Reading Stories from the Earth and Sky Russ Colson Professor of Geology Minnesota State University Moorhead MESTA Conference, Feb 10, 2012.

Reading Stories from the Earth and Sky

Russ ColsonProfessor of Geology

Minnesota State University MoorheadMESTA Conference, Feb 10, 2012

Goals: To talk about• Teachers as fellow Scholars with students• How to give sufficient guidance but allow creative input• Applying learning: Reading stories around us

Example activities and experiments for units on • Sedimentary rock stories• Formation of clouds, rain, dew, frost, fog • (Earth Science or Physical Science)


Russ Colson

Information and knowledge: Hard to compete with the entertainment and quality of a Discovery Channel Documentary!

Concepts and practice: Computers can engage students in thought puzzles and activities, animate illustrations, imbed videos, offer games, provide instant feedback on answers, give recorded lectures, read books, and do a great job of teaching concepts and practicing understanding.

What extra does a teacher provide (to justify that sky-high salary?)

Clip Art perceptions of teaching: What’s missing?

Teachers Showing Science:

Plenty of showing sports, and telling science, and even students doing science—but no teachers SHOWING science.

Develop your own activity, something related to your region, something students know that you did. And do it with them. • Provides motivation—it’s important to you.

• Provides “demonstrations” of doing science that computers can’t do– we are social learners and imitators

• Activities “out of a can” are like canned spinach, they have some of the nutrients but just aren’t as good as fresh.

Key Story of Geology:Sedimentary Rocks tell us about past Environments of Deposition.

My region: Red River Valley—not greatest place to go see rocks.

But, we have former Lake Agassiz and presence of rivers we can visit.

Different energy environments of deposition—different sediments that tell stories!


Lake Agassiz- sedimentary rock unit.

Learning activity: What clues might tell us a lake was once here?

Field trip: Do we see those features?

Experiment: Understanding the underlying principles







Lake Simulation—not a controlled experiment, but allows a qualitative evaluation of a variety of features.

Start with a mix of sediment, like glacial till.


Lake Simulation—

Notice development of a residual gravel (lag), a sandy beach, a muddy “lake bottom”, and an erosional scarp.




logistics challenging, but is a great way to establish yourself as a fellow scholar and SHOW science. Students can Read Earth’s stories from the Original Story Book!

Field Trip:

Sample sediments from the former lake bottom and the former shoreline.

How do they differ?


Field Trip:

Examine topography: Scarps along edges of former lake Agassiz (left), or a modern shoreline showing scarp (above).







Experimental component

Sometimes forgotten: Earth Science is an experimental science as well as an observational science.

Short group activity:

Design an experiment to determine how stream conditions effect the type of sediment deposited.


Design an experiment to determine the how stream conditions effect the type of sediment deposited.

Very broad question, too many variables. Often students will design experimental simulations rather than experiments.

Experiments focus on holding all variables but one constant and seeing the effect of that one variable.



Identify one key variable of the stream that effects deposition.


What is the dependent variable, the one that you need to measure that varies as a function of stream velocity?

Stream Velocity (related to steepness of the stream) Energy of the environment of deposition is the key story told by detrital sedimentary rocks)



Sketch out a graph that might show the relationship between these two variables: Sediment size and stream steepness.

Sediment Size: Deposited? Washed away?


Steepness of flume (or river)

Size of gravel particles bigger

Zone of erosion

Zone of deposition


How much exploration—how much guidance?

Following an exact recipe someone else gives you is not really much like doing science. But Chaos and Ambiguity aren’t really science either.



A couple of examples in analyzing how much guidance to give:

Size of particles:

Experimental Design:


Greater dispersion of stream steepness and particle size allows greater ease of measuring effect (concept true for most experiments)


Size of Particles:


In practice, controlling slope enough to measure effect on sand and clay sized particles is very difficult.


Size of Particles:




Supplies provided is the first guideline:

An open ended exploration has students choosing options from a much wider array of possibilities,

A more narrow experience provides a fixed set of materials: such as flume, gravel, protractor, ruler, buckets.


Conceptual guidance:

e.g. surface of flume can be very slick, making very small changes in slope have a big effect on ease of moving gravel.

