Use a narrative "science tour" app for the drive up Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson, Arizona. Travel from desert to pine forest, listening to the audio guide and watching slideshows and videos. Learn how our world is sustained by natural environments, systems, and cycles.

Educational Objectives

Describe the natural history of Mt. Lemmon with special attention to geology and biology. The tour follows the Catalina Highway to the top of Mt. Lemmon.

Be introduced to the hydrologic cycle, how water collects and gets used in California, and how scientists measure the water cycle.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

• Define the parts of the hydrologic cycle
• Describe how water resources in California change seasonally
• Identify ways scientists measure the water cycle

Use a simple active game to explore the concept of how fire can spread quickly in a dry densely populated forest.

Educational Objectives

• Define the forest density, and how it is evaluated and managed.
• Explain the differences amongst:
  • a wet year,
  • dry year, and,
  • a critically dry water year.
• Explain the basic concepts of how a tree draws water up out of the soil in order to grow.
• Describe the different places within a forest where water is stored.

Take a journey as water molecules moving throughout the tree water cycle.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

• Describe the main parts of the water cycle in and around a tree.
• Become familiar with proportions of water in each part of the cycle, depending on seasons and location.

Learn how the words “I notice...” and “I wonder...” can spark an exploration of the Critical Zone. Dive into the question: "Where does water go when it rains?". This set of activities was developed for AGI Earth Science Week 2018.

Educational Objectives

After this activity, students will be able to:

• Observe and record Earth surface and environmental phemomena using their senses. 
• Question their observations and hypothesize cause-effect relationships, functions of particular structures, and predictions of how a property or process may change over time or across space. 

See an annotated list of technical tools for creating Virtual Fieldwork Experiences about a site. Tools include smartphone apps for capturing imagery and other data as well as accessing information (ie geologic maps). Desktop and web-based software is also included, as is some hardware.

Educational Objectives

Users will both create and access media to explain why a site looks the way it does.

This kmz file contains basic data on every large tree within the Shale Hills catchment, including species and Diameter at Breast Height (DBH). Explore the data and look for patterns of species distributions by clicking on and off different species. This file is included within the Shale Hills VFE.

Educational Objectives

The listed objectives are suggestive. Teachers may design activities using the dataset with their own objectives.

• Describe how distribution of trees varies by species.
• Speculate what factors determine species' affinity for particular placement within the Shale Hills catchment.
• Design investigations to test hypotheses about species distribution.

The survey can also serve as a model for surveying trees (or other elements) in your local environment.

This webpage serves as an introduction to both CZ science and the use of Virtual Fieldwork Experiences (VFEs) for exploration of the CZ. Embedded within this page you will find VFEs of Shale Hills Susquehanna, Southern Sierra CZO and Luquillo CZOs.

Educational Objectives

• Interpret the environment represented within the VFE you are investigating, including descriptions of why the landscape looks the way it does, and how it has changed over time.
• Create a VFE representing your local environment or a field site you have visited and present it to interested others.

Objectives for specific VFEs are included within those VFEs.

Use simple stream models to explore the concept of watersheds, catchment basins, and to introduce California water resources.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

• Define a watershed and a catchment basin
• Learn basic stream features and flow properties
• Understand sources of water in California

Investigate soil properties by performing infiltration experiments and determining texture.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

• understand how different materials affect how fast water moves through a soil column
• determine the texture of different soils

Understand how the Boulder Creek CZO's geology, hydrology, ecology, and climate interact to provide water in 3 learning modules: Foundations for Flow; Fire and Water; and Ice, Snow and H20.

Educational Objectives

Module 1: Foundations for Flow
Learners will be able to:

• Describe and evaluate the impact of various geologic events and processes on the current structure of the Boulder Creek Watershed
• Differentiate between constructive and destructive geologic forces impacting the Boulder Creek Watershed
• Describe the role of glacial and stream erosion in shaping the structure and hydrology in the Boulder Creek Watershed
• Describe major events in Colorado’s climate over time and how they impacted the Boulder Creek Watershed

Module 2: Fire and Water
Learners will:

• Relate changes to map-based images of Colorado over a large geologic time scale to major events in our geologic history
• Describe relationships between existing geologic features and the processes and forces that created them
• Will match rock samples to descriptions of the geologic processes/events that formed them

