Geologic Time Resorts

In this Geologic Time Resorts activity students do in-depth research on a given geologic time period of the Phanerozoic Eon and create brochures "selling" their time period as a resort destination. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: JoAnn Thissen

Biology, Geological Time

Material Type: Unit of Study

Geologic Characterization of Your Property

Students will look up an address (either of their choosing or instructor-provided) and assess the geologic characteristics and vulnerability of that location. Students will utilize datasets about geologic issues/hazards to learn more about how different geologic processes affect the location.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Beth Hallauer, Jennifer Sliko, Kathleen Harper, Michael Hernandez

Geology of North Dakota Badlands

See how the geology of the North Dakota badlands has changed over time in this video segment from NatureScene, featuring the landscape at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Material Type: Lecture

Authors: SCETV, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Coastal Geological Processes

This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service describes the many forces that affect shorelines, including tides, weathering, erosion, and deposition.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Interactive

Authors: National Science Foundation, WGBH Educational Foundation

Looking at Minnesota Geology

This activity is used to help students describe various rock types.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Renee Suess

Mars Geologic Mapping

This final laboratory exercise in an introductory planetary geology course requires the students to use Google Mars to interpret a variety of geological processes. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Devon Burr

Physical Geology, First University of Saskatchewan Edition

Physical Geology is a comprehensive introductory text on the physical aspects of geology, including rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, mass wasting, climate change, planetary geology and much more. It has a strong emphasis on examples from western Canada. It is adapted from "Physical Geology" written by Steven Earle for the BCcampus Open Textbook Program. To access links to download PDF files, click the Read Book button below.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Karla Panchuk

Coastal Geological Materials

This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service describes the different kinds of sediments that make up coastlines, with a focus on the variety in color, size, and sorting.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Interactive

Authors: National Science Foundation, WGBH Educational Foundation

Understanding Geological Time

In this classroom activity, middle school students gain an understanding of geologic time. The activity opens with background information for teachers about carbon and radiometric dating. In a classroom discussion, students share what they know about geologic time. Then, working in small groups responsible for different eras, students create a timeline for their assigned era by conducting library and Internet research. The activity concludes by having students review all the timelines to compare how long humans have been on the Earth to the length of time dinosaurs inhabited the planet.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Physical Geology: Idaho Field Trip

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. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Simon Kattenhorn

An Introduction to Geology – Free Textbook for College-Level Introductory Geology Courses

This text is provided to you as an Open Educational Resource which you access online. It is designed to give you a comprehensive introduction to Geology at no or very nominal cost. It contains both written and graphic text material, intra-text links to other internal material which may aid in understanding topics and concepts, intra-text links to the appendices and glossary for tables and definitions of words, and extra-text links to videos and web material that clarifies and augments topics and concepts. Like any new or scientific subject, Geology has its own vocabulary for geological concepts. For you to converse effectively with this text and colleagues in this earth science course, you will use the language of geology, so comprehending these terms is important. Use the intra-text links to the Glossary and other related material freely to gain familiarity with this language. Faculty who adopt this text for their course should contact the authors at edits@opengeology.org so that the authors can keep faculty users up to date of critical changes.

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Cam Mosher, Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt

Geology of the Grand Canyon

Students analyze topographic and geologic maps, through a set of guiding questions, to decipher the geologic history recorded in the rocks of the Grand Canyon. This includes interpreting what each rock unit tells us about the regional environment at the time of its formation and interpreting the gaps in the rock record. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Carol Ormand

Geologic History Field Investigation - Minnehaha Falls

This activity is an inquiry-based field investigation of the geologic history of the Minnehaha Falls and St. Anthony Falls areas of Minneapolis. Students will be introduced to rocks and the stories rocks tell in a genuine geologic context, rather than as samples in the classroom.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Justin Larson

Depositional Environments and Geologic History Labs

The goal of this pair of labs is for the students to learn to apply rock and fossil identification skills to determining rock formations, sedimentary depositional environments, age ranges, and, ultimately, to writing a geologic history of a sequence of rocks from Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyons. During the first of the two labs, the students learn to make fossil and sedimentary structures identifications. They add these skills to their rock and mineral identification skills to make interpretations of the sedimentary environments along a generalized profile from terrestrial to offshore locations. During the second lab, they apply these skills to a sequence of rocks from the southwestern U.S. to interpret the environmental changes that have occurred over time. They also begin to learn how to use fossils to determine age ranges for these changing events. Once they put together all of their data, they construct a stratigraphic column and piece together a written narrative of the geologic history of the area. The students work in groups to collect their data and determine their stratigraphy. They write their geologic histories individually. The students learn how to apply their skills and knowledge to make interpretations and also learn how to support their determinations with data. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Kathy Gilbert, Maria Waller

Geologic time scale hiking tour group project

Students work in groups to develop content for am online hiking tour which is matched to the geologic time scale. This project has been used as a semester group work project in an introductory geologic history course, but could be adapted for high school or upper level and graduate courses focused on outreach.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Erik Haroldson

Layer Cake Geology

This activity provides young students with a relevant model (a layer cake) to help them understand concepts about sedimentary rock layers (such as the Law of Superposition), correlation of the rock record with geologic time and relative ages of rocks and fossils. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Molly Ward

Geological Forces Changing the Landscape at Minnehaha Falls

This activity is a field investigation of the geological features of Minnehaha Falls, how they have changed and why, how they are changing and what could be done to preserve the falls.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Sue Loontjer

A Geologic Walk Down the Grand Staircase

This is a 10-day field experience class that focuses on the geology of the Grand Staircase of the Colorado Plateau, culminating in a rim-to-rim backpack trip across the Grand Canyon, Arizona. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Material Type: Module

Unit 3.1 - Geology and Geomorphology

The basic concepts of geology will be considered to address the widely ranging textures and compositions of rocks and sediments formed in a wide range of environments. These variations in turn can affect soil formation and many related Critical Zone processes and architectures. This unit requires substantial reading to cover basic concepts of geology: the rock cycle, plate tectonics, geologic time, erosion, weathering, and deposition, so that students have a firm grasp on how geology relates to and controls CZ processes. This background knowledge is accessed through a review of web sites and a scientific papers. An in-class activity uses the U.S. Geological Survey's National Geologic Map Database to identify resources for understanding and classifying the geology of a region. (Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Module

Author: Tim White