Tom Hickson

Red Beans and Rice: Slope failure experimental modeling part of Geomorphology:Activities
Students replicate a slope failure experiment published in Science (Densmore et al., 1997) using a simple, acrylic slope failure box in an effort to forge a link between autocyclic processes, long-term landscape ...

Deriving bedform phase diagrams part of Sedimentary Geology:Activities
Students derive bedform phase diagrams from Middleton and Southard (1984) by plotting the original data (stolen using DataThief software from the publication) in Excel and defining bedform field boundaries. These ...

Basin-scale Controls on Sedimentary Architecture, Jurassic Tank part of Course Design:Course Design Activities
In this project, students interpret a high-resolution image of result from an experimental run of the Jurrasic Tank sedimentation simulator at the St. Anthony Falls Lab at the University of Minnesota. They are ...

Slicing Fossils part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students examine images of brachiopods, mollusks, and coquinas. They identify, visualize, and sketch slices through a variety of shelly organisms, then apply what they've learned to identify fossils in several samples of coquina.

Slicing Channels part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students examine 3D channel-shaped objects and 2D slices through those objects. The purpose is to get them thinking about how the 3D geometry of a channel is reduced to a random 2D slice through the channel in a typical outcrop, so that they can recognize channel deposits.

Slicing Rocks part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students examine images of a bowl of rocks, then several rock piles, then outcrops of conglomerate and breccia. They sketch slices through the bowl of rocks, match photos of rock piles to sketches of slices through those piles, and then apply what they've learned to describe the conglomerate and breccia.

Sketching 3D Ripples and Dunes part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
Students watch a video of the instructor sketching 3D ripples, then practice sketching 3D bedforms, both as seen by the viewer and as annotated 3D block diagrams.

Introduction to 3D Sketching part of Spatial Thinking Workbook:Teaching Activities
This activity provides an introduction to 3D sketching. Students sketch a cube, boxes, and cylinders. They watch a video about how to sketch boxes and cylinders, and then sketch a few more.

When should we move the marina? part of Sedimentary Geology:Sedimentology, Geomorphology, and Paleontology 2014:Activities
In this assignment students use real world data to solve an applied problem in geomorphology. They use ArcGIS and time sequential aerial photography to determine when a marina on Lake Mead must be moved to avoid ...

Tectonic Geomorphology: Exploring activity on the San Andreas fault with ArcGIS part of Sedimentary Geology:Sedimentology, Geomorphology, and Paleontology 2014:Activities
In this activity students develop an hypothesis as how slope morphology reflects the timing of motion on a fault, in this case the classic Wallace Creek segment of the San Andreas. It is a scaffolded, problem-based ...

Investigating slope failure and landscape evolution with red beans and rice! part of NAGT:Our Resources:Teaching Resources:Teaching Materials Collection
Students investigate the behavior of a slope profile over geological timescales using a very simple experimental apparatus. The lab allows students to understand concepts of equilibrium, controls on slope profile, ...

Using data from the Experimental Earthscape Facility (Jurassic tank) to visualize basin-scale stratigraphic architecture part of Sedimentary Geology:Activities
Students use digital imagery from an experimental subsiding sedimentary basin to visualize the controls on basin-scale facies architecture, Walther's law, and sequence stratigraphic concepts. Students must ...

Visualizing the Shields Parameter part of Sedimentary Geology:Activities
The Shields parameter is a fundamental dimensionless variable that embodies the complex factors that interact to initiate motion on a sediment bed. Many students have trouble grasping this (and most other) ...

Depositional Environments of the Jordan Formation, Winona, MN part of Course Design:Course Design Activities
This project involves a field trip to the Jordan Formation in Winona, MN. Student teams are assigned a section of the outcrop from which they are to determine a stratigraphic column. The class then performs a ...

Virtual Field Trip to the Jackfork Group, Arkansas part of Course Design:Course Design Activities
This project is designed to get students thinking about some of the basic properties of sedimentary rocks that can be used to interpret their environment of deposition. In particular, it focues on characterizing ...