Check out my blog for pictures of more outreach events!

Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized educational board game

​​​I have developed an educational board game with Dr. Rowan Martindale for high school and undergraduate classrooms, with the goal of making taphonomy more accessible, intuitive and exciting to learn about. Our paper introducing this game and analyzing learning outcomes has been accepted into the Journal of Geoscience Education. Check it out here! Plus, you can print and play the board game at home! All game piece files are available in our JGE article. We also have a SERC: Teach the Earth page for the game here.

​​Media:

•  Interview: GSA Annual Meeting 2018 Podcast
• UT Scientists' Fossil-Finding Board Game is a Success in Classrooms
• Fossil-Finding Board Game is a Success in College Classrooms
• UT-Austin scientists develop fossil board game for university classrooms​​

You can now play the game online with TableTop Simulator. More info here

   

Sea Level Change and the Stratigraphy of Zilker Park

​Field-Based Lesson Plan for Grades: 9-12 (can be used in undergraduate curricula as well)
Length of Lesson: 2 90-minute class periods (20 minutes each way to/from school + 50 minutes of instruction)

Link to: ​Zilker Park Lesson Plan Files
For detailed materials, instructions and worksheets
​
Authored by: Anna Weiss for UT Environmental Science Institute (with help from Natally Mendez & Dr. Jay Banner!)        
Date created: 4/24/2017

Subject area/course: AP Environmental Science

Lesson objective(s):

• Students will learn how geologists recognize different environments in the rock record
• Students will learn the basic principles of stratigraphy
• Students will recognize that sea level change is cyclic, and that the planet is always changing

​ESI Community Science Fair, 2016 
Walk Like A Dinosaur Activity from NHM 
(click for link)

ESI event photos by Rowan Martindale