The main goal of this lesson is to get students familiar with the idea that geology is
something tangible and that it affects the world around them. They should be inspired to
ask questions about how geologic processes shaped the world around them and make
observations to answer those questions. All of this on their schoolyard.

During the introductory activity, students learn that geology is a lot like detective work.
Geologists infer the sequence and timing of events by collecting evidence and making
observations, just like a detective.

Students first make observations of a murder mystery.

Then, they try to use simple principles to develop a story that is consistent with these
observations. Many of the principles they use in the murder mystery are exactly the
same as a geologist uses in determining the history of a landscape. Photographs relate the murder mystery to real geology.

Teachers can then take their students outside to explore their new found geologic
interpretation skills. Because every schoolyard is slightly different, teachers will need to
adapt this excursion to their own unique setting. The rest of the web site is a collection
of example geologic features that might have analogs in the schoolyard.

Teachers should browse the images and walk around their schoolyard looking for similar features. There are also links to background information and classroom activities about those features that serve as a jumping off point for teaching a wide variety of topics in earth science.

A teacher could plan a single fifty minute field trip to the schoolyard to explore all the
features, or use images from this section throughout their entire earth science unit.

Content PDF url: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

The main goal of this lesson is to get students familiar with the idea that geology is
something tangible and that it affects the world around them. They should be inspired to
ask questions about how geologic processes shaped the world around them and make
observations to answer those questions. All of this on their schoolyard.

During the introductory activity, students learn that geology is a lot like detective work.
Geologists infer the sequence and timing of events by collecting evidence and making
observations, just like a detective.

Students first make observations of a murder mystery.

Then, they try to use simple principles to develop a story that is consistent with these
observations. Many of the principles they use in the murder mystery are exactly the
same as a geologist uses in determining the history of a landscape. Photographs relate the murder mystery to real geology.

Teachers can then take their students outside to explore their new found geologic
interpretation skills. Because every schoolyard is slightly different, teachers will need to
adapt this excursion to their own unique setting. The rest of the web site is a collection
of example geologic features that might have analogs in the schoolyard.

Teachers should browse the images and walk around their schoolyard looking for similar features. There are also links to background information and classroom activities about those features that serve as a jumping off point for teaching a wide variety of topics in earth science.

A teacher could plan a single fifty minute field trip to the schoolyard to explore all the
features, or use images from this section throughout their entire earth science unit.

Content PDF url: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

The main goal of this lesson is to get students familiar with the idea that geology is
something tangible and that it affects the world around them. They should be inspired to
ask questions about how geologic processes shaped the world around them and make
observations to answer those questions. All of this on their schoolyard.

During the introductory activity, students learn that geology is a lot like detective work.
Geologists infer the sequence and timing of events by collecting evidence and making
observations, just like a detective.

Students first make observations of a murder mystery.

Then, they try to use simple principles to develop a story that is consistent with these
observations. Many of the principles they use in the murder mystery are exactly the
same as a geologist uses in determining the history of a landscape. Photographs relate the murder mystery to real geology.

Teachers can then take their students outside to explore their new found geologic
interpretation skills. Because every schoolyard is slightly different, teachers will need to
adapt this excursion to their own unique setting. The rest of the web site is a collection
of example geologic features that might have analogs in the schoolyard.

Teachers should browse the images and walk around their schoolyard looking for similar features. There are also links to background information and classroom activities about those features that serve as a jumping off point for teaching a wide variety of topics in earth science.

A teacher could plan a single fifty minute field trip to the schoolyard to explore all the
features, or use images from this section throughout their entire earth science unit.

Content PDF url: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

The main goal of this lesson is to get students familiar with the idea that geology is
something tangible and that it affects the world around them. They should be inspired to
ask questions about how geologic processes shaped the world around them and make
observations to answer those questions. All of this on their schoolyard.

During the introductory activity, students learn that geology is a lot like detective work.
Geologists infer the sequence and timing of events by collecting evidence and making
observations, just like a detective.

Students first make observations of a murder mystery.

Then, they try to use simple principles to develop a story that is consistent with these
observations. Many of the principles they use in the murder mystery are exactly the
same as a geologist uses in determining the history of a landscape. Photographs relate the murder mystery to real geology.

