energy
Budget and Landscape Changes Resulting from Drought Teaching Boxes
These teaching boxes are an assembly of the
lesson activities presented at the first TRESTE Annual
Workshop held at UTTC in Bismarck, ND. It is intended
to be an interrelated unit of digital resources and lab
activities including lesson plans that the instructor
can use in his/her classroom. The box is structured in
such a way that instructors may select from the various
activities those that best meet the goals of their particular
course or the box may be used in its entirety.
Goals of the Teaching Box:
Use a case study as a departure point for physical
science activities related to the effects of drought.
Use various surface observations to examine the drought
in the Upper Midwest.
Import MODIS data to construct maps and charts that
will allow analysis of the effects of the drought for
specific regions of the Midwest.
Provide guidelines for using PBL (problem-based learning)
in the science classroom.
The teaching box material for this case
study has been provided by Peg Tilgner (SGU).
Teaching Box Activities:
Introductory
Activity - The Shrinking Missouri River
Outlines implementation of a case study on the Missouri
River drought. It is an introductory activity for a
problem-based learning unit.
Effect
of Soil Moisture on Temperature Lab Activity
Use a thermometer and an infrared gun to measure and
compare the temperature of dry sand and moist sand
over a period of time. Lab directions and sample data
tables included.
Computation
Activity
Use information at the identified website to explore
possible causes of the low water levels on the upper
Missouri River. Directions for writing a follow-up
lab report and how to evaluate the report included.
Soil
Moisture Versus Temperature Activity
Use information at the identified website to explore
possible connections between soil moisture and temperature.
Students can download their own information or the
instructor can use the slides found in the plan.
Remote
Sensing Activity - Introduction to Remote Sensing
A PowerPoint presentation to introduce remote sensing
including possible discussion questions for use in
class.
Drought
in Satellite Images Activity
Analyze the Upper Missouri River drought using satellite
imagery. The activities in this section contain information
for those just wanting to use maps that are premade
to information on how to download your own data and
create your own maps using ArcGIS.
Historical
Droughts Activity
Activities to gather historical information about droughts
including interviews, PowerPoint presentations, and
websites. The PowerPoint files are large files and
may take some time to download.
