258-2 DEVELOPING DATA ANALYSIS SKILLS IN PHYSICAL GEOLOGY LABS

Session: Quantitative and Data Analysis Skills in Geoscience Education: Supporting Student, Course, and Program Outcomes (Posters)

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Introductory Physical Geology students are not often exposed to equations, data collection, and analysis, as many perceive these as barriers to student engagement. To improve their quantitative and analytical skills, we have written an open-access manual, Investigating the Earth: Exercises for Physical Geology, which utilizes these skills in numerous lab exercises. For example, in the first chapter, students analyze hair color data they collected from a small group and their class to extrapolate to larger data sets. Another exercise requires students to measure rock density first by estimating the weight by comparing their sample to known weights, as well as using a scale to assess precision and accuracy in their data. 

All introductory geology labs have students identify minerals and rocks with a set of samples that students observe and identify. We have found that students often attempt to determine the name based on one property and then fill in the remaining properties without observing or testing them. Instead, we use a systematic approach, examining one property at a time to describe their samples, with the focus on accurately identifying properties rather than merely naming them. Then, at the end of the chapter, they use all their data to assign names. Another exercise asks the students to examine earthquake data to discover the effects of fluid injection into sedimentary basins in Texas and Oklahoma. We also have an exercise that requires students to use U/Pb data to calculate the age of several bedrock regions and then interpret detrital zircon geochronologic data to determine sediment provenance. An exercise on eruption frequency shows students how selectively plotting data (“cherry picking”) can yield interpretations that support contentious claims. Students use GPS data from Greenland to interpret the concept of isostasy.

One of our more unique chapters focuses on geophysics, where we utilize several instruments to gather geophysical data. One exercise uses a Vmeter to calculate the shear wave velocity in various rocks. Another uses an array of geophones and a hammer source to create seismic records. Students also calculate wave refraction using Snell’s Law. This culminates in the interpretation of seismic stratigraphy and marine bathymetric data. We find students using these skills in lab are more engaged with data collection and interpretation. 

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

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