Module 3: Ice, Snow and H2O
Learners will:

• Simulate and describe the impacts of glacial erosion over time using a model
• Identify characteristic features of glacial erosion in their model landscape
• Describe the role of glaciers in shaping the Boulder Creek Watershed

Use several different methods to measure and compare the sizes of trees.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

• Compare methods of measuring a tree
• Observe patterns and differences among tree species 

Explore how certain events in a forest can change the timing and routing of carbon.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

• explain what carbon and carbon dioxide is
• understand the carbon cycle through a forest ecosystem

Understand food chains and ecosystem interactions and predict how changes in species functions and interactions can impact the system.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

• Explain the concepts of predators, prey, food chains, and food webs in an ecosystem.
• Use a computer model

To understand landslides, students use a small-scale model to explore how Earth materials (i.e., sand, gravel, lava rock) and water on varying slopes result in landslides of different severity. Students consider how the impact of natural hazards spawned in the critical zone affect their communities.

Educational Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Explain how different Earth materials affect landslide dynamics.
• Describe how landslide dangers are affected by slopes and storms.
• Describe how studying landslides allows scientists to determine where and when there are risks to buildings and people from landslides.

View ten maps of the contiguous 48 states, each highlighting different geographic features. Viewing the maps collectively reveals connections among different Earth systems.

Educational Objectives

• Describe similarities in the geographic distribution of different characteristics of the landscape.
• Speculate on relationships among these different characteristics.

Watch fascinating, public lectures from four Catalina-Jemez CZO researchers. The 30-minute lectures are part of the Critical Zone Science Cafe Series from Fall 2015, in Tucson, AZ.

Educational Objectives

Viewers will be able to describe:

• The concept of the CZ
• The role of microbes in the CZ
• The role of soil in the CZ
• The role of water in the CZ

Learn about educational initiatives and resources for teaching CZ Science. This issue includes seven articles that describe approaches to teaching CZ Science, why teaching CZ Science is important, and how such approaches can satisfy NGSS expectations. Full access requires NAGT membership.

Educational Objectives

Describe a range of approaches to, and resources for, teaching CZ Science.

As this is a collection of seven articles, the educational objectives are too numerous to list here. They are listed in the individual entries for each article.

Take a virtual tour of the Reynolds Creek Critical Zone Observatory! Track snowfall and predict soil thickness. Learn about soil carbon and how climate change and sagebrush ecosystems are modeled.

Educational Objectives

Objectives being written.

Tracking Snow:  Measuring Nature’s Water Reservoir.  

Organic Carbon:  The Key Variable in a Changing Climate.  

Inorganic Carbon:  A Different Type of Carbon.  

Predicting Soil Thickness:  Anywhere on a Landscape.  

CORE Sites:  The Most Advanced Ecosystem Measurements Anywhere.  

In the U.S., we burn over a gallon of gasoline per person, per day. What becomes of all that? What does it have to do with the Critical Zone? This blog post investigates these questions with powerful but simple visuals that can be easily translated to classroom use.

Educational Objectives

1. Explain why burning a six pound gallon of gasoline produces 19 pounds of carbon dioxide.
2. Communicate the scale of carbon dioxide emissions by describing the carbon cycle through the story of gasoline.

Explore a range of Virtual Fieldwork Experiences, and resources for their production and use. This site includes examples of highlighted VFEs, selected resources and strategies for using VFEs in teaching and learning, and a large collection of VFEs.

Educational Objectives

This page introduces a range of resources with a wide range of objectives. Selected objectives include:

• Teachers and learners will visit virtual field sites and be able to characterize aspects of the geology and biology of those sites, and aspects of how the biosphere, geosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere interact at these sites.
• Employ technological tools to capture aspects of environments in ways that those aspects may be shared with others.

Use measurement tools and mathematics to determine the volume of water contained in snow of a certain density.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

• Define SWE, density, volume
• Use measurement tools to determine density of snow and compare it to the volume of water contained in snow.
• Understand the need to monitor snowpack

Help understand the decisions water managers make, including questions like: Who receives water? And how much agriculture can we sustain? This activity includes 1) precipitation maps, 2) land use areas, 3) sample activity instructions, and 4) Excel template.

