Using Google Earth Engine laboratory exercises in a college-level introductory physical geography course Part 2: Lab Examples

Anthony D. Feiga (Central Michigan University) and Tao Zhengb (Central Michigan University)

published May 7, 2025 11:19am
This is Part 2 of a 2-part series that features laboratory activities that utilize Google Earth Engine. Part 1 discussed the development of Google Earth Engine laboratory exercises for a college-level introductory physical geography course. Part 2 describes the implementation of the lab examples.
Author Information

Twenty-two Google Earth Engine- (GEE-) based laboratory exercises were created and used in a college-level introductory physical geography course. The development of the lab exercises is discussed, along with student reaction, instructor experience, and how they addressed course learning outcomes in Part 1 of this article

Students expressed affinity for the GEE labs with an HTML interface. The GEE exercises are easier for the instructor to monitor and grade than paper exercises. A caveat is that instructors must have coding skills to create new material, which requires extensive front-end preparation time. We recommend that instructors intersperse GEE activities in lectures. GEE is a promising pedagogy for novice learners, appropriate for both the introductory college level and high school curricula.

These lab exercises are shared with readers for free educational use in their easy-to-use HTML format. In a companion video we work through two GEE lab exercises (Mid-latitude Cyclones and Earthquakes.) The video is lengthy (~36m), but the real-time, step-by-step presentation will be useful for seeing how students interact with the labs.

Click to view or download the demonstration (MP4 Video 154.2MB Apr14 25).

 The lab exercise materials contain instructions and questions to answer, which students access and complete electronically. Each document contains links to the GEE website resources, hosted by Google Earth Engine. The following lab exercises can be found on Teach the Earth.

  1. Basic Map Skills
  2. Sensible & Latent Heat
  3. Shortwave & Longwave Radiation
  4. Atmospheric Pressure
  5. Atmospheric Motion & Upper Air Charts
  6. Atmospheric Moisture
  7. Cold Fronts & Warm Fronts
  8. Mid-latitude Cyclones
  9. Tropical Cyclones
  10. Weather Forecast
  11. Global Surface Ocean Currents
  12. Ocean Temperature & Salinity
  13. El Nino & Southern Oscillation
  14. Climate Classification
  15. Air Pollution
  16. Climate Change
  17. Plate Tectonics
  18. Volcanoes
  19. Earthquakes
  20. Streams
  21. Glaciers & Glacial Landforms
  22. Soil

Authors

aGeography & Environmental Studies, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, USA [link https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5163-751X

bGeography & Environmental Studies, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2358-2416 

*Corresponding author contact: feig1ad@cmich.edu; +1.989.774.1166



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