Geology of the National Parks (intro level course for majors and non-majors)

See the course description, including links to all of the other teaching activities for this course.

Multiplication, division, and unit conversions

This is the second of two labs about Grand Canyon National Park. It follows a lab about the geology of the Grand Canyon and precedes a field trip to a local river gorge.

Students will begin to grasp how the Colorado River could carve the Grand Canyon

Creative problem solving - I ask students to come up with several different methods to estimate the volume of the Grand Canyon

Students will strengthen their quantitative thinking skills through practice

Students estimate the volume of the Grand Canyon to calculate the average rate of erosion of the canyon, assuming the canyon began to form approximately 6 million years ago. They then find out how much sediment the Colorado River is actually carrying, in cubic feet per year, and compare that to their calculated value. In the process of calculating the rate of erosion, they face multiple unit conversions. I also challenge them to convert their answer into units they can visualize, such as Olympic swimming pools of sediment per day.

Working in groups, students calculate the average rate of erosion (amount of sediment per year, and amount of sediment per day) for the canyon and compare their answers to how much sediment the Colorado River is actually carrying, in cubic feet per year. They turn in a brief report, which I grade with a rubric.

Support for students who need help with unit conversions, from the "Math You Need" project: https://serc.carleton.edu/mathyouneed/units/index.html