Educational Objectives

Describe aspects of the decisionmaking process for water managers, including how they answer questions like:

• Who receives water?
• And how much agriculture can we sustain?

This blog post covers the topic of leaching, the process in which water carries soluble substances or small particles through soil or rock.

Educational Objectives

Readers will be able to describe the process of leaching, its function, and the effect it has on the structure of the Critical Zone.

A seven-minute video that explores the Critical Zone, what it is, why it's important, and how the NSF CZO program is studying it. The video emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of work in the critical zone.

Educational Objectives

• Explain what the Critical Zone and Critical Zone Science are.
• Describe some ways humans are changing the Critical Zone and why these changes are important to understand.

This activity explores methods for visualizing and understanding the relationship between plant features (biosphere), the development of subsurface water flow pathways (hydrosphere and lithosphere), and variations in soil moisture content through time.

Educational Objectives

This activity explores methods for visualizing and understanding the relationship between plant features (biosphere), the development of subsurface water flow pathways (hydrosphere and lithosphere), and variations in soil moisture content through time. You will use data collected from the Shale Hills field site to accomplish the following objectives:

1. Describe the relationship between GPR transmission-reflection delay times, wave speed of electromagnetic radiation, and soil depth. (HS-PS4-5)
2. Interpret field data to infer the location of rocks, roots, and other point reflectors located in the subsoil. (HS-PS2-6)
3. Compare time-lapse GPR field data with soil moisture measurements to describe the impact of surface rainfall on soil moisture changes at various depths. (HS-ESS2-5)

Visit the El Yunque rain forest in Puerto Rico through this interactive module to discover how hurricanes affect the producers, consumers, and the flow of resources in the forest. See how ecosystems respond in many ways to large-scale environmental events.

Educational Objectives

• Describe and explain how hurricanes effect the Critical Zone and the production of Critical Zone services.
• Predict how changes in hurricane frequency or intensity impact the Critical Zone and the life within it.

Learn about a range of educational initiatives and resources for teaching about the Critical Zone. This issue includes eight articles that describe approaches to teaching CZ Science, why teaching CZ Science is important, and how such approaches can offer excellent ways to satisfy the NGSS.

Educational Objectives

Describe a range of approaches to teaching CZ Science.

As this is a collection of eight articles, the educational objectives are too numerous to list here. They are listed in the individual entries for each article.

A short web page that answers questions like: what is the Critical Zone? Why it is so important? Why does it need to be studied? The page includes text, images, and video.

Educational Objectives

Be able to discuss where the Critical Zone fits on Earth's surface and its importance to Humans and all life. 

The Luquillo LTER/CZO Data Jam invites high and middle school students to find interesting, non-traditional ways to present scientific data to non-scientist audiences.

Educational Objectives

• Students use ecological data collected at the El Yunque National Forest by the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory, Luquillo LTER and USGS Water to create a project that presents data in a non-traditional ways.
• Students create data visualizations.

Watch three sets of videos about the Boulder Creek CZO, spanning from the Continental Divide (4120 m) down to the western edge of the Plains (1480 m). CZO researchers describe their fieldwork and data collection, supporting CZO science in the Rocky Mountains.

Educational Objectives

This video series includes several videos addressing a range of objectives. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Briefly describe the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory.
• Describe aspects of instrumentation and how data is collected at the Boulder Creek CZO.

Note that the page has three embedded videos but includes a link to the Boulder Creek's YouTube page with many more.

Study volcanism in the Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico. Develop skills and knowledge about geologic features, volcanic geology, and landscape weathering by wildfires and climate change.

Educational Objectives

• Compare and contrast New Mexico's Valle Caldera with other volcanoes and other areas effected by vulcanism.
• Use Google Earth to explore and describe the effects of fire in Valles Caldera region.

Use imagery to understand and interpret the effect of geologic processes on a landscape and to relate the processes to past climatic conditions. Become familiar with remote sensing data using imagery from Google Earth and HiRISE for Mars as well as LiDAR data.

Educational Objectives

• Use landscape imagery to explain and interpret the effect of geologic processes on a landscape and to relate the processes to past climatic conditions.
• Describe the technology known as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and some ways that LiDAR data is used to study landscapes and environmental change.

