LaURGE: 

Louisiana Undergraduate Recruitment and Geoscience Education

Jeffrey G. Agnew¹ and Jeffrey A. Nunn²

¹Department of Geology, Centenary College, 2911 Centenary Blvd., Shreveport, Louisiana  71104

²Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University,

E235 Howe-Russell Complex, Baton Rouge, Louisiana  70803

ABSTRACT

Shell Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsor a program at Louisiana State University and Centenary College called Louisiana Undergraduate Recruitment and Geoscience Education (LaURGE).  Goals of LaURGE are:  (1) interweave geoscience education into the existing curriculum for high school science classes; (2) provide teachers of those classes with lesson plans that promote interest in geoscience, critical thinking by students, relate what is learned in class to the real world, and are consistent with current knowledge/research in geoscience; and (3) provide teachers with equipment/supplies that make these lesson plans the highlights of the course.  As part of this program, workshops for high school biology teachers were held at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and Centenary College in Shreveport in 2008.  We had the teachers do a series of activities on fossil shark teeth to illustrate evolution and introduce basic earth science concepts such as geologic time, superposition, and faunal succession and provided the teachers with lesson plans and materials.  As an example, one of our exercises explores the evolution of the megatoothed shark lineage leading to Carcharocles megalodon, the largest predatory shark in history with teeth up to 17 cm (6.7 in) long.  Megatoothed shark teeth have an excellent fossil record and show continuous transitions in morphology from the Eocene to Pliocene.  Our activity follows the learning cycle model.  We take advantage of the curiosity of sharks shared by most people, and allow students to explore the variations among different shark teeth and to explain the causes of those variations.  The objectives of this exercise are to have the students:  (1) sort fossil shark teeth into biologically reasonable species; (2) form hypotheses about evolutionary relationships among fossil shark teeth; and (3) describe and interpret evolutionary trends in the fossil megatoothed lineage.  The exercise is concluded with a discussion of the environmental and biotic events occurring between the Eocene and Miocene epochs that may have caused the evolutionary changes in the megatooth shark teeth.  Other topics covered in these workshops include radiometric age dating, biogeochemical cycles, and a one day field trip in which teachers collect fossil shark teeth for use in their classrooms.  NSF funding will allow these workshops to be repeated in 2009 and 2010.  In addition, a new workshop for physics teachers will be introduced in 2009. 

Agnew, J. G., and J. A. Nunn, 2009, LaURGE:  Louisiana undergraduate recruitment and geoscience education:  Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions, v. 59, p. 21-33.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90093 © 2009 GCAGS 59th Annual Meeting, Shreveport, Louisiana