Roughen?

Cover with sand or gravel?




Conceptual guidance:

How to measure slope:

Protractor?

Ruler and Trig?

Number of blocks?

Measure actual stream velocity?




Controlling variables:

Velocity: Is it only related to slope of the flume?

The WATERFALL problem: height of drop, location of gravel.






The WATER DEPTH problem: Constancy, reproducibility, gravel covered by water or not covered.






Water slope vs flume slope problem, and how to keep water depth constant.




Measuring results

What if only one of the gravel particles moves?

How far does it have to move to “count”?

What if on repeated experiments the gravel moves some of the time but not all the time?




Remember, you don’t want to pre-solve all the problems!

It’s in solving problems that students participate in the exploration!

It’s in helping them solve problems (some of which you may not have encountered before!) that you give them the benefit of your own experience and show them that you are a fellow scholar.

But limit the number of problems you want to leave for them based on time and abilities..

How to guide:

Providing initial experimental guidelines:

You might tell them to eliminate all variables other than those they are interested in, including any source of water movement not related to slope and any variations in depth of water, etc.

(They can come up with creative ways to keep variables constant)



How to guide:

Prompt questions:

Do you think the height of your giant waterfall when you pour the water in might have an effect?

Do you think the depth of water makes a difference?

(They can come up with creative ways to test whether the extra variable is a problem, or ways to avoid that variable’s effect)



Graphing:

Have them conceive of a proper graph.

Give them a line graph, but they have to figure out how to label axes

You give a line graph, with labeled axes, they plot data

Have them use a pseudo-bar graph, and they indicate where pebbles moved.

Interpreting Results


Example graph concept I used for 4-6th graders—pseudo-bar graph with labeling for experimental results.

Graphing:



Applying to the real world:

Stories in the rocks: Shale vs Sandstone: what story does it tell?

Hadrosaurs along the Cretaceous Sea in South Dakota: Bones found in a very fine-grained mudstone.

Did they live in the swamp by the sea, or up in the hills with the faster rivers?




Modern environments: High energy or Low energy environment of deposition?

Interpreting ResultsExperimental component


Modern environments:

Field Trip along the river:

Where do we find bigger particles, where the river is flowing fast or slow?



Applying to the real world: Enlarging on concept:Interpreting Results

Experimental componentX

Key Story of Meteorology:What causes condensation?

Experiment-like learning activities

Conceptual learning activity

Field application—reading stories in the Earth


Experiment-like learning activities: Capacity of air to hold water vapor

Different starting point and approach to unit than with stories in sediment.

Start with a common misconception: Storms and condensation are caused by “mixing” of cold and warm air.

Use short “concept illustration” experimental activities rather than more comprehensive true experiments.



Experimental design:

Why balloon?

Why heat tube?




Why balloon? Keep mass constant inside tube-balloon and somewhat control P without making a bomb!

Why heat tube?




Why balloon?

Why heat tube? I added a tiny bit of moisture, which I evaporate by heating, making more vapor inside and more distinct result when I cool.



Check Tube after heating—no condensation or cloudiness

Cool Tube in ice water



Qualitative results:

1) Evaporation occurs with heating, condensation with cooling.

2) Condensation occurs by cooling a single air mass, not by mixing air masses.

Warmed tube—no condensation

Cooled tube—with condensation



Can also show development of frost on a can—Salt and ice inside the can lower the outer temperature of the can well below both the dewpoint and the freezing point, (unless the room is very dry!)


Graphing Thought Puzzle—based on experiment, which graph is correct?

Temperature

Wat

er in

air

Condensation

No Condensa

tion

Temperature

Wat

er in

air

No Condensa

tion

Condensation

Temperature

Wat

er in

air No Condensation

Condensation

A B

Temperature

Wat

er in

air

No Condensation

CondensationC D



So, what makes air cool down?Hint: NOT mixing of cold and warm air

Cold GroundWarm Ground

Wind

Heat lost to space cools ground, which cools air next to the ground



So, what makes air cool down?(the biggie)



So, what makes air expand?Air pressure is lower at higher elevation,

thus when air rises it expands

LMountain

wind

Front- Cold air

Front- warm air


Conceptual Learning Activity--Capacity of air to hold water vapor


Conceptual Learning Activity--Capacity of air to hold water vapor

1. Fill the small 0-degree cup with beans until the contents are level with the top of the container. Pour the contents into the mid-size 10-degree cup. The capacity of the air to hold water vapor approximately ______________ when the temperature increases 10 Celsius degrees.

