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I will be teaching a new Geology class (high school) this spring and am searching for creative ways to guide students in their learning about the concept of geologic time. Geologic time or deep time is a difficult concept for students to grasp in geology and earth science classes. What are your creative techniques for helping your students understand geologic time/deep time? What are the major student misconceptions that you see related to Geologic time and how do you help students overcome these misconceptions? I'm thinking of using some sort of Geologic timeline activity(large paper scrolls in stairwell, or clothesline timeline, etc.) with geologic periods correlated to tectonic plate movements and other major geologic events. Since I also teach Biology, I'd like to make this student research activity cross-curricular and integrate information on the appearance in the fossil record of diverse life forms. This would be a large class project and since my Geology and Biology classes use the same classroom, the project could even be worked on across classes. Perhaps have student teams responsible for researching different geologic time periods. Dorothy

Another great activity to do is to have the students do geological time on the football field. It is a great activity that you can place different events and the students can really see how far apart things are. I also talk about geological history in terms of time. Stating how we have been around for less then 1 second...which is a big misconception. Good Luck and have fun

Thanks for all these good ideas. I was wondering if anyone specifically had some good activities for teaching about paleoclimate? I'm teaching Environmental Science for the first time this year, and next semester is focusing on climate change. I want to start off with major climatic events prior to anthropogenic climate change. Does anyone have good resources for what climate was like a few billion years ago, "snowball earth" model, etc... Bess

Thanks for all the creative ideas everyone, and for sharing that excellent resource list Tina! I found alot of interesting articles and websites on your list. I also teach Environmental Science Bess, so love your idea about beginning the study of Global Climate Change with a discussion of Paleoclimate. I'd probably start by having the students research tectonic plate movements over geologic time and explore how changes in ocean currents may impact global heat distribution and global climate. I remember seeing an excellent TV show this past year on the history of the earth - geologic time & major earth tectonic plate movements and climate changes (snowball earth, etc.). It might have been a NOVA or National Geographic program. Does anyone recall the name of the program? Not having any luck with an internet search for the program, as cannot remember the exact name. Dorothy

Hi Kimberly - Great idea to get the class outside on the Football field to explore the Geologic Time Scale. Nice kinesthetic learning activity. Bonus - the teacher and the students all get a dose of sunshine and fresh air !!!! There are no windows in our science classroom..... I'm curious - besides the football field activity, how do you counter the student pre-conception/misconception about the human speceis being on the planet for just "1 second" of relative geologic time? Dorothy

Bess -Check out "How the Earth was Made" (2007) by History International channel. 2 hour video. Nice animation of snowball earth and other major planetary climate changes. Dorothy

Dorothy and Tina,
thanks to you both for the great suggestions. I checked out the History Channel website. There are two whole seasons of How the Earth was Changed, including what seems to be the stand-alone episode that you recommended. I also looked up those two books. The first (Walker's), I downloaded a sample to my Kindle. The second one that you suggested (Macdougall) was also on Amazon, but I saw that he had published one more recently (April 2011) called Why Geology Matters: Decoding the Past, Anticipating the Future and I've downloaded a sample of that to my Kindle as well. I'll post later on and let you all know how it goes, if I use these resources in my class or others. The second semester starts on Jan 23.

Bess

I was also going to suggest using strata on rocks, glacial straiations, and the rock cycle to push in this point. I have used the football field idea before for both geologic time and the spacing of the planets. Both times I got major good feedback from my students and they really get the concept. Did you try anything yet? I'd be interested in hearing what you've successfully done!

Hi Everyone - I'm currently working with my students on the clothesline model of the geologic timeline
Reconstructing the Geologic Timeline: Adding a Constructivist Slant to a Classic Activity
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/product_detail.aspx?id=10.250...32#reviews

I really love this activity! The students are so engaged and are asking great questions as they work through it. I modified the events list slightly to add in some regional geologic events.
This is a terrific way to quickly reveal misconceptions and have the time to circulate to each group to discuss and answer questions. This has been a great opening activity for my Geology class!

Highly recommended! This is an amazing activity, so simple and inexpensive (about $10 total for 6 group sets, if you already have the meter sticks).

