BRINGING GEOLOGY TO LIFE: USING LITERARY METHODS TO CONSTRUCT KNOWLEDGE IN GEOLOGY

A major challenge of teaching geology is bringing to life a field of science focused on inanimate objects, primarily dead organisms, and processes that operate over vast timescales. Because non-majors often find it difficult to engage in a subject that doesn’t reflect their own experience, bringing geology to life is important for taking students beyond superficial learning towards a deeper construct of geologic knowledge. Three literary strategies for engaging audiences--personification, anecdotes, and universal personal experiences--can be employed in geology to foster our students’ ability to construct a more thorough understanding of geologic concepts. The first strategy, personification, is a literary device that creates a human connection to inanimate objects by attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects. By giving “life” to inanimate objects such as rocks and minerals, we can create a way for students to relate to and therefore, understand unfamiliar concepts about rocks and minerals. For example, radioactive isotopes can be personified as people who change their identities, and mineral bonding can be personified as “opposites attract,” “you complete me,” and “swinging” types of human relationships. The second useful device for bringing geology to life is anecdotes. Coupled with geologic concepts, anecdotes can teach and reinforce in the same way that stories have been used throughout human history to teach and preserve knowledge. As an example, a story about a scuba diver who is seasick on the boat ride to and from the dive, but not seasick while diving below the wave base, can provide an accessible way for students to understand the diminishing effects of wave motion at depth. Finally, universal personal experiences, can also illustrate geologic concepts. For instance, everyone who has experienced creating a stadium wave can understand why water molecules travel in an elliptical motion despite the linear propagation of the wave. Similarly, anyone who has experienced stress has also experienced how rocks react to stress. Bringing geology to life through personification, anecdotes, and universal life experiences helps students construct a knowledge of geology by making geology more relatable and memorable.