Teachers can then take their students outside to explore their new found geologic
interpretation skills. Because every schoolyard is slightly different, teachers will need to
adapt this excursion to their own unique setting. The rest of the web site is a collection
of example geologic features that might have analogs in the schoolyard.

Teachers should browse the images and walk around their schoolyard looking for similar features. There are also links to background information and classroom activities about those features that serve as a jumping off point for teaching a wide variety of topics in earth science.

A teacher could plan a single fifty minute field trip to the schoolyard to explore all the
features, or use images from this section throughout their entire earth science unit.

Content PDF url: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

Presentation by Mary Finley-Brook is on climate justice and the research work she has done in Newport News.  The economically depressed south end of Newport News is particularly vulnerable to environmental toxins from the nearby shipyard, coal terminal, and interstate highway that transects their neighborhood.

Students will be able to critically identify key tipping points in the evolution of political parties.  They will be able to connect this evolution to geographic elements and identify causation factors that led to this evolution. Key question: How did political parties impact the geography of the United States between 1792 and 1972? Contains links to student materials and teacher materials for creating lesson plans.

Science Instructional Plans (SIPs) help teachers align instruction with the Science Standards of Learning (SOL) by providing examples of how the content and the scientific and engineering practices found in the SOL and curriculum framework can be presented to students in the classroom.

The geologic timeline activity is a hands-on experience that will have your students create a geologic timeline. Students will complete this after notes on the geologic timeline have been given as a reinforcement activity. Students love the ability to get on the floor and create a timeline.

Students explore geomagnetism with compasses, navigation exercises, and a geo-caching activity and explore aurora and space weather, with an optional field trip to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The concepts of points, lines, planes, line segments, and rays are crucial for creating a great foundation on which to understand Geometry. Unlike the real-world objects that they model, points, lines, and planes do not have any actual size.  In geometry, point, line, and plane are considered undefined terms beacause they are only explained using examples and descriptions.  In this lesson, students will be able to describe, name, and sketch a picture of a point, line, plane, line segment, ray, and opposite rays.  

Students will use their devices to find and take pictures of examples of vocabulary terms such as point, line, plane, ray, segment, parallel, perpendicular, and angle.

Identifying and describing parts of a circle and the relationship between the parts. Mathematics Instructional Plans (MIPs) help teachers align instruction with the  Mathematics Standards of Learning (SOL) by providing examples of how the knowledge, skills and processes found in the SOL and curriculum framework can be presented to students in the classroom.

This resource is a series of Google Slides that asks if two attributes of quadrilaterals and triangles can exist together 'Never, Sometimes, or Always.' After posing the question, the following slide will show the an and possible examples of the given polygons.

This is a set of four, one-page problems about the distance craft travel on Mars. Learners will use the Pythagorean Theorem to determine distance between a series of hypothetical exploration sites within Gale Crater on Mars. Options are presented so that students may learn about the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission through a NASA press release or by viewing a NASA eClips video [6 min.]. This activity is part of the Space Math multi-media modules that integrate NASA press releases, NASA archival video, and mathematics problems targeted at specific math standards commonly encountered in middle school.

Identify, describe, and represent points, lines, line segments, rays, angles, and intersecting, parallel, and perpendicular lines. Mathematics Instructional Plans (MIPs) help teachers align instruction with the Mathematics Standards of Learning (SOL) by providing examples of how the knowledge, skills and processes found in the SOL and curriculum framework can be presented to students in the classroom.

GeoSleuth Murder Mystery
U.S. Geologic Service Educator Lesson Plans

LINK: https://www.usgs.gov/science-support/osqi/yes/resources-teachers/school-yard-geology

Lesson Overview

This murder mystery introduces both the nature of scientific inquiry and important geologic concepts in a very student-friendly, accessible manner. Geology is a lot like detective work. The power of this exercise is that it exposes students to the main goals of geology and even some of the fundamental principles in a setting that they can understand -- a murder mystery. After the class explores the murder mystery, the teacher then shows a range of geologic photos that relate to features in the mystery.

Learning Outcomes
Geologists reconstruct the sequence of events that shaped the present-day landscape by making observations.
Observations are different from interpretations.
Observations are descriptions of things we see. Interpretations are stories about what happened that are based on the observations.
Events that happened in the past are similar to events that we observe today. They follow the same laws of physics.

