This activity is designed for use in freshman introductory geoscience and life science courses (intro to physical geology, historical geology, astrobiology, 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, microbial life (microbes), and photosynthesis.

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, microbial life (microbes), and photosynthesis.

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 rock outcrops, 11 videos and an interactive gigapixel image, is estimated to take about 30-40 minutes.

In this self-guided VFT, students explore a field site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia that preserves the oldest record of life on Earth. 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: Locate evidence of ancient life that is preserved in the rock outcrops.
Learning outcome #2: Sketch what this evidence of life (called stromatolites) looks like and describe how it was formed.
Learning outcome #3: Identify what features in the rocks indicate that the action of living organisms, rather than mechanical processes like currents and waves, produced the evidence.
Learning outcome #4: Explain how the evidence of early life on Earth can help scientists search for life on other worlds like Mars.

Learners explore a virtual environment in the Pilbara region of Western Australia that preserves the oldest record of life on Earth. Researchers describe how these rocks were formed and why they are so significant. Through careful observation, students can use still images and an interactive gigapixel image to hunt for features in the rocks that were formed by early microbial communities.

To extend the learning, we recommend that teachers have their students visit the "Microorganisms, Shark Bay, Australia" VFT to allow them to compare the evidence of life in these rocks with modern stromatolites alive today in another area of Australia.

Making observations, identify patterns, providing evidence to support reasoning.

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.