In this blog post, learn how stable isotopes are used to determine a tree's water source.

Educational Objectives

Readers will be able to describe the possible sources of water for trees and the method used to determine a tree's water source. 

The overall goal is to measure how much fuel lies on local forest floors while getting an introduction to Critical Zone Science by observing interactions between the geosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.

Educational Objectives

After this lesson, students will be able to:

• record, analyze and interpret data
• create a spreadsheet
• develop graphic analysis skills

An illustrated introduction to the Eel River Critical Zone Observatory in the Angelo Coast Range Reserve.

Educational Objectives

After reading this cartoon, students will be able to:

• Identify the Eel River Watershed on a map of California
• Understand why the Critical Zone is of interest to scientists
• Explain the role the Critical Zone plays in supporting healthy trees and river ecosystems 

This activity familiarizes students with the environmental and human factors that increase soil erosion, using the southern Piedmont as a case study.

Educational Objectives

The goals are to:
(1) develop skills and knowledge that relate soil erosion to land cover, slope, and land management and
(2) draw attention to the role of Critical Zone (CZ) science in understanding social and environmental processes that shape managed landscapes.

Delve into Critical Zone Science (history, future directions, and components) via an annotated bibliography of selected resources (last updated May 2016). Note that access to all of the content requires a subscription to Oxford Bibliographies.

Educational Objectives

This resource is an annotated bibliography of Critical Zone related selected resources, making it a gateway to satisfying a wide range of objectives.

Watch six science lectures that highlight the importance of the Critical Zone on society and environmental sustainability. Many topics are discussed including soil degradation, drought resilience, water security, flooding, landslides, wildfire, ecosystem services, public policy, and more.

Educational Objectives

Viewers will be able to discuss the aspects of the CZ vulnerable to the presence of humanity, and how they may be altered due to global climate and land-use change. 

Use LiDAR data and display software to analyze the effects of a forest fire in New Mexico. LiDAR is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances to Earth. It enables the Critical Zone to be explored at fine scales (~1 m) over large areas (>100 km2).

Educational Objectives

• Define or describe LiDAR.
• Use LiDAR datasets to compare and contrast landscape appearance before and after a forest fire.

This activity requires a fast PC computer and basic computer skills.

Investigate how African dust storms transport particles with a unique chemical signature to downwind Caribbean Islands. Download rainwater chemistry data and look for seasonal patterns of Ca inputs. Interpret how this Ca compares with seasonal patterns of Saharan airflow and dust inputs.

Educational Objectives

The objectives of this activity are to demonstrate that:

1. Earth’s ecosystems and Critical Zones are inextricably linked via feedback processes, and,
2. nutrients that feed ecosystems can be derived from outside the system.

The Case of the Muddy Water uses authentic data to investigate the impacts of hydrofracturing. The objective of this lesson is to introduce the potential impacts of natural gas extraction through data analysis.

Educational Objectives

Conceptual Learning Outcomes

• Students are introduced to the potential impacts of natural gas extraction on water resources
• Students learn about topography and water sources in Pennsylvania
• Students develop reasoning and data analysis skills

Practical Learning Outcomes

• Students use HydroClient to discover, download, and view data
• Students answer questions using the Larry's Creek Watershed Profile Fact Sheet from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission
• Students answer questions about and graph turbidity and precipitation

This 15-week upper-level undergraduate course introduces and examines the life-sustaining services and resources provided by the Critical Zone using publicly-available CZO data and literature. This course is hosted by InTeGrate SERC (Science Education Resource Center).

Educational Objectives

At the end of the course students will be able to:

• Analyze technological advances, breakthroughs in interpretation, and new observations to build their understanding of the Critical Zone in and beyond the class.
• Use a large variety of scientific principles to analyze how Earth's land surface works.
• Apply data sets and observations from multiple existing CZO sites to test ideas and summarize Critical Zone services.
• Describe the Critical Zone as a complex system of interacting regolith, water, air, and life.

Find additional information in the course's Instructor Materials. 

