Generic Field Activity

Utah SEEd Standards in 7.2: Changes to Earth Over Time

Summary: This activity is designed to be flexible and applicable in different settings. In Utah, there are an abundance of geologic features and areas where processes change the Earth’s surface at varying spatial and temporal scales. Presented below are some ideas to start thinking about how the Utah outdoors can be used for learning:

• What different landforms are outside your school? In your town? Nearby? (mountains, valleys, volcanoes, basins, islands, caves, sinks, flats, canyons, ridges, washes, arches, towers, buttes, plateaus, cliffs, dunes? any bodies of water?) How did they form this way? How might have they or the place used to look like? What might it look like in the future? What modern-day clues do you have to support your hypotheses
• Identify shorelines along the Wasatch Front from when Lake Bonneville was at different depths. Which ones are older? Younger?
• Based on previous knowledge of the different ways valleys are shaped, identify different valleys around you and hypothesize how they were formed
• Find different rocks and hypothesize how they have experienced weathering (mechanical, biological, and chemical)
• Learn about the different geologic hazards where your school or home is located: are there active faults? Potential for landslides? liquefaction hazards? volcanic activity? flooding? The Utah Geological Survey has a Geologic Hazards Program with lots of information and maps to help learn.
• Even simply going on a walk and asking students to make observations about the natural world around them helps them think like a scientist. What do they notice? What questions do they have? What insights can they make from their observations? What do they wonder?