Bringing the 'wow' factor

Donna Kill's 8th grade science students at Cardington Junior High have been digging deep into geology studies with the resources she received from the Ohio Oil and Gas-sponsored Geology workshop.

For Scaling Out Earth's Layers, Kill had the students use register tape to create the layers. Although some students' inaccurate measurements threw off the representation as a whole, Kill said she now knows how to coach next year's class through it.

She describes how she presented Mapping Earth’s Layers: "This activity was done as a Think-Pair-Share Activity. Students were given ten index cards and asked to cut them in half. I divided the students into groups of two and had the students copy the word bank onto their 20 cards. I showed them how to start with the first four cards as demonstrated on page 12 of the OOGEEP manual. The students then worked together to build the correct diagram representing Earth’s Interior Structure. The first three teams to get the correct answer got fun size candy bars. Students were then given the answer, placed their cards in the correct place, studied the matrix and asked questions. Students then mixed the cards up, with the exception of the first four cards, and raced against the clock to build the correct diagram. Any team that could build the correct response within 30 seconds was given a fun size candy bar. This activity made for a fun way to review for the test!"

Candy came up again in Edible Tectonics: "Actually using the fun-sized Milky Way candy bar and knowing that once they worked through the questions that the Milky Way could be devoured was a huge incentive! We read about this concept in our Ohio Science Fusion textbook, but this activity truly revealed who understood plate movement and who didn’t. Students, who usually waste time, got right to work completing the activity. I led the activity from the front of the class and students didn’t hesitate to provide the answers and write the response on their worksheet. We worked together so any student that took too much time was positively encouraged to complete their answer so the class could move on. This was a successful activity. Students requested that we do this review again before the AIR test in May...and I said absolutely, “YES!”"

Students enjoyed the OOGEEP activities because they provided a hands-on approach that built on what they had read about in the Ohio Fusion Workbook that we use daily in class. Kill said the biggest ‘a-ha’ moment came during the Edible Tectonics lesson. "Students were amazed at the elasticity of the candy bar and then were able to apply that to the movement of Earth’s plates, crust and magma. Reading about elasticity is one thing, but then to watch how the caramel would stretch and then be compressed to create folds, left a lasting impression. The students were also amazed by the amount of Lithosphere and Crust in comparison to the other layers that make up Earth. Again, it is one thing to look at the workbook’s graphics but then to be given a piece of register tape that is about 160 cm in length and to have a majority of it represent the Earth’s interior and only .5 cm represent the crust made the students rethink the true size and scale of our planet!"

Kill said, "The workshop helped me as an educator because it gave me tools that I can use to educate my students. The beautiful posters helped to decorate my classroom while informing students of complex concepts. The OOGEEP Geology workshop curriculum has been very handy to reference and has provided me with master copies of each unit’s activities to provide for students. I also appreciated the unit answers provided in the back of the curriculum. The mineral and rock kit samples have made for a fantastic reference source. And as odd as it sounds, the box that all of our materials came in has been a fantastic way to hold all of the resource materials together. It stands out from the other boxes in my storage area and I know exactly where to go to quickly grab the materials for my class presentations! The background information and materials provided by the OOGEEP staff were well prepared and that made for an informative and very enjoyable learning experience."