This Lake Mead National Recreation Area site contains park geology information, maps, photographs, visitor information, and teacher features (resources for teaching geology using national park examples). Park Geology is a guided tutorial, covering two billion years of geologic time from the Precambrian through the Cenozoic. Full description.

This 'Young Naturalist' award-winning essay reviews the geologic history of Pikes Peak and the southern Rocky Mountains, from Precambrian foundation to roughly contoured summits. The essay, in the form of a field journal, focuses on how geologists divide Earth's 4.6-billion-year history into four major chronological eras (Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic). It also discusses the evolution ... Full description.

This activity has students trace the steps of a paleontologist from determining where to look for dinosaur fossils to studying the completed dinosaur skeleton for clues about the dinosaurs' behavior, diet, and anatomy. To start, students list and discuss the things they know about paleontology and then brainstorm what they think would be the most and least interesting aspects of being a paleontologist. ... Full description.

This activity can be placed under the category of GeoArt. GeoArt is based on the premise that by looking with both artistic and scientific eyes, people develop deeper and more personal geologic understandings. GeoArt programs use artistic approaches to promote critical thinking about geology and geologic processes. In this activity, towels represent various rock layers and are used to demonstrate ... Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades 6-8. It discusses the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex, and whether or not it was a scavenger or a predator. After researching many physical aspects of this dinosaur, students explain their views on this topic to show what they have learned. It includes objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, ... Full description.

This resource presents information about using living things like trees and coral reefs and everyday occurrences like snowfalls to look at what has happened in past climates in order to understand what is happening today, or what might happen in the future. Scientists who do this are called paleoclimatologists. Some of the things that can be learned from tree rings include insect outbreaks, glacial ... Full description.

This is an article by Andrew Campbell from The University of Chicago Magazine, December 1995. The article is about the Chicago's Paleogeographic Atlas Project, an effort Alfred Ziegler began in 1975 to chart Earth's changing face, from more than 500 million years ago to the present. The article contains four maps from the project: A Permian Supercontinent, Computers Rebuild Climates of the Paleozoic, ... Full description.

Zion is located on the edge of the Colorado Plateau, and is part of a formation known as the Grand Staircase (Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon are also part of this formation). The site discusses the formation of the park, from sedimentation 240 million years ago (Triassic), to lithification, uplift, and erosion. Visible formations include the Navajo sandstone and the Kaibab formation. Additional ... Full description.

In this exercise, students investigate methods used by geologists studying active tectonics for determining ages in actual numbers of years. Introductory materials describe the three most-used techniques for dating material formed during the Quaternary Period (approximately the last 1.65 million years), discuss the concepts of radioactive decay and half-life, and explain how these may be used to determine ... Full description.

This site offers information on two aspects of paleoclimatology, North American drought and global warming. Each topic is addressed via a narrative background (The Story) and instrumental and paleoclimatic data (The Data). The section entitled North American Drought: A Paleo Perspective, describes drought in the historical and paleoclimatic records and is designed to help educate, inform and highlight ... Full description.