CREATIVITY IN THE COLLEGE GEOLOGY CLASSROOM; THE BENEFITS OF ALTERNATIVES TO ESSAYS

I assigned an end of term essay for my historical geology class concentrating on a particular time period, encouraging them to synthesize concepts about the history of Earth and life. Although it’s important for students to develop writing skills, I’ve prioritized greater student investment by opening the assignment to embrace alternative ways of showcasing the themes of tectonics, climate change, and the diversity of life. My only stringent requirement for students is that choose a particular time period, ranging from Eras to even NALMAs, which allows students to explore this past in greater depth and detail than is possible for the entire 5+ billion year span of Earth’s history. Students are asked to discuss the tectonic setting, while exploring how it impacted Earth’s sea level, biogeography, evolution of landscapes, and climate. Students are instructed to build up from tectonic toward an understanding of the specific impacts on climate. Students are oriented to understand past climate in terms of the proxies (or direct measurements) that are used which aspects of climate they reflect, as well as how constraints and limitations in geochronology affect our record from that period. Students are asked to include both marine and terrestrial flora and fauna (if it exists during that period) and pay particular attention to the appearance of major evolutionary innovations, such as flight and terrestrial habitation. Typically, one or two students select an essay as a comfortable format to present their research, while more embrace the chance to explore deep time creatively, through a departure from the standard essay format. If the student takes one of these creative options, they are still required to have bibliography with 10 peer-reviewed sources, a presentation, and a short written summary of how their creative work address the topics. Past submissions included a cake of the Devonian, multi-movement songs, children’s books, analyzing the accuracy of comics or movies featuring paleontology, art in a variety of formats, Girl Scouts guided hikes, and even local school and museum displays! Student evaluations report increased engagement with the project as compared to an essay, but more importantly, past students gave superlative feedback suggesting students probably are having higher information retention in these formats.