Materials
Presentation (either as overhead transparency or computer projector). The activity is based around the GeoSleuth murder mystery drawing, shown on the lesson link provided.

Materials have two options:

1. Recommended: Download a prepared presentation complete with the image, supplementary geologic images, and a teacher's guide.

2. Presentation: Powerpoint or Acrobat PDF ~ 3 MB; Teacher's Guide: Acrobat PDF, 1 MB Use the image provided and show on a projector or print it on transparency.

Procedures
1. Have students look at the photo for 1 minute silently by themselves.

2. Ask students to list observations about the image. Write them down on the board as students give them. Be very clear about the difference between observations and interpretation and don't write any interpretations on the board.

3. When you have collected all the observations, ask the class if everyone agrees with these observations.

4. Now the fun begins. Ask for students to volunteer their interpretation about the sequence of events that happened.

5. Let chaos reign for a few minutes as students argue competing theories.

6. Summarize the different interpretations, highlighting the geologic principles that each theory depends upon (shown below).

7. Show the geologic images from the Powerpoint presentation.

8. Put the murder mystery image up and go over the geologic principles again.

9. End class without giving them an answer about what really happened.

Closing the Lesson
It's key to end the activity by returning to the GeoSleuth murder mystery photo. You should not, however, give students a definitive answer to the mystery. That's part of the nature of science -- there is never a right answer. There is only a "best answer," meaning one that is most consistent with the observations and most likely to be true. Different scientists often disagree about which answer is best, even when looking at the same data. This is because data are often incomplete or have large uncertainty.

Homework/Exension
Students can write their own murder mystery, carefully trying to integrate clues that will give the reader evidence of the sequence of events leading up to the murder.

GeoSleuth Murder Mystery
U.S. Geologic Service Educator Lesson Plans

LINK: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/lessonthreeGeoSleuth_3.pdf

Lesson Overview

This murder mystery introduces both the nature of scientific inquiry and important geologic concepts in a very student-friendly, accessible manner. Geology is a lot like detective work. The power of this exercise is that it exposes students to the main goals of geology and even some of the fundamental principles in a setting that they can understand -- a murder mystery. After the class explores the murder mystery, the teacher then shows a range of geologic photos that relate to features in the mystery.

Learning Outcomes
Geologists reconstruct the sequence of events that shaped the present-day landscape by making observations.
Observations are different from interpretations.
Observations are descriptions of things we see. Interpretations are stories about what happened that are based on the observations.
Events that happened in the past are similar to events that we observe today. They follow the same laws of physics.

Materials
Presentation (either as overhead transparency or computer projector). The activity is based around the GeoSleuth murder mystery drawing, shown on the lesson link provided.

Materials have two options:

1. Recommended: Download a prepared presentation complete with the image, supplementary geologic images, and a teacher's guide.

2. Presentation: Powerpoint or Acrobat PDF ~ 3 MB; Teacher's Guide: Acrobat PDF, 1 MB Use the image provided and show on a projector or print it on transparency.

Procedures
1. Have students look at the photo for 1 minute silently by themselves.

2. Ask students to list observations about the image. Write them down on the board as students give them. Be very clear about the difference between observations and interpretation and don't write any interpretations on the board.

3. When you have collected all the observations, ask the class if everyone agrees with these observations.

4. Now the fun begins. Ask for students to volunteer their interpretation about the sequence of events that happened.

5. Let chaos reign for a few minutes as students argue competing theories.

6. Summarize the different interpretations, highlighting the geologic principles that each theory depends upon (shown below).

7. Show the geologic images from the Powerpoint presentation.

8. Put the murder mystery image up and go over the geologic principles again.

9. End class without giving them an answer about what really happened.

Closing the Lesson
It's key to end the activity by returning to the GeoSleuth murder mystery photo. You should not, however, give students a definitive answer to the mystery. That's part of the nature of science -- there is never a right answer. There is only a "best answer," meaning one that is most consistent with the observations and most likely to be true. Different scientists often disagree about which answer is best, even when looking at the same data. This is because data are often incomplete or have large uncertainty.

Homework/Exension
Students can write their own murder mystery, carefully trying to integrate clues that will give the reader evidence of the sequence of events leading up to the murder.