In this classroom activity, middle school students gain an understanding of geologic time. The activity opens with background information for teachers about carbon and radiometric dating. In a classroom discussion, students share what they know about geologic time. Then, working in small groups responsible for different eras, students create a timeline for their assigned era by conducting library and Internet research. The activity concludes by having students review all the timelines to compare how long humans have been on the Earth to the length of time dinosaurs inhabited the planet.

Physical Geology is a comprehensive introductory text on the physical aspects of geology, including rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, mass wasting, climate change, planetary geology and much more. It has a strong emphasis on examples from western Canada. It is adapted from "Physical Geology" written by Steven Earle for the BCcampus Open Textbook Program. To access links to download PDF files, click the Read Book button below.

Survey of the important aspects of modern sediments and ancient sedimentary rocks. Emphasis is on fundamental materials, features, and processes. Textures of siliciclastic sediments and sedimentary rocks: particle size, particle shape, and particle packing. Mechanics of sediment transport. Survey of siliciclastic sedimentary rocks: sandstones, conglomerates, and shales. Carbonate sediments and sedimentary rocks; cherts; evaporites. Siliciclastic and carbonate diagenesis. Paleontology, with special reference to fossils in sedimentary rocks. Modern and ancient depositional environments. Stratigraphy. Sedimentary basins. Fossil fuels: coal, petroleum.

This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service describes the different kinds of sediments that make up coastlines, with a focus on the variety in color, size, and sorting.

This optional field trip is designed to augment the in-class learning experience in introductory physical geology by providing students the opportunity to see firsthand local geological features and understand their context in the long-term tectonic evolution of the western United States. The university is conveniently located in a portion of the American west where a plethora of geological features are readily accessible over a total field trip duration of 6 hours. Over a total of 6 field stops, students are presented with an opportunity to observe features relevant to topics learned in class involving rock types, volcanic features (lava flows and ash fall deposits), faults and folds, mass wasting features, catastrophic flood deposits (Bonneville and Missoula floods), and loess deposits.

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Students analyze topographic and geologic maps, through a set of guiding questions, to decipher the geologic history recorded in the rocks of the Grand Canyon. This includes interpreting what each rock unit tells us about the regional environment at the time of its formation and interpreting the gaps in the rock record.

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This text is provided to you as an Open Educational Resource which you access online. It is designed to give you a comprehensive introduction to Geology at no or very nominal cost. It contains both written and graphic text material, intra-text links to other internal material which may aid in understanding topics and concepts, intra-text links to the appendices and glossary for tables and definitions of words, and extra-text links to videos and web material that clarifies and augments topics and concepts. Like any new or scientific subject, Geology has its own vocabulary for geological concepts. For you to converse effectively with this text and colleagues in this earth science course, you will use the language of geology, so comprehending these terms is important. Use the intra-text links to the Glossary and other related material freely to gain familiarity with this language.

Faculty who adopt this text for their course should contact the authors at edits@opengeology.org so that the authors can keep faculty users up to date of critical changes.

This activity is an inquiry-based field investigation of the geologic history of the Minnehaha Falls and St. Anthony Falls areas of Minneapolis. Students will be introduced to rocks and the stories rocks tell in a genuine geologic context, rather than as samples in the classroom.

The goal of this pair of labs is for the students to learn to apply rock and fossil identification skills to determining rock formations, sedimentary depositional environments, age ranges, and, ultimately, to writing a geologic history of a sequence of rocks from Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyons. During the first of the two labs, the students learn to make fossil and sedimentary structures identifications. They add these skills to their rock and mineral identification skills to make interpretations of the sedimentary environments along a generalized profile from terrestrial to offshore locations. During the second lab, they apply these skills to a sequence of rocks from the southwestern U.S. to interpret the environmental changes that have occurred over time. They also begin to learn how to use fossils to determine age ranges for these changing events. Once they put together all of their data, they construct a stratigraphic column and piece together a written narrative of the geologic history of the area. The students work in groups to collect their data and determine their stratigraphy. They write their geologic histories individually. The students learn how to apply their skills and knowledge to make interpretations and also learn how to support their determinations with data.

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This activity is a field investigation of the geological features of Minnehaha Falls, how they have changed and why, how they are changing and what could be done to preserve the falls.

Students work in groups to develop content for am online hiking tour which is matched to the geologic time scale. This project has been used as a semester group work project in an introductory geologic history course, but could be adapted for high school or upper level and graduate courses focused on outreach.

This is a 10-day field experience class that focuses on the geology of the Grand Staircase of the Colorado Plateau, culminating in a rim-to-rim backpack trip across the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

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This activity provides young students with a relevant model (a layer cake) to help them understand concepts about sedimentary rock layers (such as the Law of Superposition), correlation of the rock record with geologic time and relative ages of rocks and fossils.

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The basic concepts of geology will be considered to address the widely ranging textures and compositions of rocks and sediments formed in a wide range of environments. These variations in turn can affect soil formation and many related Critical Zone processes and architectures.
This unit requires substantial reading to cover basic concepts of geology: the rock cycle, plate tectonics, geologic time, erosion, weathering, and deposition, so that students have a firm grasp on how geology relates to and controls CZ processes. This background knowledge is accessed through a review of web sites and a scientific papers. An in-class activity uses the U.S. Geological Survey's National Geologic Map Database to identify resources for understanding and classifying the geology of a region.

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This activity is a field investigation where students gather geological information of a designated area and identify the geological features they documented.

This video segment from NatureScene examines the landforms of Death Valley and how they came to be.

GS106 is a survey course providing non-science majors a broad background in earth science. No previous science background required.

This course introduces the following themes:
The scale of the Universe
Scientific models
Scientific literacy
Science is observable
Scientific models evolve
Nuclear chemistry and physics
Earth materials
Plate tectonics
Global change
Energy resources
Astronomy
Cosmology

Course Outcomes:
1. Have an understanding of the basic concepts, processes, and analytical tools related to the study of the universe.
2. Develop experimental skills and knowledge relating to the gathering and interpretation of scientific information.
3. Evaluate and articulate the relevance of atomic science, geology, atmospheric science, and astronomy on personal, local and global levels.

Here is a list of materials you will need to purchase ASAP for your labs in this course.
For the Mineral Identification Lab in Credit Unit 1 Module 1, you will need:

Mineral kit - http://www.hometrainingtools.com/mineral-study-kit/p/RM-MISTUDY/

Glass plate and porcelain plate - http://www.hometrainingtools.com/mineral-test-kit/p/RM-TESTKIT/

For the Rock Identification Lab in Credit Unit 1 Module 2, you will need:

Rock kit - http://www.hometrainingtools.com/rock-study-kit/p/RM-RKSTUDY/

This activity is a field investigation where students will increase their knowledge of SE MN geology including rock layers, fossils, and Karst topography. They will also learn how Karst Geology impacts our water quality.

Studying rock types, weathering processes and human history in a cemetery.

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This quiz game is intended to help students review for an upcoming exam. Topics of questions are randomly determined by spinning a wheel. Teams answer questions using electronic CPS handhelds.

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