STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING GEOLOGICAL AND PALEONTOLOGICAL PROCESSES AND EVENTS OCCURRED IN EARTH HISTORY

Earth history processes and events are difficult to be recognized for many students in Mexico because the basic and intermediate education syllabi do not include enough topics related to Earth Sciences. This is a major problem with undergraduate students. By means of the improvement in understanding these topics, we discuss different activities related with paleontological matters in the classroom.

The activities are designed to guarantee significant learning. We present the results of a particular case with students of the Biology career in Universidad del Mar, in Oaxaca State. The objective of the activity was to understand and visualize the magnitude of time among the different events in Earth history. The students created different models representing all the geological periods as well as important events since our planet developed. Questionnaires after and before the activity were applied to evaluate their learning experience. The results indicate that more than 80 percent of the students can understand geological and paleontological concepts.

An effective strategy of significant learning occurs when scholars use measurable elements in their models to visualize the real magnitude of the geological time scale. It is necessary to design Earth Sciences courses which include effective learning strategies to promote an effective knowledge of the processes and events occurred in Earth history.