GEOLOGICAL WALK THROUGH TIME: A NEW EXHIBIT FOR 21ST CENTURY STATE SCIENCE STANDARDS

The new Geological Walk Through Time (or “Geo Walk”) at the Ohio State Fairgrounds provides Ohio educators and students a unique teaching and learning experience that compliments the new State of Ohio Revised Science Standards and Model Curriculum. Adopted in 2012, the new standards re-envision what Ohio students should know to become scientifically literate citizens equipped for higher education and the twenty-first century workforce. Dedicated in 2012, the new Geo Walk is a 286-ft-long brick path that takes visitors through 450 million years of Ohio’s geologic history. The interactive exhibit features large rock specimens characteristic of each geologic period, from the Cambrian through Pennsylvanian, which visitors can touch and examine up close. Other specimens include industrial minerals, such as coal and salt; building and canal stones; and other rock types, such as flint, that have been important in Ohio’s cultural and economic development. Central to the Geo Walk is a map of the state’s bedrock geology—thought to be the largest outdoor geological map in the world—where visitors can stand and pinpoint their home counties and learn what lies beneath their backyards and neighborhood streets. Posted URL codes enable visitors using personal electronic devices to learn more as they follow the pathway. Ohio educators will find the Geo Walk adaptable to many instructional methods, especially when combined with other educational materials available from the Ohio Geological Survey. Consequently, the Geo Walk is suitable for helping to meet state science standards for such topics as fossils; rocks types; energy and mineral resources; landforms; geologic processes; glacial geology; and geologic time. Guided tours also can be tailored to meet other state standards, such as those for social studies, by demonstrating the vital connections between geology and Ohio’s development as a state.