A CAMPUS WALK TO PROMOTE A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF GEOLOGIC TIME

Earth’s age and history are beyond an individual’s human experience, thus posing a fundamental challenge to understanding the Geologic Time Scale. Researchers such as Libarkin and colleagues (2007) studied student difficulties with geologic time. To improve student understanding of geologic time, Resnick and colleagues (2012) developed a paper-based intervention using a hierarchical alignment model and demonstrated positive outcomes. Although their intervention resulted in positive learning outcomes, much remains to be learned about how students develop an understanding of the Geologic Time Scale.

To explore alternative ways to promote college students’ understanding of the Geologic Time Scale, an undergraduate research project was undertaken to develop a kinesthetic activity. The project is theoretically framed with the method of loci or MoL (Bower, 1979; Yates, 1966). The MoL describes a visuospatial strategy for remembering that pairs known locations with to-be remembered items. The MoL intervention designed for this project pairs campus locations familiar to on-campus students with the temporal scale of geologic time. Once students associate geologic events with locations across campus, they can physically “walk through” geologic time as well as mentally visualize that walk. The project follows a quasi-experimental research methodology where the primary test group learns about key events in Earth’s history using a kinesthetic MoL-based intervention, a secondary test group using a hierarchical alignment intervention, and a control group using a more traditional paper-based lab activity.

We will present how the MoL-based intervention was designed and provide an update on the experimental progress made in implementing the intervention. The MoL-based intervention can be incorporated into a lab session and/or implemented as a scale model of geologic time for the public. It has the potential to be customized for almost any college campus or sub/urban environment.