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Teaching Early Earth
On the Cutting Edge Faculty
Professional Development Program
NSF/DUE CCLI-National
Dissemination Program
Conveners
Mike Williams, U Mass, Amherst
Cathy Manduca, Carleton College
Dave Mogk, Montana State U.
Early Earth…
• Addresses some of the most fundamental
questions, and
• Is the focus of some of the most exciting
research in the geosciences.
• Provides a great context to simultaneously
– Learn more about recent advances in understanding
the early history of the Earth system—the solid earth,
atmosphere/ocean, and life;
– Use an Earth system perspective
– Explore ways to effectively teach about topics that
have no certain answers
• We’ll start with some “big questions”…
What is the origin of the
Earth-Moon system?
How did these planets,
accrete and differentiate?
www.lpi.usra.edu/.../gallery/slide_17.html
What are the “impacts” of the earliest
history of Earth?
Martian Lava Flow and Impact Crater
Crater is ~ 3 km across.
Image from NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory
What were the
conditions on
the surface of
the Earth in the
Hadean?
A terrestrial
Hell?
Image: 1984 Kiluea eruption.
Photograph by J.D. Griggs,
USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Or…
A Cool Early
Earth, (2002)
Geology. 30: 351-354.
John W. Valley,
William H. Peck,
Elizabeth M. King,
Simon A. Wilde,
(Graphic: Andrée Valley
and Mary Diman)
Plates and/or Plumes???
Continental
Crust—
How old?
How much?
What
composition?
Tectonics– Plate or Other????
What is…..
Why and how did
life begin and
evolve on Earth?
Was there a
single, last
uniform central
ancestor
(LUCA)? Or…
Photo courtesy of the National Human Genome Research Institute
Did life emerge multiply on
Earth, at different times, in
different environments?
Above, a black smoker vent on the Juan de
Fuca Ridge. Below, spectacular tubeworms
discovered at Explorer Ridge.
Images courtesy of NOAA
Images courtesy of National Park Service/Thermal Biology Institute
What can we learn from (paleo)genomics?
Image courtesy of Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory.
Simulating biological networks in the presence
or absence of specific metabolites, such as
molecular oxygen, provides new insights into
the evolution of life’s chemical capabilities. This
image of one such simulation was created by
LLNL postdoctoral researcher Jason Raymond.
What does the fossil record tell us?
conical stromatolites
Photo courtesy of Geological Survey of
Western Australia. Photos by Martin
Van Kranendonk
How has life affected the
evolution of the
atmosphere, oceans, and
global geochemical
cycling?
Are modern
environments
appropriate analogues
for ancient systems?
Stromatolites at Shark Bay, Western
Australia. Photo by Warwick Hillier.
Early Earth…
• Do uniformitarian processes result in non-uniformitarian
products in the early Earth?
– E.g. Comparing Archean and Phanerozoic “TTG” rock
suites—does this necessarily imply
a) similar petrogenetic processes,
b) tectonic environments?
Acasta Gneiss
Coast Range Batholith
Teaching Early Earth…
• Provides a context for addressing the
pedagogic challenges related to
– Teaching about the open, dynamic,
heterogeneous, and complex, Earth system
– Teaching about the incomplete geologic
record
– Teaching about topics that have no clear-cut
answers, where the data are, perhaps,
ambiguous or conflicting.
• How do we teach about “uncertain”
science?
Early Earth…
• Provides a great opportunity to…
– Demonstrate exciting new research
discoveries
– Demonstrate the processes of Science
– Help students develop “scientific habits of the
mind”
– Develop case studies that require
understanding of fundamental principles,
integrate multiple lines of evidence…
– Get students involved…there’s obviously a lot
we don’t know, and hopefully, students will be
motivated to learn more and to contribute.
Teaching Early Earth…
• The “big questions” about early Earth
provides an ideal setting for
– Many kinds of active learning
– Critical thinking
– Inquiry and discovery
– Integration of research and education
– Using the approaches and techniques
required to formulate answers
On the Cutting Edge Program
goals & components
• Improving undergraduate geoscience
education through supporting faculty in
improving content and instruction
– A synergistic, integrated multi-year series of
workshops
– A website to support workshops and reach the
broader geoscience community
– An expanding community of geoscience
educators with a strong and diverse leadership
• Research on what faculty need, how
faculty work, optimizing impacts
About this Workshop
•
•
•
•
•
New Friends
New Ideas
New Questions
New Strategies
Informal and interactive
Resources at SERC to help
serc.carleton.edu
Early Earth…
Workshop products for the community
• Produce “key question” webpages
• Teaching activity collections for use by all
Our goals for you
• Learn “cutting edge” science
• Take home new ideas for your teaching
• Build new networks of colleagues
• Continue to participate and contribute…
Early Earth…
• This workshop is just a start…
– Build a network of colleagues interested in
improving teaching about the early earth
– Sharing resources and ideas via the website
and listserv
– Follow-on activities; theme sessions at GSA,
AGU, etc.
– Reach out and invite a colleague to join us
– Contribute!
To Start: Round Table Discussion
What are the big questions?
• Craft at least two questions each addressing a different
one of the following: solid earth, life, ocean/atmosphere,
Earth System
• Each question should be suitable as a theme for a oneweek unit in your teaching
How do we teach about questions with no
certain answers?
• Controvesy, ambiguity, incomplete evidence….
• Specific examples…