Minnesota Minerals Education Workshop

General Information
Workshop Schedule
Short Course Offerings
Field Trips
Special Events
Meals and Lodging
Graduate Credit
Registration
Sponsors
Volunteers
More Information
Campus Map

GENERAL INFORMATION

The MMEW is a three-day workshop for K-12 earth science educators, which offers short courses and field trips focused on the geology and mineral resources of Minnesota. The short course sessions will be held in classrooms in the Pasteur Hall and Science Laboratory Center on the campus of Winona State University. Participants may choose among 16 different short course topics taught by professional geologists, mining engineers, academics, government scientists, and K-12 educators. Many of the courses introduce curriculum ideas for various grade levels. Field trips are designed to familiarize participants with the geology and mineral resources of southeastern Minnesota.  The two days of field trips provide ample opportunity to collect samples and photographs of classic geological exposures.
      Participants will receive a variety of resource materials including rock and mineral samples, lesson plan ideas, posters, maps, videos, and other useful information. Upon completion of the workshop, attendees will be provided with a certificate of participation listing contact hours.  Participants may also register for two college credits through the University of Minnesota Duluth, which will require submission of a workshop-related lesson plan.

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

The tentative schedule of events for the three-day workshop is listed below.  Events tagged with an (ATR) are to meet in the Atrium area of the Science Laboratory Center; those marked (AUD) are to meet in the Science Laboratory Center Auditorium (SLC 120; see campus map).  

Tuesday, June 19
      7:30-8:30        Registration, Continental Breakfast (ATR)
      8:30-8:50        Welcome and Introductions (AUD)
      9:00-10:15      Short Course Session 1
      10:15-10:30    Morning Break (ATR)
      10:30-11:45    Short Course Session 2
      11:50-1:20      Lunch Buffet (ATR)
                                Presentation by Karl Green, Associate Professor, LaCrosse County Community Resource Educator
                                                         Talk Title:    Frac Sand in Western Wisconsin
      1:30-2:45       Short Course Session 3
      2:45-3:00       Afternoon Break (ATR)
      3:00-4:15       Short Course Session 4
      4:15-4:45       Collect Materials for Resources Box
      4:45-5:15       Field Trip Overview (AUD)
      6:00-7:00       Barbeque Picnic (ATR)
      6:30-8:30       Group Hike to Garvin Heights Overlook or Visit to WSU Flume Lab
      9:30-10:30    View night sky at the WSU Observatory

Wednesday, June 20
      7:00-8:00       Continental Breakfast (ATR)
      8:00AM          Busses depart WSU for field trip
      8:30-4:30       Geology Field Trip
      5:00PM          Buses return to WSU

Thursday, June 21
      7:00-8:00       Continental Breakfast (ATR)
      8:00AM          Buses depart WSU for field trip
      8:30-3:00       Resources Field Trip
      3:30PM          Buses return to WSU

SHORT COURSE OFFERINGS

The 16 courses being offered during the four short course sessions are described below.  On the registration form, participants are asked to identify their first and second class choices for each session.

SESSION 1

1A) BEYOND BONES! FOSSILS OF THE MIDWEST
        Julie Bartley, Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Geology, Gustavus Adolphus College
Everyone knows about dinosaur bones, but hardly anyone finds one of those! Other kinds of fossils, though, can be found right here in Minnesota, sometimes practically in your backyard. These fossils tell us about Minnesota’s past – times when the atmosphere was acquiring oxygen for the first time; times when southern Minnesota was a tropical paradise, and, yes, times when dinosaurs walked our landscape. In this session, participants will identify and learn about the fossils of the Midwest, with emphasis on the Paleozoic fossils of SE Minnesota. Participants will receive a bag of fossils to use in the classroom and handy fossil identification guides.

1B) INNOVATIVE USES OF GIGIPAN IN THE CLASSROOM
        Candace Kairies-Beatty, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geoscience, Winona State University
        W. Lee Beatty, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geoscience, Winona State University
Access to the internet in today’s classrooms has opened the door to a variety of new resources that can enhance student learning in the geosciences with minimal investment. This course will focus on innovative ways to use GigaPan panoramas in the classroom. GigaPans are zoomable, explorable, high-resolution gigapixel images that can be accessed by anyone with a high-speed internet connection (www.gigapan.org). The unique nature of these images and the user interface developed for them makes GigaPans an excellent tool to engage students. GigaPans are an effective way to illustrate key geologic concepts and promote student inquiry. When they are combined with Google Earth, hand samples, historical data, video, annotations, etc., GigaPans can be used to create virtual field experiences that allow students to explore sites that would otherwise be inaccessible due to financial or physical limitations.

