New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

Albuquerque's Geoscape is a poster about Albuquerque's geology that includes sections about local volcanic and seismic features, the local aquifer, the Rio Grande, the Rio Grande rift, the Sandia Mountains, and the local geologic history. An annotated panorama of the Sandias, local geologic and seismic maps, images of local volcanic features, side-by-side aerial photos of the East African and the Rio Grande rift valleys, simplified cross-sections of the local stratigraphy and the Albuquerque aquifer, and an annotated geologic time scale are superimposed on a color satellite image of the Albuquerque basin. The content is aligned with local, state, and national science education standards so that teachers can incorporate the poster into their Earth Science curriculum using a variety of teaching strategies and still teach to the standards.

In developing the poster, we have targeted middle school students who are studying Earth Science. The poster relates the local geology with the concepts presented in the Earth Science textbooks. Albuquerque's geology, which spans in time from the Precambrian to the present,
and includes a variety of rock types and features, such as faults and alluvial fans, provide an opportunity for teachers and their students to better appreciate the uniqueness of the landscape. Once the poster is complete, we will make a PowerPoint presentation available that explains the content of the poster. Without having to be geologists themselves, teachers will be able to use both the PowerPoint presentation and poster. High school students, college students taking introductory geology, and the interested public will also find the poster useful.

Although there is a significant amount of interest in the local geology, there seem to be few non-technical resources. An informal survey indicates that most people do not know the most basic information about the geologic landscape, such as that New Mexico has any volcanoes. Joan Newsom received an Intel Innovations in Teaching grant to develop educational resources about the local geology for middle school students.