Math & Science Graduate Fellows in K-12 Education

Harbor City High School studies Geology at Death Valley National Park

Sally Goodman
GK-12 Highlight
Harbor City International School, a charter high school
Duluth, MN

            I could not have dreamed of a better place to explore and explain faulting.  As we drove down Titus Canyon in Death Valley National Park, California, the students could see the bedding offsets marking faults in the canyon walls.  “There’s one!”  And then we stopped at what has become my favorite nugget of geology I have been a part of teaching, Klare Spring.  The students scrambled around the area for a while and looked at the petroglyphs of big horn sheep, deer, and many other shapes and designs on a large boulder.  I immediately noticed the sweet smell of a new type of vegetation and the jagged mosaic of fault breccia pieces underfoot.  After our scrambling, we sat to collaborate our observations and try to tell the story of this place.  First, we talked about the petroglyphs and the fact that this place was of special significance to the people who lived in Death Valley.  Next, I had them smell again.  That sweet smell was hinting at the water and a spring that indeed brings fresh water to the surface there, and also animals, plants, and humans, creating an important and special place for all life.  Finally, we talked about the mosaic of jagged rocks under our feet; they marked a large fault.  In fact, this fault was the conduit for the water, and essentially created the unique oasis that was here for life in the desert. 
            Through the GK-12 Fellowship our project manager, Cindy Hale, and myself were able to go with Harbor City International School, a Duluth public charter high school, Earth Science class to Death Valley National Park led by science teacher Margie Menzies. The eleven-day camping trip was part of a three-week intensive January seminar course, for our fifteen students an active, sand-spitting, water worn, fault dissected, and wind dessicated panoramic desert laboratory.  The class covered high school Earth Science standards including:  plate tectonics, volcanism, rocks and minerals, weather and climate, energy cycles, weathering and erosion, etc.  Each student was an expert on one specific subject and presented on that during the 11 days.  Students kept field notebooks of their observations and questions from various sites, outcrops-visited and hikes.  We incorporated inquiry lessons on rheology/structural geology, plant and animal adaptations, and made observations and interpretations at various field outcrop stops.
            One immense gain from this field course was a new relationship with the U.S. Park Service.  Nancy Hadlock, park education director, is in the planning stages of a K-12 park curriculum.  Because we are already documenting our lesson plans from this field course for the GK-12 grant, we planned to collaborate with Nancy and help her develop her curriculum.  Harbor City International School will likely use Death Valley annually or bi-annually for the Earth Science course and will also serve as an action research group to test and hone a high school geology/earth science curriculum.  The park also has a free group campsite for educational groups, which will be available to this class in the future.  In all, the field course was a success and planted a seed for future learning in the park.      

Day 1 at Dante's Peak

Lava Bombs! see the volvanic power.

Faulting & Tilting - now we get it!

Layers telling a very cool story!

The Salt Marshes - looking close too!

Physics of wind and sand!

Salt - 2,000 feet of this stuff?!

Badwater Salt Flats, we had fun!