Using Visible Geology in Structural Geology
Both activities were used in a 3-hour lab session, the rule of V's was review for most, although students admitted to only remembering that there was a rule, not actually what the rules were. The post-trip fold analysis was done 1-week after a 3-day field trip to the devils punchbowl in southern CA, where there is a beautiful plunging syncline with the San Andreas Fault in the distance and an oblique normal fault south of the fold. Students had received feed back on their field maps, and were encouraged to use the models they built in VG, as figures in their final trip report.
About this Course
Structural Geology
12 students
My Experience Teaching With Visible Geology
How geologic beds and other planar features interact with topography: Rule of V's and Folds, Cross-sections, & Apparent dip (Post Field Trip Data Analysis)Teaching details
The activities were run as presented, no modifications or changes.
How did the activity go?
Generally the Rule-of-V's activity went well, besides some of a learning curve with VG, and students finished within the lab time. The fold analysis activity was a bit more challenging, despite having used VG for previous labs, and pre-labs where they had to create various features and events in the block model, students were still confused about what to do and seemed to be going through the motions rather than seeing the blocks as models for the field area we had been. This led to a lot of time spent on part 1, and by the end of 3 hours, most students were still working on part 2, and had not even started part 3.
After the rule-of-v's activity all students had come up with the major rules for how planes interact with topography. I will say however, that later, when mapping in the field, they did not initially use that understanding until reminded. For the fold analysis, besides the slow start with the block models, they also had trouble with the different apparent dip exercises, some could not do the first one as they had not taken more than one measurement at a particular place in the field (I will have to prompt them more next time), and only a few asked questions about the corrections made for projecting dips onto their cross-sections. I think next time I will project my screen and we can work on it more as a group to get rid of the issues with how to do things in VG and spend more time discussing why were are doing these different activities and models.