LABORATORY BASED ANALOGS OF GEOLOGIC PHENOMENA FOR THE EARTH SCIENCE CLASSROOM

The earth sciences are, by nature, tactile. Hands-on lab activities play an integral role in any earth sciences teaching environment. Classroom analogs of real world phenomena can be excellent teaching tools to convey geologic concepts. Described here are three laboratory based, hands on activities designed for introductory college level courses.

First is a bench top scale model of a cinder cone dubbed the 'Sander Cone'. Pressurized air is used to carry sand from a hopper to a vent in a table where the sand erupts to form a cinder cone. Grain size and air flow can be varied to produce different sizes of cones. Acrylic windows can be placed next to the vent for a cross section view of the cone and allow the observer to see how material is reworked inside of the cone as well as quantify muzzle velocity of ejecta. Colored sand can be added to the hopper to produce marker beds.

Second, real world sediment cores are modeled using split 4” PVC pipe with 1/32” acrylic dividers to prevent mixing. In the latest incarnation of this activity, a set of nine spatially distributed 'cores' through a series of paleotempestites is used and students are charged with the task of first producing a sedimentological log for their core and then correlating that log across the entirety of the study area. Mapping of overwash deposits is used to characterize frequency and magnitude of storm events which can be compared to the historical record and further related to climate change.

Third is an experiment to examine the relationship of atmospheric carbon dioxide content to the greenhouse effect. An array of aquariums with a heat lamp suspended above and varying amounts of CO2 pumped into each is designed to represent three different scenarios of anthropogenic CO2 production. Once the heat lamps are turned on, students measure the internal temperature of each aquarium at 30 second intervals and the resultant temperature curves over time demonstrate how atmospheric CO2 effects warming.