On this page we have compiled online teaching resources, specifically resources that allow for classes to be taught mainly or completely online. Most of these are designed for undergraduate college and university courses, but some are useful for high school Earth Science courses. We will continue to add to this list over time.
Resources are also being compiled by the Paleontological Society members and affiliates: Paleo-Online Educational Resources
The Earth Science Women’s Network is also compiling a list: Online Teaching Resources
The SERC InTeGrate Teaching Materials page include lots of online teaching resources.
Professor Julie Libarkin created a Geoscience Online Database Google Sheet with tabs across the bottom for online lectures, online labs, and other online resources.
List of HS Earth Science Online Resources curated by Robert Williams. Shared on Facebook here.
Includes GSA’s online resources and other related geology and natural science resources: Geological Society of America Online Resources
Micro My Earth features online lectures, courses, and links to other geoscience resources.
Resources for Moving Classes to Online Formats
Teaching Remotely in Times of Need
Rapid Transitioning to Online Learning
Inside Higher Ed Article: ‘So You Want to Temporarily Teach Online’
How to Find the Best Internet for Online Teaching Jobs
Online Lectures and Modules
Professor Matthew Clapham’s YouTube channel
- Contains lecture videos on statistics and sedimentology/stratigraphy
Phylogenetic Methods: building and using trees to answer compelling questions.
- Professor Brian O’Meara’s course on phylogenetic methods. Open access textbook, syllabus, assignments, YouTube videos, etc.
- Set of 50 videos on river geomorphology on YouTube. Shared by Steve Gough, a river conservation scientist. Original tweet here.
Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education on QUBES
- This is a project that is focused on bringing collections data into undergraduate classrooms and using it to teach data skills. It evolved from a meeting in November 2016 called, “Integrating Resources and Growing the Community: Data Resources and Data Literacy“.
Natural History Collections Portal on QUBES
- The vision for this portal is to create a space for the broader collections-based education community to aggregate and disseminate resources. All individuals and projects with natural history collection-based educational materials for any grade levels, disciplines, and topics are invited to link materials to this portal. To find just BLUE teaching resources visit here.
Virtual Textbooks
- A free, online petrology textbook with great resources, including an atlas of minerals in thin section.
Digital Encyclopedia of Ancient Life
- Open access textbook that incorporates 3D specimens into chapters as relevant.
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Physical Geology Laboratory Book and Exercises
- Open access laboratory book with interactive exercises covering topics such as minerals, rocks, topographic maps, plate tectonics, geologic structures, geologic time, and geologic maps
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike license
Virtual Geology Field Trips and Outcrops
3D Outcrop and Hand Samples on SketchFab
- A collection of outcrops, fossils, and hand samples all hosted on SketchFab (3D viewer is self-contained online), compiled by Professor Robert Mahon.
- An online library of geologic outcrops that can be incorporated into lesson plans.
Columns of the Giants in California
- An interactive geologic tour of the columnar basalts in California. Developed for Grades 6-12.
School of Earth and Space Exploration Upheaval Dome Field Trip
- Complete with lesson plans, a tutorial, and an introduction to get you and your students started, this virtual field trip explores Upheaval Dome, the impact crater in Utah.
Virtual Field Trip of Australian Ediacaran sites
- This trip takes students to Australia to explore the location of some of the oldest animal species on Earth!
Arizona State Virtual Field Trips
- A collection of trips that range from exploring modern to ancient environments preserved in the sedimentary rock record, including the Grand Canyon.
University of Florida Grand Canyon Trip
- This assignment uses Google’s Grand Canyon Trek to ‘hike’ the entire length of the Bright Angel Trail, with full 360 degree views along the way.
- This online resource involves a map of Nova Scotia with areas that students can ‘visit’. Each site has a description that is technical and one that is non-technical.
- A downloadable PowerPoint presentation that takes students on a virtual tour of the buildings of Edmonton, and their geologic significance.
- Explore landscapes and geological features across the province, with 14 sites to visit and explore. Most include 360 degree views of the local geology.
Nova Scotia Geoheritage Virtual Tour
- Visit natural and cultural sites of Nova Scotia. Lesson plans not included but images are nice and can be enhanced.
EPICC Virtual Field Experiences
- EPICC virtual fieldwork experiences (VFEs) provide opportunities to virtually visit classic paleontological field sites along the Pacific coast and to explore images and data from specimens that have been collected there. VFEs can combine high resolution and 3-D pictures for exploring an outcrop, images of fossils (snails, clams, sand dollars, and others) in place and in museum collections, geological maps and satellite views, and much more.
Virtual Sediments, Outcrops, Minerals, and Thin Sections
- This Google Sheet, curated and compiled by Professor Callan Bentley, contains a list of 150 gigapan images of different sediment types, all linked within the sheet.
Gigapan Images by Professor Callan Bentley
- These very high-resolution images captured by Professor Callan Bentley are of rocks, minerals, and outcrops from all over the world, and can be incorporated into any lesson plans.
- This page contains a collection of thin sections from meteorites, rocks from certain parts of the world, and from natural history collections. The ‘Teaching Resources’ page has links to other related online resources.
Historical Geology Minerals, Rocks, and Fossils
- Interactive PDFs shared by Joseph Peterson in the Paleontology Education Facebook group. Original Post. These work best in Adobe Reader (which is freely available). Rocks minerals, and fossils were digitized with a NextEngine Scanner.
Professor Mark Wilson’s Wikimedia
- Rock types, field photos, fossils, random geology. All available for use.
