Driving Through Geologic Time - An analogy
This activity uses an analogy to illustrate the scale of geologic time and our limited view of the Earth's history. It relates the history of the Earth to a drive across the country. The drive is 4560 km (rough distance between Washington D.C. and Seattle), with 1 km equaling one million years of Earth's history. This analogy is used by the author as a springboard to talk about the limits of our personal perceptions and experiences when making conclusions. Learning goals, context for use, teachi
Earth's history in 4.56 meters: constructing a timeline with calculator tape
In this short activity, students make a timeline of Earth's history using calculator tape. The tape is 4.56 meters long, so that one billion years is equal to one meter. This exercise is designed to introduce students to the scale of Earth's history and help them gain a familiarity with some major events. It also teaches about scaling, the metric system, as well as the concepts of large numbers and deep time. The activity may be used in an introductory geoscience course. Learning goals, context
GEOLogic: Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics
GEOLogic questions are puzzles that were developed to support students understanding of geoscience concepts while challenging them to develop better logic and problem solving skills. In this exercise, students are asked to match up lecturers with what day and time they teach, and how many students they have in each class based on clues given from several different perspectives. In the second part of the activity, students are asked to learn more about the historic figures mentioned by doing read
GEOLogic: How Much of the State is Wet
GEOLogic questions are puzzles that were developed to support students understanding of geoscience concepts while challenging them to develop better logic and problem solving skills. In this exercise, students are asked to match up students with their home state, and their states with the area and percentage of area of surface water that they contain, as well as where each of the states rank nationally in terms of water area. Students are given clues from various perspectives to help them deduce
GEOLogic: How Well Do You Know Your National Parks and Memorials
GEOLogic questions are puzzles that were developed to support students understanding of geoscience concepts while challenging them to develop better logic and problem solving skills. Using a game show format, this exercise asks students to associate historical figures with a particular National Park or Memorial, as well as the number of points each student contestant scored on the show. This activity is appropriate for a high school science class or an introductory level undergraduate geoscience
GEOLogic: Lagerstatten and Unique Fossils
GEOLogic questions are puzzles that were developed to support students understanding of geoscience concepts while challenging them to develop better logic and problem solving skills. In this exercise, students are asked to match up several unique fossils with the sites and locations where they were found, as well as their geologic age. This activity is appropriate for a high school science class or an introductory level undergraduate geoscience course, and can be given as an in-class assignment
GEOLogic: Museums and their Dinosaur Displays
GEOLogic questions are puzzles that were developed to support students understanding of geoscience concepts while challenging them to develop better logic and problem solving skills. In this exercise, students are asked to match five top museums with two fossils that they have on display based on clues presented from various points of view. This activity is appropriate for a high school science class or an introductory level undergraduate geoscience course, and can be given as an in-class assign
Modeling the interior of the Earth using Seismic Waves
This is an inquiry-based student exercise designed to explore how we use seismic waves to understand the structure of the Earth's interior. Students test several models of the interior of the Earth beginning with a simple homogeneous Earth and moving toward more complex multi-layered Earth models. The ultimate goal involves student generation of a model that reproduces actual measured seismic travel times as closely as possible. The activity is appropriate for an introductory level geoscience co
Radioactive Decay and Geochronology
This activity was developed to introduce upper level undergraduate students to dynamical systems modeling. In this exercise, students create a STELLA model of the radioactive decay process. They then learn how the special radioactive series 238U - 206Pb and 237U - 205Pb can be used to determine both the time when a rock initially crystallized and when it underwent a recrystallization, even when the sample being dated was not a closed system. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materi
Winter Field Lab: Pond Hydrology
This field activity may be implemented during late winter or early spring when things have not quite thawed. From a frozen pond, students collect bathymetric data, measure water temperature and conductivity, locate ground-water inputs, and extract a sediment core. Back in the lab, they make hand and computer-contoured bathymetric maps, temperature and conductivity cross-sections, and run visual-core log, loss-on-ignition, and magnetic susceptibility tests. Then they draw conclusions about water
Winter Field Lab: Snow Hydrology
This field activity may be implemented during late winter or early spring when things have not quite thawed. Students collect their own data from a snowpack, including measuring water equivalent, identifying types of snow metamorphism, finding evidence of precipitation patterns, and judging possible snowpack hazards. Back in the lab, students evaluate their data, draw conclusions, and make a report. This activity is designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level geohydrology courses.
Angle of Repose
In this activity, students explore how different sediment properties influence slope stability. They make piles of sediments with varied grain size, angularity, and water content and measure the maximum slope at which the grains are stable. The results are then used to examine the nature, frequency, timing, and causes of landslide events in Seattle. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materials, assessment tips and related resources are provided.
Determining Dinosaur Speeds
This exercise has students determine how fast a dinosaur was moving based on the tracks it made. It allows students with minimal quantitative background to become motivated and begin to develop an appreciation for dimensional analysis as they see whether or not they could outrun the track-making dinosaurs. Measurements from any dinosaur track site can be used in this activity. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materials, assessment tips and related resources are provided.
Determining Earthquake Probability and Recurrence from Past Seismic Events
Students completing this homework and in-class exercise use historical data from small earthquakes to estimate the recurrence interval of They are encouraged to examine sampling limitations, thoughtfully deal with outliers, compare the results of various techniques and consider the societal impacts of their results. This activity is designed for the Pacific Northwest, but could easily be altered for any other area. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materials, assessment tips and re
Earthquake Shaking and Damage
This homework exercise is designed to familiarize students with earthquake shaking, acceleration, intensity and hazards, including the quantitative measurement of these properties. Students analyze real earthquake data to determine the damage to their homes. By using students' own homes, they see the impacts of shaking, hazard, and intensity in a more personal, connected way. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materials, assessment tips and related resources are provided.
Exploring Radiometric Dating with Dice
In this lab, students use dice to simulate radioactive decay. Students create a standard decay curve for a fictional element, calculate the half-life of this element, and, using the information their graph, "date" rocks that contain the new element. The use of dice has some advantages over similar exercises because the half-life is not immediately obvious to students and they will need to experimentally determine it. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materials, assessment tips and
GEOLogic: Dinosaur Trackways
This in-class or homework exercise asks students to associate different dinosaur trackways with their geographic locations and rock formation names based on clues given from various points of view. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materials, assessment tips and related resources are provided.
GEOLogic: State Fossils
GEOLogic questions are puzzles that were developed to support students understanding of geoscience concepts while challenging them to develop better logic and problem solving skills. In this exercise, students are asked to identify states with their state fossil and the year in which it was declared, based on clues given from various points of view. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materials, assessment tips and related resources are provided.
GEOLogic: Terrestrail and Jovian Planets
In this two-part exercise, students are given clues about properties of terrestrial and Jovian planets and then asked to match up the planets with their correct equatorial radius, mean orbital velocity, and period of rotation. There are also some overarching questions dealing with both groups of planets. Learning goals, context for use, teaching tips, materials, assessment tips and related resources are provided.
GEOLogic: The Big Five Mass Extinctions
GEOLogic questions are puzzles that were developed to support students understanding of geoscience concepts while challenging them to develop better logic and problem solving skills. In this exercise, students are asked to match up the five largest mass extinction events with their relative dates, approximate duration, and severity (percentage of species that became extinct) based on clues given from various perspectives. This activity is appropriate for a high school science class or an introdu
