HOW TO TEACH THE LOVE OF ROCKS: TRANSLATING THE LANGUAGE OF GEOLOGY TO INSPIRE CURIOSITY AND ATTRACT FUTURE GEOLOGISTS

Swerving the car while observing road cuts, filling the trunk with rock specimens, planning family vacations around famous geologic features--these are all testaments to our passion for geology. Transferring that passion to students can be difficult, especially considering the unfamiliar terminology and complexity of the science. While teaching the geology portion of an eight-week, natural history course, the California Chaparral Naturalist Certification Program, we discovered that geology was met with dread by most students, and by frustration (and worse) for others. During the first few years of the course, geology was their least favorite topic when compared to other subjects such as botany, evolution, and ecology. After analyzing student reactions, it became clear that not only were the terms and concepts perceived as part of an unknowable, foreign language, but the fact that geology is an essential part of natural history was never properly communicated. We revamped the course to show how wonderful the history of our Earth is--as one that has been pieced together by generations of geologists, the notable ability of geologists to accept evidence that favors hypotheses different from their own, and the fact that understanding geology is fundamental to understanding the evolution life on earth. Since the course changes, students now rate geology as one of their favorite sections in our course. We will explore the methodology utilized to facilitate this remarkable improvement in student attitudes.