1D) MODELING THE LAYER CAKE GEOLOGY OF SE MINNESOTA WITH PLAYDOH
      Jim Miller, Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of                         Minnesota Duluth
The flat-lying Paleozoic-aged sequences of sandstones, shales and limestones that underlie most of southeastern Minnesota are commonly referred to as “layer cake geology”.  When looked at in detail, these marine fossil-bearing sedimentary strata tell the story of their being deposited during several cycles of rising and falling sea levels  between 520 and 370 million years ago.   As an in-class activity, we will model the deposition of these sedimentary layers across Minnesota with sheets of playdoh.   We can reconstruct the buried ” stratigraphy” by drilling cores through the layers (with straws) and then creating geologic cross sections from a profile of drill cores.

SESSION 2

2A) USING A DINOSAUR TRACKWAY TO TEACH GEOCIENCE SKILLS
      W. Lee Beatty, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Geoscience, Winona State University
This course demonstrates a portable, easy-to-use dinosaur trackway exercise that reinforces skills in mathematics (including algebra and rate calculations), observation, note-taking, data collection, and paleontology (including trace fossils, behavior and paleoecology). The exercise recreates part of the Middle Jurassic Ardley trackway site in Oxfordshire, UK and focuses on a track made by a theropod dinosaur (possibly Megalosaurus). Unlike many trackway exercises available online, this exercise can be easily set up anywhere and requires only chalk, a measuring tape, a stopwatch and 50 feet of open sidewalk or parking lot. Students collect data from the trackway (including foot length, stride length, and pace angle) and measure their own time running a similar distance. The data they collect allows them to calculate the speed of the dinosaur that made the track and compare it to their own speed to see who would win in a footrace. Students can also observe changes in stride length and gait along the trackway, suggesting that the dinosaur changed its posture when switching from walking to running.  The level of difficulty of this exercise can easily be adjusted to match the skills of students in different grade levels.

2B) IMPACT ROCKS IN MINNESOTA
      Jennifer Anderson, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Geoscience, Winona State University
      Mark Jirsa, Senior Scientist, Minnesota Geological Survey
Impact cratering is the most common geologic process in the solar system and has affected every planetary surface, including the Earth’s.  But did you know that rocks in northern Minnesota record one of the largest impacts ever to occur on Earth?  Explore how you can incorporate impact craters into your Earth science classroom through an inquiry-based laboratory activity.  And travel (virtually) to these unique Minnesotan outcrops and rocks by taking a Google Earth tour of the Sudbury Impact Layer – a sequence of rocks that preserve the material ejected from Sudbury, Ontario, when a large meteorite struck there almost 2 billion years ago.  Teaching guides for the laboratory activity and the Google Earth tour of the Sudbury Impact Layer in northern Minnesota will be provided so that you can utilize these resources in your classroom.

2C) CHANGING CLIMATE IN MINNESOTA: PAST AND PRESENT
      Timothy McAulay, Biology Department, Inver Hills Community College
      Valerie Gamble, MN Department of Agriculture
Minnesota as we know it today has a very dynamic climate with fascinating weather and well defined seasons.  However, that has not always been true for this region, and climate change predictions indicate dramatic alterations are likely again in the not so distant future.  Learn about Minnesota’s past climate, past ecosystems and likely future changes including possible impacts on agriculture, tourism and our 10,000 lakes.

2D) ROADSIDE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA
      Dick Ojakangas, Emeritus Professor, Dept. of Geological Sciences, U of Minnesota Duluth
This PowerPoint presentation will cover the Geology of Minnesota, as outlined in my 2009 book, Roadside Geology of Minnesota, published as part of the Roadside Geology Series of Mountain Press (Missoula, MT).  A 37-page introduction gives a historical overview of the state's geology, including the application of plate tectonic theory.  Four regions cover the state--NE, NW/C, SW, and SE--each with a short introduction and also with both bedrock and Pleistocene geological maps. A total of 43 road logs describe the geology along or near the state's highways, including several state parks and Voyageurs National Park.  Included are more than 300 maps, diagrams, and photos, mostly in color. The book was written for non-geologists, but is of value to traveling geologists as well.

SESSION 3

3A) READING THE EARTH'S STORY - ROCK AND MINERAL IDENTIFICATION
      Jennifer Anderson, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Geoscience, Winona State University
Geologists tell the story of the Earth.  We read that story through the words and sentences that are found within minerals and rocks.  In this session, we will explore how to identify common minerals and rocks, focusing on inquiry-based, hands-on techniques that can be implemented in your classrooms.  We will use the theme of the "stories" that these rocks tell and how we can relate them to particular Earth processes.   Teaching guides for various activities will be provided.

