Basil Tikoff

Wakemup Pluton part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Students work through a set of questions about a geologic map of an igneous intrusion and surrounding rock units. These questions focus students' attention on the topography, geomorphology, lithology, and ...

PHYSICAL EXPERIMENT ON ELASTIC AND NEWTONIAN RHEOLOGY part of Structural Geology and Tectonics:Activities
Simple physical models with rubber sheet (elastic rheology) and clear silicon putty (silicon "goo"; linear viscous rheology) help students conceptualize and describe quantitatively strain and stress in ...

Data Uncertainty Module part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
This is a (~35 slide) powerpoint with embedded video/audio that specifically addresses data uncertainty. It provides a "meter" that allows you to evaluate uncertainty. It provides geology field-based ...

Model Uncertainty Module part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
This is a (~30 slide) powerpoint with embedded video/audio that specifically addresses model uncertainty. It provides an "evidence meter" that allows you to evaluate a model. Explicit discussion of ...

Virtual Fieldtrip to Baraboo, WI, with StraboSpot part of Cutting Edge:Enhance Your Teaching:Teaching with Online Field Experiences:Activities
This activity is a virtual field trip to the Baraboo area of southern Wisconsin. The StraboSpot digital data system is used to show the data, including the spot functionality to view outcrops at multiple spatial ...

Introduction to Igneous Intrusions part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Students make Play-Doh models of sills and dikes.

Modeling Unconformities part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Students make models of various kinds of unconformity: disconformity, angular unconformity, and buttress unconformity. They examine those models from a variety of perspectives and consider how each one appears in ...

Introduction to Structure Contours part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Students construct structure contour lines for a "dipping bed" in our classroom and on a geologic map. In my class, this is a multi-day activity. In part 1 of this exercise, students use "topographic ...

Isopach Maps part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Students complete several short, in-class exercises related to understanding isopach maps. We use Play-Doh models to illustrate features revealed in the isopach maps and to support student understanding of the ...

Introduction to Modeling Folds part of GET Spatial Learning:Teaching Activities
Students make Play-Doh models of synclines and anticlines, including one of a plunging fold. They use these models to answer questions about what these structures look like in map view and cross-sectional view.

Calculating the radius of the Earth part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Teaching the Methods of Geoscience:Activities
Science students often have difficulty thinking about large spatial scales. The purpose of the exercise is to redo Eratosthenes' calculation of the radius of the Earth using data from to sites in ancient Egypt. The excercise teaches about the methodology of science - how Eratothenes figured it out - rather than worried about what the "right" answer is. It can also be used to discuss the role of models in geological thinking.