Re: Lab Ideas Wanted

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Date

Peter Bengtson (Peter.Bengtson@urz.uni-heidelberg.de wrote:

|Re. Roy's request for lab ideas, I think it is difficult to get away
|entirely from the paper-and-pencil-type of exercises (unless you do the
|lab course in the field). For my biostratigraphy course I have devised an
|exercise using collections of ordinary buttons. The idea emerged from
|reading an article by S.J. Hageman (1989: Use of alumenontos to introduce
|general paleontologic and biostratigraphic principles. - Journal of
|Geological Education 37, pp. 110-113). If you prefer actual specimens for
|hands-on labs I think the problem will be to find suitable and sufficient
|material for the exercises.

	To demonstrate biostratigraphic concepts, Charles Henderson  
(henderson@geo.ucalgary.ca) and I used small, "iconic" symbols on bits of  
paper to represent fossil species, and gave the class two stratigraphic  
sections from which paleontological samples had been collected at a series  
of positions.  For the exercise, we had them initially propose a  
lithostratigraphic correlation, and then the goal was to propose a  
biozonation, and to use it to biostratigraphically correlate the  
stratigraphic sections and compare to the lithostratigraphic correlation.

	The fossil symbols were placed into trays to correspond to an  
"ideal" set of stratigraphic ranges we had composed previously.  Each  
student "collected" a *portion* of the symbols blindly.  This meant that  
each student did not necessarily have the same species assemblage at each  
sample position, and made for some interesting differences and  
similarities between the biozonations and correlations, particularly  
between "common" and "rare" species.  At the end of the exercise, we had  
each student explain the biozonation they proposed (i.e. how it was  
defined, and why) and their biostratigraphic correlation.  We then  
compared the results of each of the students to eachother, to emphasize  
the importance of statistical effects on both the raw data and the  
resulting interpretation.  The exercise ended with the obvious question:  
"how would we test and refine the biozonation and correlation?"  Most  
students had realized by that point that more sampling, or just pooling of  
the sampling they had done independently, would be the obvious way to  
start, and they also proposed more sampling intervals at crucial points  
(we had placed an unconformity at one point in one of the stratigraphic  
sections).  Plenty of other issues were discussed within the framework of  
the exercise.

	Although this exercise was not on real fossils, using iconic  
representations simplified and speeded matters considerably, and we dealt  
with species concepts and identification of real fossils in other lab  
periods.  I suspect the use of buttons or other items would serve the same  
purpose.  We also had an opportunity to apply some of these concepts in  
the field later on.  For a final lab exam, we used real fossils they had  
to identify and remember the ranges for (learned in other lab sections),  
coupled with a biostratigraphic problem similar to the one in the lab  
exercise.



	-Andrew
	macrae@geo.ucalgary.ca
	home page: http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~macrae