The primary goal of this module is to recall, infer, and interpret a wide variety of scientific principles that analyze the Critical Zone as a complex system of interacting regolith, water, air, energy and life. This module is part of a undergraduate course on CZ Science hosted by InTeGrate SERC.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this module students will be able to:

• Accurately define the Critical Zone and the relationship to the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and soil.
• Effectively summarize: 1) the transdisciplinary nature of CZ science and the relationship to system science; 2) the importance (and degraded state) of the CZ to supporting most terrestrial life including humanity; and 3) the importance of long-term observatories to understanding and integrating knowledge of Earth surface processes.

More on this module's objectives can be found here. 

This module introduces methods used for investigations of the natural environment as well as human-induced changes to the environment such as perturbations to the hydrologic cycle, carbon and nutrient cycles and soil degradation. This module is part of a CZ Science course hosted by InTeGrate SERC.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this module students will be able to:

• Organize data from different data sources effectively, including online data sources.
• Interpret spatial and temporal trends from data records.
• Summarize systems modeling and geoscientific research approaches to design a sampling program.
• Infer trends from multiple strands of data to answer questions about Critical Zone services.

More on this module's objectives can be found here.

The goal of this module is a basic understanding of geologic processes and their relationship to Critical Zone processes and science. The focus is on the lithosphere's presence and role in CZ form and function. This module is part of a CZ Science course hosted by InTeGrate SERC.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this module students will be able to:

• Accurately recognize that tectonic processes of uplift and subsidence and the resulting landforms influence surficial processes of erosion, sediment transport and deposition, hill slope movement, and regolith production, and determine the architecture and evolution of the Critical Zone.
• Effectively summarize freely available online resources that provide information on geological mapping and aerial and other remotely sensed imagery that can be used in landscape assessment, and apply those resources to a site evaluation.

More on this module's objectives can be found here.

This module analyzes how energy and carbon flow through the CZ and how they drive CZ processes. Learn how to analyze data and use simple models to interpret spatial and temporal trends in energy flow to answer questions about CZ processes. This module is part of a CZ Science course hosted by SERC.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this module students will be able to:

• Trace primary radiative forcings through the Critical Zone using data derived from a CZO field site.
• Use CZO micro meteorological data to describe the differences between the main atmospheric fluxes at each CZO site.
• Relate carbon flux data collected at various scales to understand the regional exchange of carbon at a CZO site.
• Analyze how energy, carbon, and nutrients flow through the Critical Zone and drive Critical Zone processes.

More on this module's objectives can be found here.

This module teaches how to evaluate the water balance of an ecosystem---a growing challenge as we face increasingly unpredictable water supplies coupled with rising demand for water across all sectors. The module is part of a undergraduate course on CZ Science hosted by InTeGrate SERC.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this module students will be able to:

• Explain the reservoirs and fluxes of water cycling among the different parts of the Critical Zone.
• Analyze the water budget of a catchment that includes both biotic and abiotic processes.
• Calculate water budget components at multiple scales.
• Assess anthropogenic changes to the water cycling in a catchment.

More on this module's objectives can be found here.

This module examines the integrated roles that biology, geology, and chemistry play in the CZ. Use data from real world systems to understand how the CZ is involved in key biogeochemical functions. This module is part of a undergraduate course on CZ Science hosted by InTeGrate SERC.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this module students will be able to:

• Develop a scientific and geoscientific habit of mind through biogeochemical-based activities.
• Evaluate the chemical and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the CZ.
• Explain the role of CZ services in supporting terrestrial life, including humanity.
• Explain and use examples of how organisms and biodiversity affect biogeochemical processes.
• Use data, and examples from published scientific literature to explain critical zone functions.
• Explain some of the common methods used in biogeochemical research.
• Explain the effect of differences in land-use on nutrient cycling and critical zone functions.

More on this module's objectives can be found here.

This module examines how geoscientists study processes in the Critical Zone and the interactions between natural processes and human activities that affect it. The module is part of a undergraduate course on CZ Science hosted by InTeGrate SERC.

Educational Objectives

By the end of this module students will be able to:

• Develop scientific and geoscientific habits of mind through geospatial environmental analysis.
• Identify, interpret and develop mediation techniques to address human impacts to the Critical Zone.
• Identify and explain the impacts of various methods of agricultural production on soils.
• Critically examine research proposals and describe how the proposal would address CZ questions and grand challenges.

More on this module's objectives can be found here.