Geology Virtual Trips:
...Bringing Rock Outcrops to the Classroom!
Recently added:
Monument Valley, AZ
Canyon de Chelly, AZ
Capitol Reef N.P., UT
Colorado National Monument (added 6/10/23) NEW!!
Canyonlands N.P., UT (added 6/15/23) NEW!!
Devils Postpile N.M., CA (added 8/3/23) NEW!!
Morro Rock, CA (added 8/5/23) NEW!!!
Pinnacles NP, CA (added 8/6/23) NEW!!!!
Waimea Canyon, HI (added 1/16/24) NEW!!!
This website is devoted to bringing geologic field localities to the classroom -
both large scale rock formations and smaller scale geologic structures.
ABOUT ME
Dr. Ed Marintsch has been a teacher of Geology for over 35 years at the High School & College levels. He has degrees in Geology/Paleontology from Queens College of the CUNY (B.A., M.A.) and SUNY at Stony Brook (Ph.D.). In addition, he taught Geology, Oceanography, and Physics at St. Thomas H.S. in Houston, TX for over 30 years.
All the photos for localities within the Field Trip Contents were personally taken by the author while in the field unless otherwise indicated.
Being located in Houston, TX, the availability of outcrops is more than just a stone's throw away (pun intended). So, this website is dedicated to high school and college teachers from everywhere who'd like to bring the rock outcrops to their classrooms.
Questions are provided for each "Field Trip Stop" for teachers to assign to their students. Many of the answers can be reasoned from the photos shown, while others will need to be researched.
WHY THIS WEBSITE?
This website was established to provide photos and descriptions of rock outcrops in the form of a field trip that can be brought into the classroom. Questions related to the geology of the particular field locality are provided for students to research.
After searching the web for virtual geology field trips to be used in the classroom, I found that most of the available websites had some combination of the following:
(1) Pictures of outcrops that were too small and few in number
(2) Accompanying text that was overly detailed and not directly related to what was viewed in the photo.
(3) A limited number of field localities, or
(4) Limited written content.
Given the above limitations, I decided to use photos of field localities that I have visited over the past many years and accompany each with explanatory text in order to simulate an actual field trip experience for all of those who could not take the trip themselves.
Most of the photos weren’t originally intended to be presented as a detailed replication of a field trip, so I have tried to present the available material as best as possible to serve my current purpose. Over time I will try to supplement the current field localities with more photos and then also include new localities in a format better suited to a field trip experience.
NOTE TO ALL EDUCATORS
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE ANSWERS TO STUDENT QUESTIONS, THEN DROP ME A NOTE IN THE COMMENT / CONTACT BOX BELOW.
Student Questions are intended for students to closely examine each field trip and demonstrate their understanding by researching answers from outside sources or by closely examining the descriptions and figure captions. These questions are meant to supplement student learning in the classroom and are intended to be of significant use for additional online learning.
There are nearly 350 questions associated with Field Trip contents as well as the sections on Structures and Fossils.
ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO TEACHERS UPON REQUEST AND PROOF OF INSTITUTIONAL AFFLIATION.