RECONSTRUCTING INDIANA'S GLACIAL HISTORY IN COLLABORATION WITH LOCAL MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

During the last glacial maximum 2/3 of Indiana was covered by glacier ice, however, the behavior of the contributing ice lobes remains poorly constrained. Many exposures of till in Indiana comprise two distinct till units. Point counts of rock samples from these tills yield an igneous/metamorphic ratio (I/M) =1.4 for the brown, highly oxidized surface till and a ratio I/M=2.5 for the underlying gray till. Based on these preliminary data, we hypothesize that the I/M ratio is distinct for each till and can be used to differentiate one from another. Thus, the I/M ratios from widely distributed till samples in Indiana could constrain the extent of a particular till and possibly the flow path of the ice lobes.

We have designed and implemented an outreach project involving Middle-School teachers and their students in a provenance study of the tills in Indiana. Participating teachers attend a workshop designed to help them understand the project, improve their knowledge and identification skills of rocks, and develop strategies to help students with identifying/classifying rocks. Teacher and students select a site, collect large random samples of golf ball to fist-sized till rocks, classify the rocks as igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary, and determine I/M ratios. The data are sent to IUPUI and are posted on our web site, making the results accessible to all participants.

When designing our till study we had several goals in mind: to address a real scientific question, to involve of a large number of students, to provide a useful learning experience for both teachers and students, to think of something that students would really enjoy doing, and to make a project that teachers could easily fit into their current curriculum. By involving students and teachers in scientific research we expect to enhance their enthusiasm for science, their understanding of scientific methods, their understanding of glacial processes, and their ability to identify earth materials. Our project addresses National Science Standards related to the ‘Structure of the Earth System’, Earth’s History’, and the ‘Nature of Science’ and also Indiana State Science Standards on the ‘Physical Setting of the Earth’ and ‘Habits of the Mind’. We targeted middle school students because the state science standards specify that they take earth science courses.