ALABAMA ROCKS! - A STUDENT COMMUNITY PROJECT TO EQUIP PUBLIC SCHOOL SCIENCE CLASSES WITH RELEVANT TEACHING COLLECTIONS

In the spring of 2005, undergraduate geology students at the University of South Alabama began a community project to improve public school Earth science education in southwestern Alabama. Their goal was to provide a comprehensive collection of important Alabama rocks and sediments to every public middle and high school in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. Thirty four specimens representing 24 sedimentary, 9 metamorphic and 1 igneous rock were collected during field trips across the state by geology students and faculty. Ten additional specimens (8 igneous, 1 sedimentary, 1 metamorphic) were added to the collection from sources outside of the state, or from commercial sources, in order to include important rock types not well represented in Alabama (e.g., pumice, basalt, halite, diorite). The 44 rocks comprising each of the Alabama Rocks! kits are a vast improvement over traditional store bought versions in several important ways. They represent the most important rock units within the state thereby providing locally relevant examples of geology to the students. They are also much larger specimens (500 – 1000 g each) which allows students and teachers to better recognize compositional and textural difference between the rocks. In addition, we provided very detailed information about each specimen to the teachers so that they would be more confident about the specimens when instructing their students. Supplementary materials include a large format geological map of Alabama, relevant cross-disciplinary teaching activities for middle school and high school-level laboratories, and access to a website for additional student/teacher materials. The completion of the kits, 100 in total, was done on a volunteer basis by geology students. Students will also have the opportunity to receive community service academic credit through a special topics geology course if they help with future workshops that will be run to instruct public school teachers to use the Alabama Rocks! collections in their science classes.