Using a collected rock, ROCKD, and MacroStrat off campus to hook students into introductory geology coursework on campus
This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection
HideSummary
This activity asks students who are soon to enter an introductory geology course at the college level to collect a local rock from their home, vacation locale, or elsewhere prior to the course start date and do a ROCKD local query (or MacroStrat search) on the bedrock unit description. Both the rock and the description from the mobile and web applications will be re-visited throughout the semester's course. Formal components of the activity will be an initial observation and writing assignment at the course's start, and then a more extensive writing and ROCKD and MacroStrat research assignment at the course's end.
Activity outcomes include:
Fluency in general rock descriptive terminology
Ability to read and use geologic maps
Ability to interpret geological sample details toward understanding earth history
Ability to identify geological sample details toward understanding economic value of rock types
Ability to identify geological sample details toward understanding surface landscape characteristics and local environmental issues
Keywords: Hand Sample – ROCKD -- MacroStrat
Activity outcomes include:
Fluency in general rock descriptive terminology
Ability to read and use geologic maps
Ability to interpret geological sample details toward understanding earth history
Ability to identify geological sample details toward understanding economic value of rock types
Ability to identify geological sample details toward understanding surface landscape characteristics and local environmental issues
Keywords: Hand Sample – ROCKD -- MacroStrat
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Context
Audience
This activity is designed for first exposure, introductory geology courses but modifications could be useful for advanced courses in sedimentology & stratigraphy, petrology, or tectonics for example.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
For introductory students, skills and concepts other than first observations would not be required prior to beginning the project. Familiarity with mobile device operation (for ROCKD) or website navigation (for MacroStrat) would be helpful.
How the activity is situated in the course
For introductory courses, I ask that each student collects a rock or sedimentary deposit from someplace prior to the course's start date. I emphasize that the collected specimen should be as reflective of the local bedrock as possible and not from imported landscaping material or a fabricated substance (e.g. concrete). I also ask that they download ROCKD so as to get a general description of the rock in hand upon collecting it in the field. Alternatively, they can locate their collection site on MacroStrat and acquire the initial rock description in that way soon after they collect it without a smart device.
The rocks become objects for description, discussion, and hypothesis development throughout the semester and ultimately the subject of a written assignment at the end of the term.
The rocks become objects for description, discussion, and hypothesis development throughout the semester and ultimately the subject of a written assignment at the end of the term.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Rock Description/Interpretation
Rock Type Utility in industrial, economic, and aesthetic sense
Rock Type Influence on local and regional environmental issues
Geologic Map reading and interpreting of rock unit relationships to each other
Inter-relatedness of rock units to topography, infrastructure, soils, etc.
Rock Type Utility in industrial, economic, and aesthetic sense
Rock Type Influence on local and regional environmental issues
Geologic Map reading and interpreting of rock unit relationships to each other
Inter-relatedness of rock units to topography, infrastructure, soils, etc.
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Data Analysis – In this case, the rock collected is the data, and the ROCKD or MacroStrat description is the description of the data in geological terms. Students may be more attached to the descriptive terminology in geology with a rock to describe as such in hand. Data analysis of the rock will be conducted as the students proceed through the introductory course's material presented in lecture in lab in the normal flow of the course. Students reflect on how what they learn throughout the semester can be used in gathering data from their collected rock.
Hypothesis Formulation – Students' initial descriptive observations about the rock as well as ROCKD's and MacroStrat's lithological and age descriptions are hypotheses to begin with in this activity. Student impressions of color, grain size, rock shape, rock texture, etc. are usually in very general terms as the student begins their geology education, but then through the course of the semester in introductory geology, students gain increasing familiarity with descriptive terminology and what is "noticeable" about a rock.
Students make their own discoveries of the ROCKD/MacroStrat descriptive terminology and how they either fit or do not fit with their hand specimen as they learn more through the course and fill the voids in their understanding progressively throughout the semester.
Students go through the thought process of "If this is a stromatolitic limestone as the local bedrock is described in ROCKD, it should have wavy laminations and it should display the property of acid fizz reaction with HCl." Upon learning more in the sedimentary geology portion of the introductory course, the students can then follow up with interpretive hypotheses about their rock such as "if this is a stromatolitic limestone, it is likely that the environment of its formation is both marine and low latitude". They can then test this hypothesis by examining other descriptive litho-/biofacies in the formation on MacroStrat, in the literature, or by examining associated units nearby. Furthermore the students can use the paleogeographic reconstruction functions available in ROCKD and MacroStrat to explore the paleotectonic, paleoenvironmental, or paleoclimatic settings of the rock's origin.