6. Air filled to its capacity with water vapor is called saturated air. If saturated air at 20 degrees is cooled 20 degrees, how much of its water vapor must condense?

7. What would the relative humidity be if saturated (100% RH) air were warmed from 0 degrees to 20 degrees Celsius?

9. What is the approximate dew point of air at 20 degrees with a relative humidity of 50%? To find out, fill the 20-degree cup half full. Then, pour it into the 10-degree cup.

10. What is the dew point of air saturated at 0 degrees when the air temperature is raised to 10 degrees without the addition of water vapor? To find out, pour a filled 0-degree cup into 10-degree cup and ask yourself whether or not the dew point changed.

11. If saturated air at 20 degrees is cooled to 10 degrees, what is its final dew point? To help find your answer, attempt to pour a filled 20-degree cup into 10-degree cup while asking yourself how much water vapor the 10-degree cup is holding compared to its capacity.

Key Story of Meteorology: What causes condensation?Conceptual Learning Activity: Capacity of air to hold water vapor


Field application: Reading Stories in the Earth

It’s harder to plan a meteorology field trip than a geology field trip (do you hope for a blizzard?). To incorporate field experiences, I have students keep a term-long weather journal and in that journal not only observe weather, but interpret their observations in light of lab and class activities.

I also present puzzles in class which they have to interpret (and which helps them with journals). This, too, is story telling!



Why are the clouds close to the same level and flat-bottomed?

Key Story of Meteorology:What causes

condensation?


Example Puzzles Why are the clouds banded?


condensation?


Example Puzzles:

“Steam” fog. What are the conditions of air and water? Is this morning or evening?



Example Puzzles



Advection fog over lake—How different from steam fog in appearance? What are differences in conditions of air and water (ice)?


condensation?


Which picture is Spring, which is Autumn?



(understanding experiments)

Hint: Can you see water vapor?

Is this liquid or gaseous water?

Temperature

Wat

er in

air




Hint: When water emerges from the flask, what form is it in?

Why don’t we see steam here?

Temperature

Wat

er in

air




Q: Why is the humidity inside the house low in winter even when humidity outside is 100% (as shown by fog condensation on lilacs)



Radiation fog


condensation?


Example Puzzles--Frost



Advection fog


condensation?


Hoar Frost

Conclusions (maybe just teaching reminders):

Remember that Earth Science it about telling stories! Make sure that your units end with the goal of knowing how to read the stories written in the Book of Nature.

Make the coordinated activities/field trips/experiments of a unit your own, so that students see that you are engaged with your discipline as a fellow scholar

Do real experiments, and find ways to provide guidance and constraints without stomping out student creativity and input.


Russ Colson

Earth History Russ Colson, Professor of Geology, Anthropology and Earth Science, Minnesota State University, Moorhead


The main goal of Earth Science is not to know the “natural laws”, but rather to read and tell stories of how things happened in Earth’s past and to explain how events in the natural world transpire. How can you engage your students in reading stories of their own? Can you provide a limited number of exploratory options while still allowing student input into the inquiry process?

Examples of reading the stories in sedimentary rocks and in Earth’s weather will be explored. Come try out your own earth-reading skills.

Eye to the World: MSUM planetarium gets new digital projector

As teachers, we have to offer students something that can’t be done better with the excellent visual and conceptual learning experiences possible with modern computers, videos, and even the amazing surround-sound-and-sight projections of a planetarium! That means, we have to DO SCIENCE WITH THEM!

Reading Stories from the Earth and Sky, Feb 10, 2012

Activity and picture copyrights are owned by Russ Colson, except as noted in the powerpoint “notes”. Free use is granted for educational purposes only.

Reading Stories from the Earth and Sky Russ Colson Professor of Geology Minnesota State University Moorhead MESTA Conference, Feb 10, 2012.

Documents

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sedimentary rocks

storiesnaming rocks

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