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Zelda Breath of the Wild Geology Tour: Death Mountain

This post, and posts like it, is an attempt to make real-life geological phenomena more accessible to a rising generation of tech-savvy, gaming youth. Studies have shown that there is room in education for the use of virtually created worlds from video games to teach real-world geology and other scientific processes. One particular study of […]

Zelda Breath of the Wild Geology Tour: The Rock Rings Mystery

Minecraft Build challenge: Change in species over time

I have found that Minecraft, as an educational tool, is very effective in helping students understand science concepts. When students are tasked with a “Minecraft Build Challenge” in my classroom, they are required to demonstrate modeling skills, solve problems, practice engineering principles, and have fun. Though the ‘fun’ part is what the students see first, […]

Ariel, Take It From Sebastian, It Is Better Under the Sea

Since the beginning of mankind, humans have been obsessed with exploring. With every exploration came new discoveries. With every new discovery, humans became more advanced as a species. We explore, we learn. We learn, we survive. Once we had discovered everything we could on land, we decided to press our luck and take our explorations […]

Mythology Meets Geology: Fulgurites

With the clap of his mighty hands and the swing of his brawny arm, Zeus sent ear-shattering thunder and blinding bolts of lightning through the air and down to Earth. Zeus’s intentions were not to punish the people of Earth, but to remind them who possesses all power both in heaven and Earth as the […]

Periodic Players: Oxygen

The periodic table of elements… if you are still reading this I am pleasantly surprised! Ever since high school chemistry, the periodic table of elements has become taboo mixed with unpleasant recollections of memorizing each element along with its (sometimes perplexing) atomic symbol. Well, now that I have the worst part out of the way, […]

All of the Rocks at the Party

There is nothing like a good mystery to spark intrigue and interest into our boring lives. Whether that comes in the form of a suspenseful thriller movie, a good novel like Sherlock Holmes, that disturbing CSI show you can’t stop watching, or even just trying to figure out who stole your doughnut at work. But […]

Science Snapshop: Metamorphic Rocks

Anybody who is anybody gets invited to the rock party. But once you have attended the rock party, you know that there are really only three types of people who attend the rock party. First you have the sedimentary people who are rough, rigid, and not afraid to tell you about the storms they have […]

Science Snapshot: Igneous Rocks

As a kid, igneous rocks were always my favorite type of rock because of the big sparkly crystals that are characteristic of igneous rocks. The aragonite mineral in the image above was formed from magma cooling very slowly deep inside the earth. The beautiful, crystal-lined igneous rocks are composed of one or more types of […]