Lab Purpose and learning objectives

Report, describe, and interpret your observations of several features found in the Pacific NW.

Formulate a hypothesis explaining how several landform features relate to each other and explain what took place to create them (Your story).

Use the scientific method to structure your exploration and explanations.

Instructions and Overview

a. You are going to investigate and solve a mystery about a geological phenomenon in our “backyard”.  You will be given several pieces of evidence and multiple clues and hints containing geologic information for you to observe, formulate hypotheses about, and interpret. 

b. Using the eight pieces of evidence provided, and the large map of the Northwest with their locations, make observations and interpretations and record these in the table provided You will type these up and upload these to Canvas.

 c. Hints are provided along with the evidence to help guide your group and should be used for discussion when making your observations and interpretations. You do not need answer these questions in your report. However, discuss each question as a group to learn about each piece of evidence so that you can come up with plausible interpretations and observations.

Step 2: Once you have investigated all eight pieces of geological evidence and have recorded your observations and thoughts, sit down with your group and develop a narrative of what you think happened based on the evidence. Include the ways each piece of evidence supports your description, i.e., what does your clue indicate about the larger picture.  For example, the presence of a sesame seed on my shirt might mean that I recently ate a Big Mac, but it could also mean I ate a sesame bagel.

Step 3. Using the scientific method (see page 5) write, independently of the group, a clear 500-600 word lab report compiling this information into a narrative explaining, or solving, the Pacific Northwest Geologic Mystery.  Note the typed tables of should be attached as appendices and can be referred to in the report, but do not count towards the 500-600 words.