Synthesis of Ideas – In the framework of this activity, students are consistently re-examining their collected hand sample throughout the term. What is the rock's lithology with regard to its environment of formation? What does its fossil content say about that hypothesized environment and the rock's age? What do the component minerals indicated about the rock's provenance conditions? What does the rock's shape/size indicate about its recent surface earth experience in a geomorphic way? How does knowledge about the rock's properties shed light on its economic potential and importance in local environmental issues? All of these are synthesis questions that come from the close consideration of the rock in hand.
More geographically, the students use the ROCKD and MacroStrat geologic maps to get a sense of the surface exposure of the local geology as it is presently outcropping and mapped. In doing so students come to grips with how it is that geologic maps are useful, predictable, data-rich, and hypotheses that may be tested with further exploration.
Critical Evaluation – In critically evaluating the hand sample that the students have collected, the students are testing the published map description while becoming more familiar with geological descriptive skills and terminology. As a student regards a rock's properties and their meaning they are thinking critically about the ancient condition of the rock's origin and the present situation of its exposure.
Students are also critically evaluating their own understanding throughout this activity. In the first, initial writing assignment the students see the voids in their knowledge and understanding and can then consistently assess how those voids are progressively being filled through the term's progress.
Hypothesis Formulation – Students' initial descriptive observations about the rock as well as ROCKD's and MacroStrat's lithological and age descriptions are hypotheses to begin with in this activity. Student impressions of color, grain size, rock shape, rock texture, etc. are usually in very general terms as the student begins their geology education, but then through the course of the semester in introductory geology, students gain increasing familiarity with descriptive terminology and what is "noticeable" about a rock.
Students make their own discoveries of the ROCKD/MacroStrat descriptive terminology and how they either fit or do not fit with their hand specimen as they learn more through the course and fill the voids in their understanding progressively throughout the semester.
Students go through the thought process of "If this is a stromatolitic limestone as the local bedrock is described in ROCKD, it should have wavy laminations and it should display the property of acid fizz reaction with HCl." Upon learning more in the sedimentary geology portion of the introductory course, the students can then follow up with interpretive hypotheses about their rock such as "if this is a stromatolitic limestone, it is likely that the environment of its formation is both marine and low latitude". They can then test this hypothesis by examining other descriptive litho-/biofacies in the formation on MacroStrat, in the literature, or by examining associated units nearby. Furthermore the students can use the paleogeographic reconstruction functions available in ROCKD and MacroStrat to explore the paleotectonic, paleoenvironmental, or paleoclimatic settings of the rock's origin.
Synthesis of Ideas – In the framework of this activity, students are consistently re-examining their collected hand sample throughout the term. What is the rock's lithology with regard to its environment of formation? What does its fossil content say about that hypothesized environment and the rock's age? What do the component minerals indicated about the rock's provenance conditions? What does the rock's shape/size indicate about its recent surface earth experience in a geomorphic way? How does knowledge about the rock's properties shed light on its economic potential and importance in local environmental issues? All of these are synthesis questions that come from the close consideration of the rock in hand.
More geographically, the students use the ROCKD and MacroStrat geologic maps to get a sense of the surface exposure of the local geology as it is presently outcropping and mapped. In doing so students come to grips with how it is that geologic maps are useful, predictable, data-rich, and hypotheses that may be tested with further exploration.
Critical Evaluation – In critically evaluating the hand sample that the students have collected, the students are testing the published map description while becoming more familiar with geological descriptive skills and terminology. As a student regards a rock's properties and their meaning they are thinking critically about the ancient condition of the rock's origin and the present situation of its exposure.
Students are also critically evaluating their own understanding throughout this activity. In the first, initial writing assignment the students see the voids in their knowledge and understanding and can then consistently assess how those voids are progressively being filled through the term's progress.
Other skills goals for this activity
Writing – While the first writing assignment does not ask for much writing of the student's own, it is an exercise whereby a student is exposed to rock descriptive writing and terminology. It is the second writing assignment at course's end that asks students to read and freshly interpret the rock descriptive text from ROCKD or MacroStrat and then put the geological terminology into meaning and convey its importance in historical, economic, and environmental contexts.
Description and Teaching Materials
With a rock in hand – and one that is from a special or familiar place – students enter a college geology course with an experience in acquiring the rock, and a sense of ownership and attachment to the place from which it came. Whether this rock is from home, or from a summer vacation locale, or someplace else entirely, students will likely engage further with the material in their introductory geology course if something that is "theirs", and something that can be the object about which scientific questions can be asked, is right there with them from the outset of the course.
This activity involves students collecting a rock from the field prior to an introductory course's start date, and, upon using ROCKD or MacroStrat, a general description of the rock lithology and age. Much of this information and terminology will be foreign to the students initially but by course's end they will know more about the rock in question from multiple perspectives of earth history, economic geology, and environmental issues. They will also know more about the association of the collected material with nearby rock types in the region making greater ties to higher order concepts in tectonics, stratigraphy, and field relationships among rocks. This activity involves collecting a local rock and then a series of writing assignments that follow.
