THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PETRIFIED WOOD AS A GEOBIOLOGICAL PORTAL TO IDENTIFY MISCONCEPTIONS IN GEOLOGIC TIME, FOSSILIZATION, AND MINERALOGICAL COMPOSITION

Because petrified wood is ubiquitous, we hypothesized it might be an effective portal through which interdisciplinary scientific concepts could be taught. Our first classroom investigations involved non-science majors in undergraduate geology courses; we probed the effectiveness of petrified wood to address geologic time, fossilization processes, and fossil properties. Our investigations revealed significant learning (α = 0.05) in classrooms where petrified wood was directly incorporated. We validated the Petrified Wood Survey^TM (PWS) as a testing instrument, and uncovered student misconceptions for fossil composition and fossilization time.

Because many students reported they had previous petrified wood instruction by completion of high school, we extended our research to earlier educational influences on college students: We investigated primary and secondary teachers’ content knowledge of petrified wood, and probed potential investigative techniques for effective petrified wood study in K-12 classrooms. Participants included in-service teachers (N = 97) who chose to participate in 4 science professional development programs.

Teachers completed the PWS, compared samples of petrified and modern wood, and field-tested a simple activity that mimicked the fossilization process. In-service teachers performed significantly better (α = 0.05) than the non-science majors on the PWS. However, detailed analysis revealed that the majority of teachers held persistent misconceptions about the time involved in fossilization processes (64-72%), origin of the woods’ colors (73-83%), and its composition (64 – 91%). Although in-service teachers who participated in geoscience professional development scored better than their colleagues, no specific content trend was discerned.

Reflections on fossil and wood comparisons (n = 39) revealed 23% of teachers continued to think that fossil wood was hundreds or thousands of years old. Other misconceptions about composition (“marble,” “carbon”) were also revealed. However, several activities were affirmed as effective for petrified wood investigation in the K-12 classroom. We propose our latest research affirms the use of petrified wood to address several geological concepts and uncover misconceptions.