Landmasses, migration, and biodiversity

The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program provides a geology workshop for teachers. In his AP environmental science class at James Ford Rhodes High School in Cleveland, James Gazda used workshop lessons on continental drift and plate tectonics, and specifically the activity on Pangaea. Gazda said, "The individual continents' cutouts that included the fossil and rock layer evidence made it easier for students to line up the land masses. This activity addressing Pangaea and one land mass helped my students to better understand Biogeography and the migration of animals and humans and how it can be used to understand species diversity."

Gazda also used the activity as a stepping stone to Historical Biogeography and the development of many of the theories used today to understand biodiversity.

In the next couple of weeks, Gazda will introduce the development of soils and renewable and nonrenewable resources. He will use the units in the OOGEEP Geology workshop curriculum addressing minerals, rocks, and Earth’s energy sources to supplement those topics. Gazda noted, "The samples I received from the workshop are great visual aids for the students."