In the first writing assignment at the beginning of the course, students produce a short description of the rock on their own, then do so in the terms of ROCKD and MacroStrat, and then assess their voids in understanding terminology and concepts. In the second writing assignment at the end of the course students describe how the rock encapsulates a period of earth history, has economic value, and is related to environmental issues in the location in addition to how the rock collected relates to the surrounding rock bodies explorable on ROCKD and MacroStrat.
The activity is therefore both an ice-breaking introduction to the discipline of geology and a culminating "meaning in a rock" exercise that draws on the student's acquired knowledge and hypothesis development skills.
First Writing Assignment for ROCKD/MacroStrat Activity (Acrobat (PDF) 25kB Jul20 18)
Second Writing Assignment for ROCKD/MacroStrat Activity (Acrobat (PDF) 29kB Jul20 18)
This activity involves students collecting a rock from the field prior to an introductory course's start date, and, upon using ROCKD or MacroStrat, a general description of the rock lithology and age. Much of this information and terminology will be foreign to the students initially but by course's end they will know more about the rock in question from multiple perspectives of earth history, economic geology, and environmental issues. They will also know more about the association of the collected material with nearby rock types in the region making greater ties to higher order concepts in tectonics, stratigraphy, and field relationships among rocks. This activity involves collecting a local rock and then a series of writing assignments that follow.
In the first writing assignment at the beginning of the course, students produce a short description of the rock on their own, then do so in the terms of ROCKD and MacroStrat, and then assess their voids in understanding terminology and concepts. In the second writing assignment at the end of the course students describe how the rock encapsulates a period of earth history, has economic value, and is related to environmental issues in the location in addition to how the rock collected relates to the surrounding rock bodies explorable on ROCKD and MacroStrat.
The activity is therefore both an ice-breaking introduction to the discipline of geology and a culminating "meaning in a rock" exercise that draws on the student's acquired knowledge and hypothesis development skills.
First Writing Assignment for ROCKD/MacroStrat Activity (Acrobat (PDF) 25kB Jul20 18)
Second Writing Assignment for ROCKD/MacroStrat Activity (Acrobat (PDF) 29kB Jul20 18)
Teaching Notes and Tips
Assessment
Collected Rock – Hand samples will be assessed for their representativeness of the local rock from the collection site.
First writing assignment – This assignment is assessed in three parts.
First regarding the student's brief description of the rock they collected in their own terms. Students are asked to provide as many "first brush" observations about the hand sample as they are able to say about its size, shape, color, etc. Probably 2 sentences would be all that an inexperienced student could report. If a student meets the goals of this small component, they will have shown careful thought in general description of multiple aspects of the rock in hand; addressing the color, texture, size and shape of their rock at least.
Second regarding the information on the rock body's name, lithology, and age as displayed in ROCKD or MacroStrat. For this the students simply bring the descriptive text into their document directly from the applications. If a student meets the goals of this component, they will have accurately transferred and reported the description into the assignment template.
Third regarding the student's reflection on their own voids in understanding of the ROCKD or MacroStrat unit description. Here the students are asked to look back at the transferred description and identify unfamiliar terminology and list terms and concepts that they think will be integral to their developing understanding of the rock and rock unit in consideration. Although much of the language is likely to be unfamiliar, the students are asked to think deeply about what appear to be the most essential terms in coming to an increased understanding of the rock. If a student meets the goals of this larger component, they will have identified the most essential rock descriptive terms regarding lithology and age, and displayed a self-analysis of why it is that they feel that the chosen specific terms are so essential to understand.
Second writing assignment – This assignment is assessed in four parts.
First regarding the environmental history of the rock's formation. Students will report on the rock's origin story based on the data they have gleaned from the rock itself and the ROCKD and MacroStrat reported unit description. If a student meets the goals of this component, they will consider the emplacement/depositional/tectonic conditions of the rock's origins, its pre-existence in terms of its protolith or provenance (if applicable), the paleogeography of its formation, and its relationship to other rock units in the local area. They will effectively "translate" the ROCKD/MacroStrat and hand sample description into meaning and assess their own growth in understanding geological content and concepts.
Second regarding the economic value of the unit from which the sample rock has been obtained. Students will report on what has been, or what could be, a rock unit's material use for industry, infrastructure, etc. in a human context. If a student meets the goals of this component, they will consider what could be uses for the material based on the rock characteristics and they will also research what have been economic/human uses in the local area. If applicable, students will locate sites of such economic/human use of the rock unit as mapped on ROCKD/Macrostrat (e.g. quarries) and through research into local business and municipal projects around the collection site.
