Teaching Geology - Intro Lab

So I decided to take a page from a friend of mine and try something different for the intro Geology lab this semester. He had people come in and organize their shoes in whatever way they liked then describe their organization. This was to show people that science is about organizing information in a way that makes sense and people can understand.

Since I can't stand people taking off their shoes near me I went a different route. I have a whole bunch of random stuff that is all very similar that I could use for this assignment. And I will have the students organize this in whatever means they see fit as a class, then describe their organization.

The items:
Football thingy
Aerobie
Wobble thingy (the yellow and green thing) that is 2 ovals attached to each other
Boomerang
Roomerang (a boomerang made of foam so it can be thrown indoors)
Circle thowing thingy (I wish I knew the name of some of this stuff)
Racquetball
Squash Ball
Tennis Ball
Ping Pong Ball
Golf Ball
My dog's ball
Foam globe
Giant Foam Die
Regular die
20 sided die

So any comments or suggestions?

The Darwin Awards: Geology Strikes Back

As mentioned before here is the first of a series of posts based on the Darwin Awards.

Gypsum Kills Potential Thief

This is a story of the Earth taking revenge on the immoral. This guy was killed slowly and painfully by a giant selenite crystal in Chihuahua, Mexico when he tried to steal it.

Article courtesy of Rob Armstrong

You can check out the complete collection of Darwin Awards: Geology Strikes Back at my website.

Ah the Darwin Awards

The briliance of the Darwin Awards it that they are funny and usually appropriate. I find dark humor very funny and this site appeals to me. So, to take advantage of this I wanted to make another fun page on my website using this but I don't always like actually doing the legwork.This is where my students come in. I figured I would make a school extra credit assignment using the site. These are the objectives:

“The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those
who accidentally remove themselves from it...”

Your assignment is to scour the website - http://www.darwinawards.com/
and find any such awards that relate to geology. I am not sure if any exist but I am
sure they do. You are to then do the following:
1. Provide a link to the specific award
2. Write up a short description of why you think this belongs in a Geological Darwin
Award category
3. Then let me know if you mind if I cite you as a source for finding this on a future
page on my website (If I think it is a good example).
4. Have fun

I have a bunch of them turned in and most, if not all, of them work well. So hopefully I should be able to post these as I go through them.

When did Politicians become Scientists?

"But while we recognize the occurrence of these natural, cyclical environmental trends, we can't say with assurance that man's activities cause weather changes."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120803402.html

Sarah Palin


WTF!!!!!

Why do people who probably had one science class in high school think they are suddenly experts on a subject that I study daily and still don't know everything about? And as my office mates have stated, people need to get it through their thick heads that there is a difference between climate and weather. First off we change weather patterns all the time (smog anyone) and second we are constantly influencing climate if only from our pumping of CO2 into the atmosphere but with a whole host of other influences. I hate, hate, HATE, it when people think they know what they are talking about. It is just as bad as when celebrities talk about politics. SHUT UP, you don't know what you are talking about. Leave it to those who do.

Reason to be a Paleontologist

So I was reading this article for class and it actually gave me a reason to be a paleontologist that you can tell the outside world. Usually I get the question, "So how is this going to help humanity?" and my response is usually one of "I don't care about humanity". But this is useful:

"If indeed a crisis in biodiversity is occurring, what can paleontologists contribute to the understanding? The simple answer is, a huge amount. We are the only scientists who have ever seen biodiversity crises to their end, know consistent characteristics of species at risk, and have some idea of what happens in the aftermath. We are also the only ones who have seen crises of differing severity and can conduct comparative studies of death and recovery."

"We can expand our role beyond informing other scientists and the public about life in the past. We can help inform scientists and the public about life in the future."

Sepkoski, J.J., Jr., 1997, Biodiversity: past, present, and future: Jour. Paleontology, 71(4):533-539.