This is a wallsheet that contains 11 activities relating to Mars. Learners could investigate: how far away is Mars, why does Mars have craters, water on Mars, Mars' minerals, how high the mountains are on Mars, and are invited to create a martian calendar and travel guide.
On this webpage, learners will read fun facts about Pluto and explore why it is no longer considered a planet.
This resource was created by Michelle Kuhlman, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.
Students receive a "Dear Colleague" letter requesting the review of a journal article in the same format as would be received from an Assistant Editor of a major scholarly journal. The letter outlines the requirements of the review and the due date. Students also receive the review forms typically provided by a given journal (I've provided forms from the Geological Society of America Bulletin and American Mineralogist for use in an upper division course in Mineralogy, Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology. The GSA Bulletin form is better suited for manuscripts that report on articles that have a significant field or tectonic component; the American Mineralogist form is better suited for articles that focus on more analytical, theoretical, or computational applications in mineralogy and petrology.
In an upper division petrology class, I typically select articles for review that integrate numerous aspects of topics we've recently covered in class; tectonic setting, field relations, petrography, whole-rock geochemistry, geo- and thermochronology, mineral chemistry (for PTt calculations), stable isotope geochemistry, etc. My goal is to help students see how these multiple lines of evidence must be integrated into a coherent geologic interpretation of geologic process or history.
Modify the letter with the request for review and review forms to emphasize the particular course goals, content, and expectations for your own course.
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The goal of this assignment is to introduce students to the degree to which ecosystems, climate, and geography have varied through Earth history. It requires students to work in groups (which many resist) and to research each geologic period using the Paleo Portal website and external websites.
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In this geology activity, students investigate the physical property of mineral cleavage by physically trying to break down a block of halite and describing the results. This lab addresses many misunderstandings non-majors have about the physical properties of minerals and includes a brief write up of their conclusions.
This activity requires students to design an experiment to determine the best conditions for growing crystals. Students then are asked to conclude what the ideal conditions may be, how this information is useful, and who may want to know it. It is a great way to continue using scientific process skills within a Geology unit.
Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses.
This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts and are optimized for viewing online. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice.
Adapted from openly-licensed works in geoscience, the sequence of the book differs from mainstream commercial texts in that it has been arranged to present elementary or foundational knowledge regarding rocks and minerals prior to discussion of more complex topics in Earth Science. Unlike prominent commercial texts for Earth Science, this book dedicates an individual chapter to each of the three major rock types, the processes of mass wasting, geological time, Earth history, and the origin of the universe and our solar system. Book content has been further customized to match the Pathways General Education Curriculum at Virginia Tech with a focus on Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for Pathways Concept 4, Reasoning in the Natural Sciences.
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How to Access the Book
This text is available in multiple formats including PDF, a low-resolution PDF which is faster to download, and ePub [coming mid 2023]. These are available at: https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. The book is also available in HTML/Pressbooks at https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/introearthscience. Softcover print versions with color interior are available at the manufacturer’s lowest price at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957213361. The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience.
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Table of Contents
1. Understanding Science
2. Plate Tectonics
3. Minerals
4. Igneous Processes and Volcanoes
5. Weathering, Erosion, and Sedimentary Rocks
6. Metamorphic Rocks
7. Geologic Time
8. Earth History
9. Crustal Deformation and Earthquakes
10. Mass Wasting
11. Water
12. Coastlines
13. Deserts
14. Glaciers
15. Global Climate Change
16. Energy and Mineral Resources
17. Origin of the Universe and Our Solar System
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Attribution
This work includes content from multiple sources reproduced under the terms of Creative Commons licenses, Public Domain, and Fair Use. Specifically: Chapters 1-16 are adapted from An Introduction to Geology https://slcc.pressbooks.pub/introgeology (CC BY NC SA) by Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt, and Cam Mosher. Chapter 17 is adapted from Section 22.1 of Chapter 22 “The Origin of Earth and the Solar System” by Karla Panchuk in Physical Geology, 2nd edition (CC BY) by Steven Earle https://opentextbc.ca/physicalgeology2ed/part/chapter-22-the-origin-of-earth-and-the-solar-system, with Sections 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 of Chapter 7 “Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System” https://openstax.org/books/astronomy-2e/pages/7-1-overview-of-our-planetary-system from OpenStax Astronomy, 2nd edition https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy-2e (CC BY). And, figures are from a variety of sources; references at the end of each chapter describe the terms of reuse for each figure. Version notes located at the end of the book describe author changes made to these materials by chapter.
About the Author
Laura Neser, Ph.D. is an Instructor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Dr. Neser earned her B.S. in Geosciences at Virginia Tech in the spring of 2008 and completed her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2014. Her doctoral research focused on the structural geology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of formations that were deposited along the flanks of the Beartooth Mountains as they rose during late Paleocene-Eocene time. Dr. Neser has worked as an athletic tutor and online instructor at The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), in temporary positions as an Adjunct Instructor at Chowan University (Murfreesboro, NC) and Full-Time Lecturer at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, IN), and as a Professor at Seminole State College (Sanford, FL) before starting as an Instructor at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2021.
Although she is currently focused on teaching online sections of Introduction to Earth Science, Earth Resources, Society and the Environment, and Climate History, her teaching background is significantly broader and includes Environmental Science, Astronomy, Environmental Ethics, Earth History, Structural Geology, and Field Geology.