Third regarding environmental issues and characteristics associated with the rock unit under study. Students will report on present landscape characteristics related to the bedrock geology in the area (soils, topography, etc.), agricultural use (or non-use) as related to the bedrock geology, and existing and/or possible future issues of environmental concern in relation to the study rock unit. If a student meets the goals of this component, they will consider influence of bedrock geology on these surface earth aspects above and show evidence of research into the possible surface environmental characteristics and issues related to the local/regional lithologic characteristics underfoot. If applicable, students will locate sites of such landscape intrigue or environmental concern within the area of the rock unit as mapped on ROCKD/Macrostrat and through research into media outlets of the past and present environmental issues raised around the collection site.
Fourth regarding an assessment of the project and what future study might come from a student's new skillsets. Students will report on how they feel they have progressed in acquiring content, concept, and hypothesis development fluency in geology. They will also make "plans" for another area of study by exploring the bedrock character of their next "geologizing expedition" in ROCKD or MacroStrat. Students will be assessed on their hypotheses as to what they expect to find there and what it's meaning might be in terms of earth history, economic/human uses, and surface environmental characteristics and issues.
First writing assignment – This assignment is assessed in three parts.
First regarding the student's brief description of the rock they collected in their own terms. Students are asked to provide as many "first brush" observations about the hand sample as they are able to say about its size, shape, color, etc. Probably 2 sentences would be all that an inexperienced student could report. If a student meets the goals of this small component, they will have shown careful thought in general description of multiple aspects of the rock in hand; addressing the color, texture, size and shape of their rock at least.
Second regarding the information on the rock body's name, lithology, and age as displayed in ROCKD or MacroStrat. For this the students simply bring the descriptive text into their document directly from the applications. If a student meets the goals of this component, they will have accurately transferred and reported the description into the assignment template.
Third regarding the student's reflection on their own voids in understanding of the ROCKD or MacroStrat unit description. Here the students are asked to look back at the transferred description and identify unfamiliar terminology and list terms and concepts that they think will be integral to their developing understanding of the rock and rock unit in consideration. Although much of the language is likely to be unfamiliar, the students are asked to think deeply about what appear to be the most essential terms in coming to an increased understanding of the rock. If a student meets the goals of this larger component, they will have identified the most essential rock descriptive terms regarding lithology and age, and displayed a self-analysis of why it is that they feel that the chosen specific terms are so essential to understand.
Second writing assignment – This assignment is assessed in four parts.
First regarding the environmental history of the rock's formation. Students will report on the rock's origin story based on the data they have gleaned from the rock itself and the ROCKD and MacroStrat reported unit description. If a student meets the goals of this component, they will consider the emplacement/depositional/tectonic conditions of the rock's origins, its pre-existence in terms of its protolith or provenance (if applicable), the paleogeography of its formation, and its relationship to other rock units in the local area. They will effectively "translate" the ROCKD/MacroStrat and hand sample description into meaning and assess their own growth in understanding geological content and concepts.
Second regarding the economic value of the unit from which the sample rock has been obtained. Students will report on what has been, or what could be, a rock unit's material use for industry, infrastructure, etc. in a human context. If a student meets the goals of this component, they will consider what could be uses for the material based on the rock characteristics and they will also research what have been economic/human uses in the local area. If applicable, students will locate sites of such economic/human use of the rock unit as mapped on ROCKD/Macrostrat (e.g. quarries) and through research into local business and municipal projects around the collection site.
Third regarding environmental issues and characteristics associated with the rock unit under study. Students will report on present landscape characteristics related to the bedrock geology in the area (soils, topography, etc.), agricultural use (or non-use) as related to the bedrock geology, and existing and/or possible future issues of environmental concern in relation to the study rock unit. If a student meets the goals of this component, they will consider influence of bedrock geology on these surface earth aspects above and show evidence of research into the possible surface environmental characteristics and issues related to the local/regional lithologic characteristics underfoot. If applicable, students will locate sites of such landscape intrigue or environmental concern within the area of the rock unit as mapped on ROCKD/Macrostrat and through research into media outlets of the past and present environmental issues raised around the collection site.
Fourth regarding an assessment of the project and what future study might come from a student's new skillsets. Students will report on how they feel they have progressed in acquiring content, concept, and hypothesis development fluency in geology. They will also make "plans" for another area of study by exploring the bedrock character of their next "geologizing expedition" in ROCKD or MacroStrat. Students will be assessed on their hypotheses as to what they expect to find there and what it's meaning might be in terms of earth history, economic/human uses, and surface environmental characteristics and issues.
References and Resources
https://rockd.org
https://macrostrat.org
https://macrostrat.org