TXESS Revolution

Go to the TXESSRev Modules menu item in the top right of this page, and you will find Kerry Cook's powerpoint from Thursday afternoon posted.

In addition, my activities for Friday on USING MICROFOSSILS TO UNDERSTAND PALEO-CLIMATE are posted (activity pages and powerpoint presentation).

http://www.oceanleadership.org/files/seafloor_spreading.kmz

Should get you the Google Earth file you need.

Yesterday we reviewed some of the major stratigraphic principles and focused on the kinds of geologic processes that are responsible for the stratigraphy we observe throughout the rock record. Different approches of incorporating concepts of superposition and faunal succession were discussed and the concept of radiometric dating was introduced. Please respond to the following:
(1) You last saw some of these stratigraphic principles 1.5 years ago at your first PDA. Do you think you have a better understanding of them after being involved with our program and why or why not?
(2) How did the focus on processes, rather than simply terminology, change your way of thinking about stratigraphy in general?
(3) How much did you already know about radiometric dating and were you aware of some of the limits of the technique that were discussed yesterday?

Summer Programs available for your female students interested in exploring engineering at UT Austin.

CONSIDER EVERY OPTION (CEO)
Grades: Female High School Students Currently 9th – 11th Grades
Dates: June 7 – 11, 2010
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location: UT Austin Campus

Priority Application Deadline: March 5, 2010
Web site: http://www.engr. utexas.edu/ wep/k12/ceo

Geoscience Currents are quick snapshots of data released by AGI (American Geological Institute) on the status of the geoscience workforce. The Currents also represent data collaborations with other societies, employers, and professionals.

The most recent Geoscience Currents issue discusses an important topic for TXESS Revolution Participants: the fact that national trends in degrees of K-12 teachers between 1993 and 2006 indicate a low representation of teachers with geoscience degrees.

"K-12 education provides an important formative stage in a student’s education, and the coursework to which
students are exposed during this period (especially during high school) influences choices they make in regards
to college majors. Examination of national trends in degrees of K-12 teachers between 1993 and 2006 indicates a
low representation of teachers with geoscience degrees."... read more at http://www.agiweb.org/workforce/Currents/Currents-028-K12TeacherDegrees....

For eight weeks beginning in November 2009, off the coast of New Zealand, an international team of 34 scientists and 92 support staff and crew on board the scientific drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution (JR) were at work investigating sea-level change in a region called the Canterbury Basin. It proved to be a record-breaking trip for the research team. (Note: This is the cruise where TXESS teacher Julie Pollard was the onboard educator.)

The JR is one of the primary research vessels of an international research program called the Integrated Ocean Drilling ...
More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116257&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

UTIG scientist, Paul Mann, was quoted today in the New York Times regarding his research on Caribbean tectonics and the recent Haiti earthquakes. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/science/26fault.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0...

Sea-floor seismometers open window into Earth's mantle beneath Hawaiian Islands...read more at: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116036&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

The National Gallery of Writing is a virtual space—a website—where people who perhaps have never thought of themselves as writers—mothers, bus drivers, fathers, veterans, nurses, firefighters, sanitation workers, stockbrokers—select and post writing that is important to them. The Gallery accommodates any composition format—from word processing to photography, audio/video recording to text messages—and all types of writing—from letters to lists, memoirs to memos.

The National Science Teachers Assocation (NSTA) has created a special gallery for writing about Earth Sciences. (See the link below.) We encourage you and/or your students to write about the NSTA chosen topic:

Why Earth? What makes our planet the ideal cradle of life?