Teaching Early EarthOn the Cutting Edge Faculty Professional Development Program

Conveners Mike Williams, U Mass, Amherst Cathy Manduca, Carleton College Dave Mogk, Montana State U.

NSF/DUE CCLI-National Dissemination Program

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”…

www.lpi.usra.edu/.../gallery/slide_17.html

What is the origin of the Earth-Moon system?

How did these planets, accrete and differentiate?

What are the “impacts” of the earliest history of Earth?

Martian Lava Flow and Impact CraterCrater 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?

Or…Image: 1984 Kiluea eruption. Photograph by J.D. Griggs,

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory

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???

Tectonics– Plate or Other????

Continental Crust—

How old?

How much?

What composition?

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

workshopsworkshops– A websitewebsite to support workshops and reach the

broader geoscience community– An expanding community of geoscience

educators with a strong and diverse leadershipleadership

• 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 one-week unit in your teaching

How do we teach about questions with no certain answers?

• Controvesy, ambiguity, incomplete evidence….• Specific examples…