3B) STUDENTS AS STEWARDS OF MINERAL RESOURCES
      Jim Miller, Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth
Mineral resources are rare and non-renewable, yet we rely heavily upon them for our modern existence and are consuming them at an ever-increasing rate.  Therefore, an important objective of earth science education should be to train students to be stewards of our mineral resources – to give them the knowledge base they will need to make wise choices about how, when and where to use (and reuse) those resources.  This class introduces lesson plan ideas that attempt to accomplish some of those objectives.

3C) CONSTRUCTION AGGREGATES IN MY BACKYARD
      Christina Morrison, Tiller Corporation, Maple Grove, MN
Aggregate mines can be found in every county of the state.  Sand, gravel and crushed stone are locally produced resources that are essential to everyday life. This session will highlight how to incorporate backyard geology into the classroom and explore the hands-on science behind a high-quality sand and gravel deposit.

3D) GROUNDWATER QUALITY TEACHING TOOLS
      James Lundy, Geologist, Minnesota Department of Health
A liquid, water is not strictly a mineral, but we extract and use it every day to keep our bodies healthy and alive. People only live where there is enough water, and Minnesota is a watery place. But what’s in the water is as important as how much there is. Do you know what’s in the water you drink? Would you want to drink “pure” water? Get tools for presenting the hydrologic cycle, and groundwater movement through clay, sand and gravel. Learn what we know about nitrate and radium in drinking water wells of southeastern Minnesota. Discover how the mystery of TCE in drinking water was solved, and what was done to fix it.

SESSION 4

4A) EVERYDAY USES OF MINERALS
      Ken Reid, Emeritus Professor, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
The fact that every material thing we take for granted in life is either made from minerals or depends on minerals for its production and/or transportation is not commonly recognized or understood. Examples of common everyday items will be traced back to their mineral source to show how modern civilization is totally dependent on mining.  Materials available from The Mineral Information Institute (www.mii.org) and Caterpillar Inc (www.cat.com) will be discussed and portions of DVDs covering documentaries and class demonstration projects will be shown.

4B) EARTH RESOURCES LESSON PLAN SHARING
      Devon Brecke, Ellsworth Community High School, Ellsworth, WI
Show off your best and get a discount on registration!  Gather with other teachers to share your favorite lesson plan on Earth resources or join in to learn what others are teaching in their classrooms.  Up to 8 teachers will have 10 minutes each to present their student-centered lesson to other teachers.  Teachers interested in presenting will be expected to prepare handouts (MMEW will pay copying costs).  For their efforts, presenting teachers will be given half off their registration costs ($20 value).   Resource topics may include:  energy, minerals, oil, gas, water, etc.  Give a little and take home a lot!

4C) RECLAMATION OF INDUSTRIAL MINERAL MINESITES
      Paul Eger, Senior Engineer, Golder Associates
Mining operations in southeastern Minnesota focus largely on extracting industrial minerals and include sand and gravel pits, dimension stone quarries, clay pits, crushed rock quarries, and the new growth in silica sand mines.   We will examine the background of mineland reclamation and discuss reclamation challenges that industrial mineral mining creates. We will do some hands-on testing to help identify materials that may need special reclamation approaches and look at new and innovative ways industrial mineral and metal mines are being reclaimed and reused.

4D) 4D SPELEOLOGY 101 (substitution for IMPACT OF KARST ON AGRICULTURE, by C. Alexander)
      Greg Brick, Instructor, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota
Speleology is the study of caves, of which there are more than 300 in Minnesota and a quarter of a million worldwide. After an introduction to the Minnesota cave scene, a list of possible study topics for students will be handed out for discussion. There are many kinds of data collection that students can conduct in caves, including environmental, hydrological, geological, mineralogical, sedimentological, paleontological, chemical, physical, and biological.

FIELD TRIPS

Two days of field trips are designed to familiarize participants with the geology, mineral resources and land use issues in southeastern Minnesota. Transportation by coach bus and box lunches will be provided to all participants. Trips will leave from and return to the Winona State University campus.

Day 1 (Wednesday, June 20) – This day will focus on the Paleozoic geology, fossil occurrences, glacial deposits, and karst landscape exposed southwest of Winona.  The highlight of the day will be a tour of Mystery Cave near Forestville, MN.

Day 2 (Thursday, June 21) – This day will focus on mineral resources and environmental and land use issues along the Mississippi River valley.  Mining sites to be visited include dimension stone, aggregate, and silica sand quarrying operations.  Visits to a Winona land fill, a Mississippi River dam operation, a coal-fired power plant, a wildlife refuge, and Lake Pepin will highlight environmental and land use concerns.