I plan to follow-up later in the year by revisiting the geologic timeline with our newly gained knowledge using an outdoor activity in a field this spring(when it's warmer), walking a geologic timeline. Something similar to this activity Science Sampler: Taking Steps to Understand Geologic Timehttp://learningcenter.nsta.org/product_detail.aspx?id=10.2505/4/ss08_032_02_54

Dorothy

I've done the clothesline, the football (or soccer) field, and the large paper timeline activities with my students. They all work great, in getting the point across of how little time we have been here. On the field, it equates to one blade of grass! Any visual activity like these really help to drive home a very abstract topic.

I just tried this activity using cashier receipt paper (note: less than $2 per roll) http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~museum/hughes/GeoTimeScale1.html. Students work in pairs/triads to do this activity. Then I have them draw a picture of something meaningful to them on a sheet of paper which represents a small version of a timescale. Students add various geological events to the picture in a true-to-scale version of the 4.6 billion year timescale.

Thanks for sharing the "Reconstructing the Geologic Timeline: Adding a constructivist slant to a classic activity" article. I used to race thru geologic timeline because it seemed boring, but I will try this activity this year. I am also planning to take them to the football field, even if only to show the the blade of grass that represents our time on earth!

More on Teaching Geologic Time:
After teaching the Reconstructing Geologic Time (clothsline activity), I followed up with some short student internet research and mini-lectures on how geologists tell time (absolute dating, relative dating, etc.).

I now have my high school students researching and creating illustrated posters on various geological time periods (assigned). It helps that we are a 1:1 laptop campus, so students have good ocmputer access. Their poster needs to have an accurate time scale (practicing math and metric measurement skills).

I can't believe how eagerly they are diving in to their backgound research and projects. The students are totally engaged. Can't wait to hear their presentations next week.

I hope to be able to refer back to their Geologic Time posters throughout the semester as we continue to study geology. It will help students place geologic events in a time context.

Dorothy

Hi Dorothy, I am interested to hear how you use the laptops in your classroom. Do the students take them home? Do you have them take notes on the computer while you lecture? How about worksheets? Do they use e-textbooks? Is it a "paperless" classroom? Thanks for sharing.

Hi Sharon - All students have a laptop issued to them and they can take them home. The 1:1 Laptop Grant is from a local business and runs 5 years. In Geology, I use the laptops in a variety of ways: 1) Frequent access during class for students to a wealth of online resources (USGS Dynamic Earth booklet, interactive websites, live data, etc.) 2) Some students use their laptops in-class to take notes (optional) 3) I upload all course materials to my Moodle site for student/parent access (handouts, etc.) 4) Student research and creative projects. 5) We do not currently have an e-textbook for Geology, but I bring in many online resouces as supplements. 6) We are not yet paperless, but I am working towards that goal. Many students still prefer to take paper tests, etc. In my Biology class, we do have a digital version of our textbook (along with paper texts). There are some terrific digital resources (audio, multimedia, highlighting, self-test quizzes, etc.). Many students, however, still prefer the hard copy text. [u]Some problems I's seen related to laptops:[/u] - We see problems with student home internet access (e.g. none or unreliable) or internet connection speed problems (e.g. on slow dial-up modem, if living in the country). - My science classroom space has had ongoing problems with slow or non-existent wireless connections. The IT staff have been working tirelessly on solving it, but it is frustrating. I want to use the laptops frequently, but cannot count on my students getting wireless connections. We often have to move to the science computer area or the library. - Some students get distracted during class with off-task laptop use (games, music, etc.). This creates a new "classroom management" issue. - Students sometimes lose computer access for a week (school discipline regarding inappropriate computer use, suspensions, etc.). Then the teacher is left to quickly come up with an alternative assignment for that student who does not have computer access. On balance, laptops have been terrific for student learning! Dorothy

Dorothy: Although I know the importance of incorporating technology into the classroom, I agree that managing a class using computers has its own challenges. Keeping the students on task can be difficult. Also, sometimes technology just doesn't seem to work out, like the wireless system not working. Recently I wasted a day and a half trying to overcome technical issues of a data rich activity. When using computers for lessons, I try to keep it "short but sweet," about 15-20 minutes. That way the students remain mostly on-task.