THE USE OF CONFERENCE FIELD TRIPS AS LEARNING TEACHING TOOLS: THE SICCA POINT AND ARBROATH CLIFFS SCOTLAND EXAMPLES

Attempts are being made to get students excited about the earth sciences, and such efforts include presentations and the use of PowerPoints and videos. The internet is a useful resource for teachers, but so is the ‘take home' message from field trips organized through conferences. The Sicca Point and Arbroath Cliffs of Scotland trips are two examples of such field trips.

Sicca Point and Arbroath Cliffs were visited during an international conference held in Dundee, Scotland that is approximately one and one half hours-drive from Edinburgh, Scotland. Within a 40-minute drive east of Edinburgh is the Sicca Point of James Hutton, the father of modern geology. Hutton used the unconformities at the location to show that the Earth is very old. Also, at a site just north of Dundee is a town with beautiful cliffs called Arbroath. The cliffs are approximately two miles long, and within the cliffs are unconformities, faults, joints, and stacks. Sample pictures from the field, along with line drawings, are used to teach students on how to make observations and represent them in their field notebooks.

Attendance of conference-sponsored field trips is strongly encouraged with the possibility of budgeting an extra day to explore nearby areas of geologic interest(s). Also, think of how you could use information and pictures from such areas in motivating/helping your students understand some geologic principles.