Paleozoic Geology of SE Minnesota. Cambrian units – yellow; Ordovian units – blue; Devonian units – green.   Day 1 field trip will travel between Winona and Mystery Cave.  Day 2 field trip will travel along the Mississippi River between Winona and Lake Pepin.

SPECIAL EVENTS

On Tuesday evening, participants are invited to partake in a barbeque dinner on the WSU campus.  After dinner, a hike will be organized to Garvin Heights Overlook. The hike is 2.5 miles one-way and participants have the choice of being driven by van to the overlook and hiking back to campus or hiking from campus up to the overlook and getting a ride back to campus.  Alternatively, participants may take a tour of the WSU flume lab.   After dusk (~9:30), participants are invited to do some night sky viewing with telescopes at WSU’s observatory.  The dinner and all activities are free of charge for participants.  Family members and guests are also welcome, but will be charged $10 for adults and $6 for children (under 12) for the picnic dinner. 

                                      
Location of Winona State University (A) and route for Tuesday evening hike to Garvin Heights Park (B); 2.5 mi. one-way.

MEALS AND LODGING

In addition to a barbeque picnic on Tuesday evening, registered workshop participants will be provided with continental breakfast in the Atrium of the Science Laboratory Center from 7:30 to 8:30 each morning.  During the short course day (Tuesday), morning and afternoon snacks and a lunch buffet will also be provided. During the field trips on Wednesday and Thursday, box lunches and beverages will be provided.  Please indicate on the registration form if you prefer vegetarian options.
     
Thanks to generous donations from over 30 companies and individuals to the Minnesota Center for Mineral Resource Education, participants are being offered the opportunity to stay in new four-person dormitory suites, New Center West (see campus map), for up to three nights –Free of Charge!  Each air conditioned suite has a common kitchen and living room and four private bedrooms with a twin bed and linens provided.  Check out the website: http://www.winona.edu/housing/newhall.asp for more information on the accommodations.  You must turn in your registration form before the early registration deadline (June 1, 2012) to take advantage of this offer.

                              
                                                           Living room in New West Center dormitory suites

Those who would rather stay in a local motel/hotel or campground near campus at personal expense, some options include:

Locations of four motels (A-D) listed above. Campground located on Prairie Island Road which heads north of location 1.

PARTICIPATION CERTIFICATE AND GRADUATE CREDIT

At the end of the workshop, all participants will be given a certificate acknowledging their participation.  The number of contact hours will be listed as 18 for full participation in the short courses and two days of field trips. 

Additionally, participants may register for two graduate credits from the University of Minnesota Duluth for the course: Educ 5570 - Exemplary Models for Science Education, Sec. 242 (15th Annual Minnesota Minerals Education Workshop-Conference on the Geology and Earth Resources of Southeastern Minnesota).   Tuition and fees for the two credits is $202.  The course registration form must be submitted with payment by June 28, 2012.   In addition to fully participating in the workshop, registrants for the course (EDUC 5570, sec. 242*) are also required to develop a lesson plan on a topic related to what was learned at the workshop. See syllabus.

*Note that although the course number is the same as prior years, the section number is different to reflect the different content of the course.

REGISTRATION

Submit a completed registration form by June 1st to be assured course preference and dorm space. Soon after this date, registrants will be informed of their short course schedule and be given other information to prepare for the workshop.  Registrations will be accepted after this date for up to a total of 90 participants, but registration costs will increase from $40 to $55, dormitory lodging will not be available, and applicants run the risk of not getting into the courses they have chosen. 

SPONSORS

The reason that the registration costs for this workshop can be held so low is because of the generous contributions by minerals-related industries, professional associations, and individuals to the Minnesota Center for Minerals Resource Education, which oversees the operation of the MMEW.   Contributors to the 2012 workshop as of February 2012* include:

*A more complete list of contributors will be distributed at the workshop.

In addition to financial support, many governmental agencies, academic institutions, and companies allow their staffs to contribute time to the planning and production of the workshop and often cover their expenses.  These include:

VOLUNTEERS

Since its inception in 1997, the MMEW has relied upon individual geoscientists from academia, industry and government to volunteer their time and expertise to what we all believe is an important and valuable endeavor.   Listed below are the volunteers who have contributed to this year’s MMEW and the roles they have played.

QUESTIONS?

About workshop content:
      – Jim Miller (218-720-4355), mille066@umn.edu

• Steve Allard (507-457-2739), sallard@winona.edu

About registration:
      – Julie Ann Heinz (218-720-4272), jheinz@nrri.umn.edu
About lodging:
      – Nikki Schossow (507-457-5260), nschossow@winona.edu