This activity is designed for use in freshman introductory geoscience and life science courses (intro to physical geology, historical geology, paleontology), but can also be used in a wide array of formal and informal educational settings. It is a self-guided virtual field trip (VFT) with free exploration that gives the instructor maximum flexibility to customize the learning outcomes.

Students should have some basic knowledge of the geologic time scale, sedimentary rocks, depositional processes, and body and trace fossils.

This is designed to be a stand-alone activity to be used after students have some basic knowledge of geologic time scale, sedimentary rocks, depositional processes and types of fossils.

Activity Length

This activity involves free exploration so its duration is set by the teacher. Exploration of the virtual field site with its embedded media which includes still images of the fossils, six videos and an interactive gigapixel image, is estimated to take about 20-30 minutes.

In this self-guided VFT, students explore a field site in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia that preserves fossil evidence of the first reef-building organisms in the early Cambrian, 530 million years ago. The free exploration format of this VFT gives teachers the opportunity to design and customize activity goals to fit their curriculum.

Suggested outcomes could include:
Learning outcome #1: Identify fossil evidence in these sedimentary rocks by studying the surface.
Learning outcome #2: Determine whether the features are trace (tracks, trails) or body fossils (parts of animals and plants such as shells, bones, wood, teeth).
Learning outcome #3: Describe how the shape and structure of the these organisms was important to how they fed.
Learning outcome #4: Explain why these organisms are so important to the evolution of early life in the oceans.

Learners explore a virtual environment to identify and study fossils of the first reef-building organisms called archaeocyathids. Layers of rock exposed at the surface contain cone-shaped fossils in different orientations that the students can observe and sketch. World-famous researcher Dr. Jim Gehling describes how these sponge-like organisms lived and were eventually preserved in an ancient ocean, 530 million years ago.

Making observations, recognizing patterns

This activity is accessible at https://vft.asu.edu/ through the Center for Education Through eXploration (https://etx.asu.edu/) at Arizona State University. They build adaptive digital learning experiences for K-12 education that engage learners in virtual environments and bring Earth and space science to life.

Technology Needs

Real-time Internet access is required to view this VFT. We recommend the use of the browsers Google Chrome or Firefox for the best results. It is not optimized for viewing on mobile devices.

There are no embedded assessments associated with this self-guided VFT and it is up to the teacher to design an assessment tool to meet whatever learning outcomes they specify. Students can be asked to answer an essay question explaining some aspect of the VFT experience.