Virtual Geology Field Trips: Bringing the Story of Rock Outcrops to Today's Classroom

Edward J. Marintsch (St. Thomas HS (TX) (Emeritus))

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published Feb 5, 2025 8:27am

Why use this website?

Many teachers would love to take their Earth Science students into the field but can't because the nearest rock formation is hours away, time is lacking, or funding is tight. Now you can take these trips by using this free and innovative Geology website.

This still evolving website is a labor of love from a Ph.D. Geoscience teacher with over 35 years of teaching experience at both the high school and college levels who wanted to use his personal journey across the U.S. and Canada to bring outstanding outcrops to the classroom.

What's on the website?

Using personally taken photos and descriptions, teachers and students are guided through this website, https://GeologyVirtualTrips.com (totally FREE of cost and advertisements), that illustrates all rock types, large-scale rock formations, small-scale structures, ancient environments, and tectonic histories. Outcrops span all across the U.S. and Canada, including numerous National Parks and Monuments, as well as more local geological treasures.

Beginning with notes on the major geologic features to be seen at each of the approximately 65 locations (and growing!), students and teachers alike are shown how each feature fits into a brief but informative description of the geologic evolution of the location.

Teachers can interactively work with their students through numerous photographs and accompanying descriptive text of the place each outcrop has in the geologic history of the area.

Student outcomes

To gauge student learning, a series of Student Questions (at different cognitive levels) are provided for each field trip stop. Thorough answers to the over 370 questions will be available to teachers upon request.

In summary, this unique website provides an extension of learning to typical classroom work by increasing student interest and motivation as students integrate descriptive text and photographs to analyze earth processes over time.

Examples

Take a look at just a few localities:



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