Informal Geoscience Education on a Grand Scale: The Trail of Time Exhibition at Grand Canyon

September 1st, 2008 | RESEARCH

The Trail of Time exhibition under construction at Grand Canyon National Park is the world's largest geoscience exhibition at one of the world's grandest geologic landscapes. It is a 2-km-long interpretive walking timeline trail that leverages Grand Canyon vistas and rocks to guide visitors to ponder, explore, and understand the magnitude of geologic time and the stories encoded by Grand Canyon rock layers and landscapes. As one of a new generation of geoscience education exhibits, the Trail of Time targets multiple cognitive and affective levels with accurate content, active geoscience inquiry and interpretation, and place-based cultural integration. It developed as an outgrowth of sustained geoscience research funded by the National Science Foundation, with scientists as the conceivers and coordinators of the project. It benefits from a high level of synergy with the National Park Service interpretation division, as well as extensive on-site and off-site evaluation of pedagogic effectiveness in the outdoor informal science environment. The Trail of Time will impact many of the five million annual visitors to the National Park. Associated cognitive research on public understanding of "deep time" offers opportunities to inform more effective geoscience pedagogy for informal and formal educational settings. 

Document

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Team Members

Karl Karlstrom, Author, University of New Mexico
Steven Semken, Author, Arizona State University
Laura Crossey, Author, University of New Mexico
Deborah Perry, Author, Selinda Research Associates
Eric Gyllenhaal, Author, Selinda Research Associates
Jeff Dodick, Author, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Michael Williams, Author, University of Massachusetts
Judy Hellmitch-Bryan, Author, Grand Canyon National Park
Ryan Crow, Author, University of New Mexico
Nievita Bueno Watts, Author, Arizona State University
Charles Ault, Author, Lewis and Clark College

Citation

Publication: Journal of Geoscience Education
Volume: 56
Number: 4
Page(s): 354-361

Funders

Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 0610393

Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: ISE/AISL
Award Number: 0610345

Related URLs

Full Text
Collaborative Research: The Trail of Time: A Geoscience Exhibition at Grand Canyon National Park

Tags

Audience: General Public | Museum | ISE Professionals
Discipline: Geoscience and geography
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research Products
Environment Type: Exhibitions | Parks | Outdoor | Garden Exhibits