"SURREPTITIOUS SPECIMENS" ENHANCE THE RETENTION OF CONCEPTS IN GEOLOGIC PRESENTATIONS

Children’s curiosity, destructiveness and surreptitiousness usually discourage those who might share geologic collections during presentations. One teaching technique turns these proclivities into opportunities for long-term geologic concept retention.

To utilize this technique outline two or three talks you are qualified to present so you can assemble a targeted teaching collection with a variety of specimens that illustrate important concepts. This provides the framework for inclusion of surreptitious specimens within the teaching collection.

Presentation is paramount this technique. The specimens should be similar to one of the teaching specimens, easily incorporated with the teaching specimen, large enough or abundant enough to distribute to each participant, and incorporated with the appropriate teaching specimen prior to the presentation. During the talk mention should be made of the rarity of the teaching specimens and importance of their remaining intact. The teaching specimens should be displayed one at a time to reinforce the concepts discussed. No special mention should be made when the surreptitious specimens are displayed with their appropriate teaching specimen, although a very brief demonstration can be made of characteristics (e.g. flaking mica, or chipping off of a piece of petrified wood). The targeted specimens must appear important and inseparable from the main collection. At or near the end of the talk revisit the surreptitious specimens again, pause as if considering something important, and decide verbally that you are going to do something special for the participants so they will remember the important concepts you have presented. Then allow them to acquire the intended specimens; a destructive method is the most impressive.

I have utilized muscovite, petrified wood, coprolites, fossil sharks’ teeth, fossil echinoderms and fluorite/amethyst beads as surreptitious specimens. These are readily available inexpensively from online sources or as extras from mineral dealers. Every presentation in which I have used this technique (over 2,000 students) has been met with enthusiasm and concept retention which has lasted years.