On April 23, 2005, Christian George, GK-12 fellow and Ph.D. candidate in the UT-Austin Jackson School of Geosciences, led a workshop on sedimentary environments. This workshop presented a lesson plan for teaching:

• Sedimentary Rocks
• Connecting modern environments to ancient sedimentary environments
• Geology of the Austin area

The lesson presented is an inquiry based activity which integrates rock identification with the environments where sedimentary rocks form. Geologic concepts such as the origin of sedimentary rocks and the principle of uniformitarianism were emphasized. Following classroom instruction, there was a short field trip to explore the sedimentary environments of the Austin area.

Teachers received a CD containing all of the written workshop materials, including the lesson plan, fieldtrip handout, field notebook, sedimentary environments quiz, grading rubric, and PowerPoint presentations. Most of the workshop materials can be found in the side menu at the top left corner of this page.

Teachers also received ESI Hot Science – Cool Talks Outreach Lecture Series cds with educational materials and TEKS correlations from Dr. Leon Long's presentation on Geologic Wonders of Central Texas and Dr. John Sharp's presentation on the Edwards Aquifer.


Instructors:
Christian George, GK-12 Fellow, Ph.D. Candidate in the Jackson School of Geosciences
Andy Lyon, GK-12 Teacher, 7th grade science, Burnet Middle School
Lynn Kirby, GK-12 Teacher, 8th grade teacher, Kealing Middle School

Facilitator: Jessica Gordon, GK-12 Program Coordinator