"Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized" is a unique board game experience that aims to teach the concepts of Taphonomy, the process of fossilization and preservation biases, through gameplay. Students will assume the role of time-traveling paleontologists looking to preserve 10 fossils from environmental events until they can be collected in the present day. For players, the aim of the game is to collect the most pristine and/or diverse fossil collection. Taphonomic factors play a crucial role in gameplay with scores being affected by organism type (some organisms are worth more points than others) and penalties for poor preservation, such as remineralization. The game is accompanied by a 3-day classroom lesson which allows the students to explore the game and taphonomy concepts before they begin gameplay. Lesson materials, including pre-play instructional materials and assessments, are aligned to NGSS standard ESS2.A Earth Materials and Systems. Through this board game, students will evaluate the effect of Earth's systems across geologic time with fossils as the case study. The game also acts as a model for various fossilization pathways.

A physical model can be a helpful resource in the science classroom. In the past, many physical models were made from building materials, such as wood and metal, and educators would share their designs in textbooks and journals. As modern manufacturing technology and software become more available and easier to use in educational institutions, it may be a good time for educators and curriculum designers to revisit the literature and start "re-making." With free and open-source computer-aided design (CAD) software, designs can be improved and shared on the web for teachers and students to produce with 3D printers.

In this homework assignment, students are asked to track their plastic usage over one week by using an Excel spreadsheet (provided) and by making a 'plastic diary. A Google Sheets version of the spreadsheet is also provided. At the end of the week, the class works in small groups in order to compare data and calculate how long it would take for an "average" rate of plastic use to form the Pacific Garbage patch. Students are also asked to make a graph of their plastic usage habits over that week. Each student also needs to identify an one page solution that explains how they can decrease their plastic usage though changes in their personal plastic usage. Students are also asked to consider one way that society could use less plastic, i.e. "We need to ban all plastic." and then assess the likelihood of that plan succeeding. The goal of the homework assignment is for students to become more aware of their daily and weekly plastic usage.

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, which occurred 66 mya, caused the mass extinction of nearly 75% of the plant and animal species on Earth. This event is marked by a thin layer of sediment which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks. The boundary clay shows high levels of iridium, which is rare on Earth but abundant in asteroids. Central Question: What evidence exists for the extinction of the dinosaurs and 75% of all animal and plant species at the end of the Cretaceous Period? Learning Outcome #1: Investigate the patterns in fossil data over time that aid in the discovery of significant events in Earth's history. Learning Outcome #2: Investigate the global patterns in chemical composition data over time that aid in the discovery of significant events in Earth's history. Learning Outcome #3: Determine the size of the impact crater, using the global patterns of iridium in the rock record, to search for the location of the impact potentially responsible for changes to the environment. Learning Outcome #4: Investigate the global patterns of living organisms, before and after the KPg boundary, to identify the significant changes to life on Earth.

Amazing Race Geology Edition uses IF-AT cards as a tool to enable students to embark on an interactive review game to solidify their content knowledge before an upcoming exam.The instructor will set up between 10-25 stations around the room (and around campus if possible). Students travel in groups to as many stations as possible looking at models/data/pictures/etc to answer questions before the time runs out. IF-AT cards provide a way for the instructor to give direct feedback to a large number of students in an efficient manner. Students know if they are right or wrong without having to refer to the instructor for every question. If they are wrong, they can open up a hint envelope and the team can rework through the problem until they get the answer correct. Once time is up, everyone reconvenes and counts their points depending on how many chances they used to answer each question.

An introductory geology course can be daunting to students even with full use of their eyes, but students who are blind or visually-impaired experience a new world of challenges. Common, visual-based tasks include interpreting maps of patterns around plate boundaries, observing patterns of earthquakes in a subduction zone, and interpreting Earth's interior structure based on how seismic waves are seen to travel through the Earth. In Spring 2020, we developed and implemented tools such as wooden blocks to make a tactile fault, used craft supplies such as yarn and Wikki Stix © to model subduction zones, and used a PIAF machine and Braille label maker to create accessible plate boundary maps. Our blind student used these materials to successfully meet the course objectives, including describing patterns of volcanic activity along plate boundaries, identifying crystal faces, and interpreting igneous textures of samples in class. She used her more refined tactile sense to make astute observations that many introductory geology students may neglect to notice (such as using cleavage planes instead of the color to correctly identify a mineral) which taught us new ways to teach these concepts.

We will demonstrate how to use a 2D watershed model to simulate how and why watersheds flood. The model, "Floorlandia," simulates water movement across an imaginary landscape, with students moving beads across a flat surface following elevation values. The activity shows how a computational model can be used to quantify surface water runoff and help students understand what must be programmed into a computer to model and run a simulation model of water flow. Outcomes for this activity include student ability to: 1) demonstrate how water flows from high gravimetric potential to low gravimetric potential; 2) explain how computational models can be used to represent real-world phenomena; 3) understand computational principles including discretization, time-stepping, parameterization, rules or algorithms and boundary conditions; 4) delineate watersheds; 5) collect first hand flood data and construct a hydrograph.