Suggested Citation
Neser, Laura (2023). Introduction to Earth Science. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0.
Report Errors: https://bit.ly/report_error_intro_earth_science
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Funding and Project Support
This publication was made possible in part through funding and publishing support provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech.
Accessibility Statement
Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Pressbooks (HTML) and ePub versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability.
Disclaimer
This work may contain components (e.g., illustrations, or quotations) not covered by the license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use. Please check the references at the end of each chapter before redistributing.
Learn about different types of radiometric dating, such as carbon dating. Understand how decay and half life work to enable radiometric dating to work. Play a game that tests your ability to match the percentage of the dating element that remains to the age of the object.
This lesson on earthquakes is based on naturalist John Muir's experiences with two significant earthquakes, the 1872 earthquake on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Students will learn to explain that earthquakes are sudden motions along breaks in the crust called faults, and list the major geologic events including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and mountain building, which are the result of crustal plate motions. A downloadable, printable version (PDF) of the lesson plan is available.
This is a kick-off activity about the solar system and Jupiter. Learners will discuss what they know, work in teams to read about the Sun, eight planets, asteroid belt, and the dwarf planet, Pluto. They use their knowledge to create a poster about each object, which can be displayed in the library and used in later activities. This activity is part of Explore! Jupiter's Family Secrets, a series designed to engage children in space and planetary science in libraries and informal learning environments.
In the late 1970s, scientists conducting a geologic investigation of the ocean floor in the Pacific made a startling discovery - deep ocean hot springs populated by a host of organisms never before seen. Join Dr. Horst Felbeck as he describes his fascinating research into what makes life possible in this seemingly inhospitable environment. (43 minutes)
In the hierarchical alignment activity, students are given multiple opportunities to align time to space in a linear representation. They begin by scaling a familiar amount of time (e.g. a personal time line) to a spatial representation (e.g. a meter stick), and progressively align increasing/decreasing amounts until completing the target unfamiliar time line (e.g. geologic time). For example, in the hierarchical alignment of geologic time, students can work through 10 time lines: personal, human lifespan, American history, Recorded history, human evolution, Cenozoic, Phanerozoic, Proterozoic, Archean, and then Hadean.
While the amount of time varies, the amount of space remains constant: in this example, students align all new temporal scales to one meter. For each time line, students are asked to locate specific events, hierarchicaly organized divisions of time, and the length of the time line in order to engage the students in thinking about that temporal scale. Additionally, every time students align a new temporal scale to space, they locate all previous scales relative to the current scale.
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A spectacular gravel quarry near Rotterdam Junction, New York along the north shore of the Mohawk River is an ideal place to discuss deglaciation history and the development of the ancestral Mohawk Delta building into former Lake Albany. The sedimentary petrology, sedimentary structures, and cementation history of the outwash gravel deposits can be discussed in detail at the outcrop. The 3-D exposures of partially cemented, cross-bedded gravels are representative of the surficial unconfined aquifer system which provides groundwater to many communities in the Schenectady area. The locality is easily accessible via Route 5 westbound, and is an excellent site for sample collection. I use specimens from this quarry as teaching tools in many of my geology classes.
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An activity where students make a geologic timeline from calculator tape.
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In association with rock and mineral ID tables, this lab introduces students to basic rocks and minerals via grouping and comparison, rather than as individual samples. I use this lab in my environmental geology course, where we don't have enough lab time to examine each set of rocks and minerals separately, but students need a basic familiarity with these materials and a context in which to place them. I find these groupings teach them how to look at rocks and minerals and give them the cursory experience identifying geologic materials necessary to go on successfully in the course.
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The Museum's Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth allows visitors to explore geologic time and to gain an understanding of the methods scientists use to study vast Earth systems. This comprehensive guide to the hall's resources is designed to help you maximize your trip to the Museum with elementary school students. It includes detailed background information, a map of the hall that shows the five sections of the exhibit and several pre-, during-, and post-visit activities to do with your students. There is a listing of related Museum exhibits and suggestions for how to tie them into your field trip and notes about how the topics featured in the hall address performance standards and curriculum requirements.
Mapping of complexly deformed high-grade metamorphic rocks in areas of relatively poor exposure, such as the southern Appalachian Blue Ridge, is very challenging. A traditional mapping project in such areas may be too difficult and frustrating for most undergraduate students and may be ineffective. Mapping parts of the outcrop at Woodall Shoals, with the benefits of 100% exposure and a relatively small area, provides a good alternative. This very large (2,000-square-meter) outcrop contains a full compliment of rock fabric and complex geologic structures typical of such areas. For purposes of the present exercise, it serves as a generic scale model of an exhumed high-grade terrain. The detailed map of the outcrop by Hatcher et. al. (1989, Georgia Geological Society Guidebook, v. 9, n. 3, Plate 3) is used as a solution to the exercise.
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This project is based on either a class field trip, or an assigned topic in structural geology. In either case, the students are responsible for representing their experiences in the form of a comic or graphic novel. The experience is therefore largely visual, but it gives students an opportunity to translate their thoughts into a non-traditional medium.
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In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists are startled to discover evidence for the three key ingredients for life on Saturn's moon Enceladus.