THE TRAIL OF TIME: INTEGRATING RESEARCH AND EDUCATION AT GRAND CANYON

Five million visitors to Grand Canyon each year are immediately and irresistibly introduced to geology and Earth science in the broadest possible sense. In cooperation with the National Park Service and the National Science Foundation, we are developing a geologic exhibit and education program entitled: "The Trail of Time". The core project involves a 4.6 km-long trail at the edge of the Canyon on the south rim. The trail is scaled so that one meter represents one million years of Earth history. The Trail begins with the formation of the Earth and ends with geosocietal issues surrounding the interaction of humans with the Canyon. Along the way, visitors will see the rocks and relationships which shape our current understanding of the Canyon's history. The highlight of the trail will be large (car-size) rock samples arranged to illustrate their setting in the field. These will be associated with telescopes aimed at the units in their actual locations, maps and photographs to illustrate more general rock distributions, and interactive demonstrations of the processes represented by and recorded in the samples. The Trail begins with a "What is a Million Trail", which explores the magnitude of this number-the approximate number of years that pass with each step of the Trail. It ends with two trails that are rescaled to shorter time spans. Splitting off at about 10 meters from the end, the "Trail of Canyon cutting" uses the intriguing 100-year-long debate about Canyon incision to highlight the scientific method, and in the last meter the "Trail of Humanity" explores the archeological and historical record. The ultimate goal is for visitors to walk through both the geology and the geologic history of the Canyon, and to gain an understanding of the fundamentals of Earth science and the scientific method. The Trail of Time will be a dynamic display, changing as new scientific discoveries are made, and is designed to reach all levels of visitors, from children to other scientists. The scientific component will use new information technologies to organize information into interactive, spatially oriented databases, provide digital maps and images of the Grand Canyon, and provide a venue for long-term GIS-based data integration and management. It is our hope that this effort will serve as a model for geoscience interpretation in other National Parks.