Ordering Geologic Events and Interpreting Geologic History: The Grand Canyon

Jennifer Wenner

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (constructed in conjunction with Eric Hiatt and Christie Demosthenous)

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
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.
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: May 7, 2008 | Reviewed: November 3, 2013 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

This activity is designed to have students re-examine rocks they looked at earlier in the semester and use them to interpret some of the geologic history of the Grand Canyon.

Historical Geology, Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks, Dating and Rates | College Introductory

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Context

Audience

Introductory physical geology course for both majors and non-majors

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students need to have learned the process for identifying rocks (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic). When they get to this lab, they have also already completed some "sequence of events" block diagrams and activities having to do with radioactive decay.

How the activity is situated in the course

This activity happens in the middle of the lab part of the course. It makes students remember the rocks and minerals that they have learned previously and combines that with the geologic time activities that they are learning.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

This activity is designed to help students recognize the reasons that they learned to identify rocks. It makes them revisit the concept of rock identification and apply it to telling a story about the rocks they are identifying.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Unlike the rock ID activity earlier in the semester, this activity asks students to synthesize the material and analyze their observations. They are asked to interpret a geologic map in the context of rocks, minerals and topography.

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

This activity is designed to help students recognize the connections among things like rock identification and map reading with the "story" that these things can tell us in terms of geologic history. Students have already learned about using observation to identify rocks and the principles of interpreting geologic cross-sections. The activity gives students practice in rock ID, topo map reading, geologic map reading and the aspects of geologic time. Students work with rock samples and a geologic map of the Grand Canyon to interpret a history for the area.