GLY 160, Physical Geology for Elementary School Teachers, was instituted in the Fall Semester of 1996 as a follow-up course to Physics 160, Physics for Elementary School Teachers. The previous year, a similar course was offered under the standard Geology 101/111 (Physical Geology and Laboratory) to determine at what level the material could be taught. Material included targets defined by standard-based education in a geological context. For example, minerals are inorganic earth materials with constant distinguishable properties which can be related to their chemical composition and structure. Minerals, however, respond to their environment producing soil and sediment minerals. Sediments, in turn are transformed mineralogically into high temperature, high pressure forms in metamorphic and igneous rocks.

Experience gained in teaching to teacher groups showed that they are much more conscientious than the general university population and emphasis was shifted from "science facts" to "learn by observation." In the course, primary emphasis was placed on Kentucky or areas where the students would likely visit, for example, the Pine Mountain area for folded and faulted rocks, the Blue Ridge for metamorphic rocks, the Carolina coast for shoreline processes, southern Ohio for continental glaciation, and the Mississippi Valley for large rivers and deltas. Three remote areas were included—New England for rock coasts, New Mexico for rifting, and volcanism and the Pacific Northwest for mountain glaciers and continental subduction.

All of this has worked fairly well but two major problems have arisen. The first is that the students need help in developing materials that will appeal to the K-4 level. The second is that the students are not skilled in the use of topographic maps and cannot visualize the landscape or the processes that brought it about without further graphic portrayals. The mineral and rock collections are not of good quality or quantity and much more work will be required for rock identification. In addition, fossils are found to be quite popular and would certainly be interesting to the age group K-4. Therefore, a major effort will be required to revamp the laboratories to meet the needs of the students. It is to these ends that this project is directed.

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