Exploring the building stones of downtown Seattle

Lyn Gualtieri

Seattle University

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This activity has been reviewed by 2 review processes (view details)

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
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This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process. This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.

Initial Publication Date: December 9, 2011 | Reviewed: January 17, 2015 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

Students explore the building stones of downtown Seattle in order to obtain practice in rock identification.

Geology | College Lower (13-14)

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Context

Audience

Introduction to Geology for non-majors. The students in this course range from first year to fourth-year.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should have had practice identifying the three rock types in the lab.
Students should understand the origin of rock types.

How the activity is situated in the course

This exercise usually takes place in the second half of the course, after we have covered the three rock types and after students have had labs covering minerals, igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, and metamorphic rocks. This exercise is considered a 3-hour long lab although it is our first expedition off-campus. For urban campuses with a limited lab time, this is a great option to give students practice identifying polished rock samples.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Because the building stones are polished, students gain practice on "real-life" rock identification without the hindrances of small lab samples or weathering effects in the field.
Students gain confidence in rock identification.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Sketching rocks
Making observations
Keeping observations separate from interpretations
Identifying rocks based on observations

Other skills goals for this activity

During this field exercise, students work in groups and navigate 2 busy streets and 5 blocks of downtown Seattle and the downtown bus tunnel. Students need to learn to minimize distractions (Starbucks, for example) and concentrate on sketching and taking notes amidst the city life. This exercise is conducted regardless of the weather, so students often have to contend with rain.

Description of the activity/assignment

Most introductory geology students have experience identifying hand-sized rock samples in the lab, but never get to see bigger rock exposures outside the classroom. This activity includes takes students to downtown Seattle, where they observe the geology of the building stones within a few blocks of campus. The exercise exposes students to large, polished rock samples in an area where they are familiar, but might not have noticed the rocks before. For students on urban campuses or online geology classes with a limited amount of lab time this is a useful activity.

Determining whether students have met the goals

While the students are working, I ride my bike around the study area to check in on groups. At the end of the 3 hours we meet and compare sketches, buildings, interpretations. Final assessment is based on neatness and accuracy of colored sketches, level of detail of descriptions, and lastly, interpretation.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.