I managed to run through the three planned activities - just.
The interpretation of geological cross-sections proved fairly difficult for the students, as I anticipated. It was clear that they were still only just getting into thinking about geology again. It would have been useful to start with a review of the natures of the rock types in the exercise. This would be through looking at samples, or by providing a summary table (or both). The explanation of the process of reconstructing the history would be easier if I had some prepared slides of the stages. I think the last time I did a similar activity we were still using roller backboards - which made some of the rock movement descriptions more convenient!
So this is a really good activity, but it would benefit from additional effort on the presentation.
The radioactive decay activity really would benefit from using 100 pennies. In view of the shortage I decided not to use the D/P ratio part. This activity would also benefit from some additional introductory discussion.
I only had a short time for the discussion of the 'essay' on plate tectonics and the rock cycle. However it engaged the students and let us discuss issues such as sentence lengths, introductions, and matching the answer to the question.
This tutorial was run for my S104 group in Aberdeen, and I will make sure I update it for the tutorial in Dundee in a couple of weeks' time. I will also try to obtain another 50 pennies.
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Review of the S104 Earth science tutorial
Monday 8 April 2013 at 10:11
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S104 Earth science face-to-face
Monday 8 April 2013 at 10:10
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I need to prepare a face-to-face tutorial for one of my S104 "Exploring science" groups. This is for the Earth science material of Book 6. The difficulty is that these students should only have studied the two chapters of the book. In fact, many of them may still be working on the TMA covering the previous book. I need to find or devise Earth science activities that everyone can engage with. Fortunately the students have already studied one book of Earth science so there will be some familiarity with the topic.
I would like to include an activity on extracting the sequence of events from a geological cross-section. Students find this a difficult task, and it is tested in the TMA.
A review of my previous tutorials showed that I had not done a tutorial at this stage of the module for many years. On the S104 tutors' resources area I found two activities that I had not used before: modelling radioactive decay and reviewing a piece of writing (a 'student answer' to a TMA question) on the connection between plate tectonics and the rock cycle. The review focuses on writing skills, but also addresses geology. Either would be useable.
The decay activity would help the students understand the maths of the topic but requires one hundred identical coins. A search turned up fifty - and I can live with that!
The writing activity provides useful discussion of the three types of rock, but does not actually provide information on the plate tectonics. I would need to add that. However this activity might be a waste of valuable face-to-face time, being well suited to a forum activity.
I searched for a geological cross-section question and eventually found one reasonably different from the one in the current TMA. This will allow me to discuss the principles without disclosing parts of the TMA answer. I was not able to access the S104 tutor notes for this question, so I drafted my own.
So, my plan is
- interpreting geological cross-section
- radioactive decay (needs 50 pennies, box for the pennies, graph paper
- review of 'essay' on plate tectonics and the rock cycle.
This provides a good mix of hand-on activity, group work, graph drawing, discussion of geological principles and writing skills.
I now need to package the materials into my folder for the session, print off copies of some sheets for student handouts, and collect together the other materials I will need.
[21 March 2013]
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