This activity gives a visual representation of how we are able to see the different layers of metamorphic rocks.
Most of this lab is a fairly traditional rocks-in-boxes lab on identification of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. At the end of the lab, students practice identifying real rocks in the campus rock garden, which includes boulders of most of the bedrock units within our county. Students use GPS units to find the samples to identify (so that they can explore while the instructor answers other student questions). At each boulder, students identify the rock type, the minerals present, and the rock textures. The lab handout includes a simplified geologic map of an area that they previously visited on a field trip, and which they will use later in the semester in discussions of water samples that they collect.
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The online geology lab for community college students was developed during two years of forced online synchronous learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This open educational resource is a cohesive laboratory manual intended for two-year, non-major college students from the New York area. Each lab is accompanied by a Teacher’s Guide and an online answer sheet (formatted for the Blackboard learning management system). A multiple-choice format is used for many questions, making the labs easy to grade.
Metamorphic Rock Identification online (developed for remote learning during COVID-19 pandemic); students will explore the various characteristics of metamorphic rocks and then apply them to identify unknowns.
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Students are introduced to the processes involved in metamorphism through hands-on study of rock samples. They examine different metamorphic paths, protoliths, textures, and minerals.
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Students in a learning community that includes classics and geology complete labs involving rocks and minerals. The class meets at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a weekend; in groups, the students document and describe the earth materials displayed in art halls of ancient cultures. The following week reformed groups meet in class to compare and contrast their museum-based findings and explore the geological concepts that underlie the use of materials by ancient cultures (jigsaw assignment). It is assumed that students have some prior knowledge of the ancient cultures being studied at the museum through a paired course, assigned reading, or introductory lecture.
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In this multi-week project, students collect samples in the field, analyze them using various tools and instruments, then present their results and interpretations.
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The purpose of the activity is to get students out of the traditional classroom setting and to spend several hours navigating their way between various localities on campus where different rock types are used for a variety of purposes. Students are encouraged to bring along their introductory geology laboratory manuals to remind them of the techniques used to correctly identify rock types. The activity is designed to promote enjoyment of the task (clues need to be "solved" to figure out the location of the next outcrop in the sequence) and to encourage students to follow the task through to completion. As a result, students invariably spend many hours engaged in the activity despite the fact that it is completely optional.
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This optional field trip is designed to augment the in-class learning experience in introductory physical geology by providing students the opportunity to see firsthand local geological features and understand their context in the long-term tectonic evolution of the western United States. The university is conveniently located in a portion of the American west where a plethora of geological features are readily accessible over a total field trip duration of 6 hours. Over a total of 6 field stops, students are presented with an opportunity to observe features relevant to topics learned in class involving rock types, volcanic features (lava flows and ash fall deposits), faults and folds, mass wasting features, catastrophic flood deposits (Bonneville and Missoula floods), and loess deposits.
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This is an online adventure game in which players prospect for minerals on a virtual geologically realistic world.
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This lab helps students bring together their ability to describe and identify rocks and to push students to think about how the rocks formed based upon their understanding of the geological processes taking place at certain tectonic boundaries.
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In this lab students receive two small blocks (1 cm3) of chocolate (white and dark), and follow it through the entire rock cycle. The chocolate blocks are melted on a hot plate, with different melting temperatures and rheologies due to compositional differences. The "magma" is then cooled either slowly or quickly, and the resulting textures are examined and compared to granite and basalt hand samples. The "igneous" chocolate is then ground and abraded to show erosion, and the eroded material is pressure-lithified to form "sedimentary" chocolate. The sedimentary chocolate then undergoes greater pressure to mimic metamorphism, and additional heat re-melts the chocolate back into magma. Students compare the chocolate "rocks" in each of these stages with real rock samples. The final assignment is to describe the "life story" of complex conglomerate rock sample. The lab is a bit messy and takes a bit of preparation, but students come away with a significantly better understanding of the rock cycle as a whole and each of its component parts.
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The students will participate as matter traveling through the rock cycle while drawing cards from 4 rock matter stations (magma, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic). Afterwards, the student will demonstrate their path using a laser pointer in a projected large the rock cycle diagram.
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Schematic Play-Doh model of the Wakemup Pluton and surrounding rock units, present day state of erosion
Provenance: Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
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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 structural geology of the region. When they have figured out the geology to the best of their abilities, we show them Play-Doh models of the pluton and country rock in various stages of erosion.
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