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Magazine of the EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION Volume 30 ● Number 3, 2005 ● ISSN 0957-8005 www.esta-uk.org TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 31 ● Number 4, 2006 Charles Lyell once famously argued that “the present is the key to the past”, but in the case of the Cretaceous Earth, the past may be the key to the future. As Arctic sea ice dramatically thins in the wake of current global warming, there are signs that ocean circulation may be slowing down. If oceans began to stagnate, what might be the implications for marine biodiversity? Furthermore, should the collapse of Antarctic ice-shelves continue at the extraordinary rate seen since the early 1990s, could we once again see the rise of polar forests? Final reflections Geological studies through the millions of years of deep time are crucial if we are to put future global change in its proper perspective. Specifically, they make two contributions. First, they help us understand just how much our planet can cope with. The Cretaceous and Carboniferous worlds amply demonstrate that life can still flourish in a world of climate extremes. Second, they help us to assess the significance of rates of change. Although the Cretaceous Earth was much warmer than present, what is alarming about our current climate experiment is that change is occurring at a rate far greater than generally seen in the geological record. One of the very few well-attested examples of rapid global warming occurred at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, some 200 million years ago. As a cautionary end to this article, it’s worth reflecting that this event coincided with one of the ‘Big Five’ mass extinction events of all time – wiping out 20% of marine families and decimating life on land. Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang Department of Earth Sciences University of Bristol Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK Email: howard.falcon-lang@bris.ac.uk www.gly.bris.ac.uk/www/admin/personnel/HJFL.html Further reading Skelton, P.W. 2003. The Cretaceous World. Cambridge University Press, 360 pp. Parrish, J.T. 1998. Interpreting pre-Quaternary climate from the geological record, Columbia University Press, 348 pp. Stanley, S.M. 2005. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation that Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang used to illustrate his lecture with at the ESTA Conference is available on the ESTA website. New Posting? Retiring? Stay in touch with Teaching Earth Sciences News and Activities Subscription rates Full membership Student and retired membership £25.00 to UK addresses £12.50 to UK addresses Subscriber Details Subscribe to Teaching Earth Sciences teaching EARTH SCIENCES TITLE NAME ADDRESS TOWN/CITY COUNTRY E-MAIL ADDRESS POST CODE/ZIP Membership Secretary Hamish Ross PO Box 23672 Edinburgh EH3 9XQ Tel: 0131 651 6410 Email: hamish.ross@education.ed.ac.uk Teaching Earth Sciences - serving the Earth Science Education Community www.esta-uk.org 12
TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 31 ● Number 4, 2006 Lone Museum Curator Attends his First ESTA Conference. The Message – Make More of your Museum JAN FREEDMAN The third weekend in September, the 15th-17th, was an interesting and exciting one. Not only was it the first time young Cally Oldershaw admitted that it was her birthday at Conference, but it was my first time at an ESTA Conference. Based in the beautiful old city of Bristol, with the soft purple-green Pennant Sandstone paving stones and the old granite, basalt and Millstone Grit cobbled roads. Walking along Queen’s road, with the grand Wills Memorial Building and the majestic edifices surrounding, all a slight golden honey colour from the Bath Stone they are built from. You can close your eyes and imagine yourself in a lagoon, with the hot sun beating down on your back and the warm water splashing gently on your legs as you walk on thousands of tiny ooids almost crunching beneath your feet. A small school of brightly coloured fish may dart past your feet forcing you to look down into the crisp, clear, turquoise sea and see hundreds of enigmatic fish all diverse shapes, sizes and colours shooting swiftly through the water. The weekend Conference was fascinating, packed with hands-on workshops and lectures, from mass extinctions to volcanic eruptions. There were three things that stood out for me at the weekend. The first was that my old A level teacher was there, and hadn’t aged or grown an inch! Mr Loader was still the same enthusiastically charismatic little fella with his highly contagious laughter, reminding me of first being taught about pyroclastic flows and differentiation in the magma chamber. The second and third things go hand in hand. From speaking to lots of different people in the coffee and lunch-time breaks, it was interesting that not many teachers knew they could use museums as a valuable and often free resource (not only for geology, but art, history and ancient history too) I think I was the only person from a museum at the Conference. ‘Often free’ as some museums may charge to show groups of school children around; not so Plymouth Museum, which offers a completely free service! The larger museums usually have dedicated museum education, learning or outreach officers. Museum education staff, and even the curators themselves, can be available to go into schools and bring with them minerals, rocks and fossils for the children to handle. Day field trips around the local area can also be arranged, in their museum or out and about in town. Museum education officers are also ex-teachers, so they know the curriculum and can tailor their events, making them relevant to the key-stage, attainment targets or age group. This is an interesting approach, as the museum education staff use the museums’ collections for the students to handle and learn from, resulting in a fun and imaginative way of learning for all involved. In another way, it is incredibly important as it can give the teacher the day to relax a little, as the museum staff member will probably do all the talking! If there are smaller museums near your school, without dedicated museum education staff, they can still be useful. If you pop in and speak to the geology (or sometimes natural history or natural science) curator, they will usually be more than happy to arrange something. It is important that schools are aware of their local museums and how they can be used, but it is also important for the museum education officers to be knowledgeable about what they teach. I found out from the Membership Secretary, Hamish Ross, that there are 9 people out of 529 members with ‘museums’ somewhere in their address record. This is important as museum education officers need to understand geology in order to teach it well, which is why I was surprised to see no other museum education officers at this Confer- Continued on page 14 Figure 1 Looking at cave deposits. Just one of the many ‘Wild About Plymouth’ activities – a monthly event organised by the museum for children and their parents. Activities include day events such as guided walks in and around Plymouth to look at rocks and plants and visiting the estuaries to do some birdwatching. 13 www.esta-uk.org
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