Print this pageInnovative Rocks in Your Head Curriculum Succeeds with Teachers
VAUGHN, PATTY HOLYFIELD
"Rocks in Your Head" a geoscience curriculum for grades 3 through 12 contains classroom-ready materials for hands-on earth science activities. The Hunt for Fossil Fuels fulfills the proposed National Science Education Standards that call for students "...to identify and state a problem, design a solution including cost and risk-and-benefit analysis, implement a solution and evaluate the solution." Well logs, structure base maps, land maps, lease terms, and Dinosaur Dollars are provided, with tasks targeted to three ability levels.
A lesson cycle matrix and individual lesson cycles are two teacher-friendly features that allow each student to be appropriately challenged. Basic or abstract thinking processes, such as comprehension or problem solving, are specified for every activity. Content covers both simple and complex concepts with topics involving universal themes and cross-curricular exercises. Product choices are styled to give all students the opportunity to be successful. For example, "what contribution did I make to geology?" Table Logic Puzzle informs students about important men and women; and it includes templates to create puzzles for other topics of interest. GeoBingo, Geopardy, and Mineral Family Feud represent additional student product ideas that can easily be integrated into any curriculum. The activities appeal to a variety of learning styles, and require little or no teacher preparation time. When students are actively involved, real learning takes place.
AAPG is underwriting teacher training workshops at selected meetings. Participants receive a "Rocks in Your Head" manual, and large rock and mineral samples.