THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF GEOLOGICAL ENRICHMENT EDUCATION FOR FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS AT CLINTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A five-week geology enrichment program was designed and implemented for a group of twenty-four fourth grade students enrolled at Clinton Elementary School in Clinton, New York. The curriculum was self-designed and incorporated both New York State and national science standards for the fourth grade level. The program encompassed five main topics in geoscience including mineralogy, a combination of volcanology and plate tectonics, meteorology, paleontology, and planetary geology. A diverse array of teaching methods were developed to communicate the information and to encourage student participation in each topic of discussion. These methods included hands-on laboratory work, classroom activities with supplementary worksheets, group discussions, lectures, demonstrations, active note taking, the examination of specimen samples, daily handouts, and optional homework assignments. Although this program was completed with students at the fourth grade level, it could be implemented with equal success in third and fifth grade classrooms. Educators could also easily modify and adjust classroom activities and geology units to accommodate any monetary or temporal limitations of the educational setting.