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Geology on Wheels is a community outreach program involving William and Mary geology majors and elementary school classes. Geology majors come to your classroom in groups of two or three to teach hands-on laboratory-style earth science lessons geared to the Science Standards of Learning. Some examples of lessons are given below. These can be combined in various ways depending on your needs. We hope this program can be a valuable resource for teachers who want to include earth science activities in their classes.


 * Rocks and Minerals** – Observing, comparing, identifying properties, classifying rocks and minerals and learning common uses of rocks and minerals using specimens from the William and Mary Geology Department.


 * The Rock Cycle** – Observing rocks and learning how they are related. Trays of sediment, rocks, microscopes and hand lenses can be used to help the students decide from which rock the sediment was derived. Understanding how rocks are deformed using playdoh and studying crystalline “volcanic” rocks.


 * Fossils of the Coastal Plain** – We will focus on fossils of the local area and will bring boxes full of fossils and sediment from the Coastal Plain for students to study. We can relate this to the geologic history of the area and/or can also provide much older fossils from other places such as corals, trilobites, and brachiopods.


 * Physiographic** **Provinces of Virginia** – Rocks, sediments, and resources of the different provinces; the rock cycle can also be studied. We will work with maps to distinguish one physiographic province from the other and will provide geologic maps for the students to use.


 * What Geologists Do** - Geology majors can talk about what geologists do as part of a career exploration.

To request a visit from a geology major team or for more information on Geology on Wheels, contact Lydia Murray (Student Coordinator) or Linda Morse (Faculty Advisor) below. It helps to give us some advance notice (about two weeks) of when you would like a visit. Also, remember that college students are particularly busy with exams at the end of the semester, and will not be in town for much of January. The school year ends by the first week of May.

Linda Morse
221-2447 ldmors@wm.edu megeli@wm.edu
 * Morgan Gelinas**

Picture Source: http://www.wm.edu/geology/virginia/provinces/teaching_resources.html