Snippets

Earthquakes happen almost everywhere - the sudden breaking of rocks to release tension built up in the crust and the ...

Print your own Geoscience - downloadable PDF file."Earth's Rock Cycle"It is US Letter in size - but can be scaled ...

  Discover Hawaii's Active Volcanoes for Homeschool Families: 16-21 January 2026 If you are interested, please get on the trip ...

Humans have lived and thrived around volcanoes for millennia. Often they understood the dangers as most eruptions are small and ...

An excursion to a graveyard may seem a crazy thing to want to do with your students!   But the ...

An amazing trip with wonderful people- and here are just a few of the highlights in photos. Want to join ...

See just a few photos from the trip in 2023.  What an amazing experience! ...

If you are teaching your students about volcanoes, here are some great resources you can use in your classroom or ...

So field season is just around the corner - and it's time to make sure you have all the gear ...

Have your students listen to this podcast on radioactive dating.  It goes just under 8 minutes.  Then have them do ...

As the rocks on our planet are continually being moved around by Plate Tectonics, it is rare to find layers ...

Here are all the free resources to help you learn and teach about Plate Tectonics. If you are a GEOetc ...

When we look at the earthquake evidence for Plate Tectonics, one amazing feature is the Benioff Zoned earthquakes that show ...

I think it is wonderful that we are having students ask meaningful questions and undertaking studies to try and answer ...

Just some of the photos from our 2021 Iceland trip ...

Welcome to The Earth Science Teacher. This is the quarterly member's journal of GEOetc.com.   Each quarter a new topic is ...

Often the misconception people have is that lava is the most deadly thing about an erupting volcano!   But this is ...

Plate Tectonic cycles have been happening on Earth as we know it today - with all its features - for ...

I use mineral and rock collection cards with all my samples - even ones that are still sitting in plastic ...

In the 1920's a Serbian geophysicist and astronomer called Milutin Milankovitch suggested that long term variations in how the Earth ...

We are currently dealing with changes in the way we communicate with each and our students due to the COVID-19 ...

One of the most dramatic geological features found around our planet is columnar jointing formed from the cooling of molten ...

Traditionally, when we talk about the layers of our planet we talk about the inner core, outer core, mantle, and ...

When you just start off exploring the wonders of minerals, working out mineral identification can seem a daunting task. It ...

So you need to buy a for the geologist in your life?   Are you struggling to find something that will ...

So you want to run a field trip? I have been leading field trips for over 30 years, and have ...

Just some of the photos from our 2019 Iceland trips. Come join us in Iceland 2022 More details here ...

I have spent a lot of time measuring the weathering rates of marble gravestones.  During my studies, I have discovered ...

Many educators who are not Earth science trained, and many who are, flounder when trying to work out the best ...

We view our planet using different scales.  Most people use just the local scale - they see what is immediately around ...

Understanding polar reversals helps us to understand an important piece of evidence for Plate Tectonics. When molten rock cools, some ...

One of the most amazing places on the Earth's is where two massive tectonic plates are moving apart.  Almost 99% ...

Trying to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in the classroom can often seem disjointed.  Having a STEM teaching ...

What are the essential pieces of field gear for a geologist - or in fact any geology enthusiast?   What ...

Olivine is one of the simplest silicate minerals that can be found in igneous rocks on our planet. All the ...

So you have been successful in having your topic selected as one of the conference posters.  Good job! Presenting a ...

While high school students are taught about chemistry using simple examples of inorganic and organic substances, very few are exposed ...

Too often scientists ignore talking to the public.  They would rather spend all their “communication” time and energy talking about ...

A geological hammer is often seen as an essential part of any field geologists equipment.   Often called rock picks ...

Cinder cones are volcanic features that are found at volcanic sites where there has been some form of fountaining activity.  Fire Fountains ...

The evidence for Plate Tectonics is very conclusive.  It is a very well supported theory, and while scientific debate continues ...

The Earth's plates don't just sit there.  They move and interact at their boundaries - and that is what makes ...

The Earth's rocky outerlayer (the lithosphere) is broken up into around seventeen major pieces that we call tectonic plates.   ...

The Earth's crust - that outermost rocky layer of our planet - can be daunting to understand.   To start ...

If you are a geoscientist you are going to need field boots.   Even if you are being a "geoscientist" just ...

Taking solid field notes is a skill that many students are not taught.  The days of a geologist's life recorded ...

Mica has been used for many purposes over time and even in my short lifetime I have seen it in ...

Understanding time is something that geoscientists are just great at doing. But we get a little sick of people not understanding ...

Most people believe that one of the major hazards of volcanoes are lava flows.   They are surprised to find ...

Diamonds are NOT a girl's best friend - or so I tell my wife.  And here is why. All minerals ...

Mapping lava flows using satellite images is a wonderful activity that you can do in your classroom.   In some ...

Field trips are critical.  Learning Earth science in the field is as important as learning to cook in a kitchen ...

Cleavage is an important diagnostic feature of minerals.  However it is often misunderstood.  And more often mistaken for another mineral ...

Often we have to teach about phenomenon, like an earthquake, that our students have never experienced.  We can read eyewitness ...

One of the reasons I fell in love with geology was finding evidence of igneous activity in the form of ...

Gold - the metal on which many empires have grown (and withered) is a strange metal indeed.  In nature it ...

An EarthCache is a special place that you can visit using GPS technology to learn more about the geology of ...

How hard is a mineral?   Geoscientists still use mineral hardness as a way to identify an unknown mineral.  This ...

We are all looking at ways to collect and display data with our students.  Most of the time the data ...

Basalt. It's the fine grained igneous rock that makes up the sea floor and sometimes spews forth from volcanoes on ...

Deep Time is the term used by scientists to describe the vast amount of time that has passed since the ...

The Permian period of time started around 299 million years ago when the Earth was in the deep freeze of ...

G'day, Howdy and Hi, My name is Gary Lewis and I am an enthusiastic and passionate geoscientist.  I grew up ...