Illinois through time

Surangi Punyasena

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection. (view details)

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Initial Publication Date: June 29, 2010 | Reviewed: November 3, 2013 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

This assignment serves as an introduction to geologic time, using Illinois as an example. It uses the Paleo Portal website to illustrate each geologic period.

Historical Geology | College Introductory, College Lower (13-14)

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Context

Audience

Introductory class - geared toward non-majors, but some biology and geology students interested in paleonotlogy

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

The assignment assumes some familiarity with modern geography. This, I discovered, can not necessarily be taken for granted.

How the activity is situated in the course

Appears in the first half of the course, around week 4 or 5.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Geologic time
Change in biological communities
Change in earth climate
Paleogeography

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Synthesis of ideas and concepts

Other skills goals for this activity

Working in groups
searching the WWW

Description of the activity/assignment

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.