THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS FOR INTUITIVE UNDERSTANDING OF GEOLOGIC PROCESSES

Students in geoscience classes can relate some geologic processes to their own lives because they walk and drive in geological areas. They are exposed to rocks and soils frequently and may understand intuitively some of the concepts involved in geology. However, there are some aspects of geology that students are not frequently exposed to such as behavior of magma, seismic waves, and groundwater. Intuitive understanding of such processes may be aided by using thought experiments involving everyday activities that the students have been exposed to. These simple thought experiments are directed by the course instructor and allow the student to imagine behavior of common materials in common activities. (An example applicable to a confined aquifer would be the behavior of cola in a McDonalds’s cup with a lid and two straws. What will happen if you blow in one straw? Why?) Students can predict what will happen under certain circumstances and apply their intuitive understanding of this behavior to the more exotic geological processes. These thought experiments are useful in the classroom to aid in student understanding of geological processes.