WVU Volcanology and Petrology Lab
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Official SketchFab account for the WVU Volcanology and Petrology lab’s 3D models.
- The Smithsonian Learning Lab puts the treasures of the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex within reach. The Lab is a free, interactive platform for discovering millions of authentic digital resources, creating content with online tools, and sharing in the Smithsonian’s expansive community of knowledge and learning.
Digital Biological Specimens & Objects
**Sketchfab has a web viewer and mobile app**
Digital Atlas of Ancient Life 3D Collections
- Digitized by the Paleontological Research Institute (PRI), this page contains over 200 3D scanned fossil images from PRI’s collection.
- Over 500 models on Sketchfab.
- Atlas of 3D fossil models, all under a Creative Commons Attribution.
Western Science Center 3D Printing Lab
- Scanned collections are open access. You can find them available for download on Sketchfab and MorphoSource.
- Over 200 models on SketchFab. oVert Thematic Collection Network (bit.ly/oVert_iDigBio) funded by the US National Science Foundation, we are generating lots of 3D anatomical models based on CT-scanning and photogrammetry. Download tomograms and meshes from MorphoSource.
- Vertebrate Anatomy – Skeletons Collection on Sketchfab
- Natural objects, largely animal skeletons in 3D. Viewer requires Java.
California Academy of Sciences
- Over 700 models of scientific specimens on Sketchfab
- Over 1500 models on Sketchfab. The Virtual Curation Laboratory was founded in August 2011 to digitally preserve and share the world’s cultural heritage through 3D scanning and printing.
Royal Museum of Central Africa
- Over 432 models on Sketchfab. The Royal Museum for Central Africa’s task is to preserve and manage collections, carry out scientific research, and disseminate knowledge to a wide audience through its scientific, educational, and museological activities.
- Over 70 models on Sketchfab. We are a non-profit group creating high-quality, accurate 3D models of life on earth for science, conservation and education. Downloads only for non-profit use. For licensing, visit digitallife3d.org. Copyright University of Massachusetts.
Idaho Virtualization Laboratory
- Over 1300 models on Sketchfab. The Idaho Virtualization Laboratory (IVL) is a research unit of Idaho Museum of Natural History on the campus of Idaho State University. Our lab houses state-of-the-art technology for imaging, simulation of material items, and landscape reconstruction
- Over 50 models on Sketchfab. We use anatomy, 3D modeling and computational analysis to discover patterns in vertebrate form, function and evolution. We generate models from CT, MRI, contrast imaging, histology and photogrammetry for use in research, education, and outreach.
- Over 50 models on Sketchfab. 21st century approaches to fleshing out the past.
University of Michigan Online Repository of Fossils (UMORF)
- The University of Michigan Online Repository of Fossils (UMORF) is a project of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology to increase the accessibility of fossil specimens through online 3D and 2D representations.
- Webviewer that works on computers & mobile devices
Professor Mark Wilson’s Wikimedia
- Rock types, field photos, fossils, random geology. All available for use.
- Bring your curriculum teaching to life by using objects from the Science Museum’s collection and fuel your students’ fascination and curiosity around science and engineering.
Evolution, Biodiversity, Paleontology
- The Howard Hughes Medical Institute page with resources for teaching evolution through the discovery and bones of Tiktaalik roseae, the transitional sarcopterygian from the Late Devonian.
BLUE: Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education
- Modules that include materials for students and instructors. Often these incorporate biodiversity data or natural history collections data for students to analyze and interpret.
Dinosaur Footprint Reservation Exercise
- Dino track data: PDF maps, KMZ files, orientation data, etc. Made by Chris Aucoin, shared on Facebook here.
The Mysteries of Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry
- Natural History Museum of Utah’s Research Quest. Aimed at middle schoolers but scale-able! Found on Facebook here.
Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Natural Disasters
- An interactive map containing up-to-date earthquake and volcano data. Students can look at plates and plate movement within the app.
- A block and slider widget that students can manipulate online to investigate earthquakes. Site contains video instructions and a Google spreadsheet for student use.
- Here’s an article by the pages’ author, Matthew A. d’Alessio, explaining the activity.
Plate Tectonics
The Geological Society Plate Tectonics
- An overview and introduction to plate tectonics, including the men behind the theories (please be sure to tell your students about Marie Tharp!).
Change in the Uinta Mountains: Normal or Not?
- Natural History Museum of Utah’s Research Quest. Aimed at middle schoolers but scale-able! Found on Facebook here.
Climate Change
University of Washington Urchin Lab
- This online learning lab teaches students about microscopes and ocean acidification through the lens of urchin research.
Carbon, Climate, and Energy Resources
- A 2 to 3 week completely online module that takes students through the carbon cycle and implications of carbon perturbations. These are 6 self-contained modules that will help students develop critical thinking skills through exploring deep time data.
Mapping
- A website full of resources to learn ArcGIS, filled with guided lessons.
- Mikaël Attal working to transition ArcGIS work to the freely available QGIS, scroll down to find the work.
Groundwater and Hydrology
- In this online activity, students use hydrogeologic principles to determine the source of a pollutant.
Geomorphology / Surface Water Hydrology
- Online exercise. Head to the link and search ‘teaching notebooks’. Shared by Nicole Gasparini created by Katy Barnhart. Original tweet.
Oil, Natural Gas, and Industry
- Students can frack and learn about the process in this online simulator.
- Here’s an article by the pages’ author, Matthew A. d’Alessio, explaining the activity.
- Students can explore where to drill for oil in this online resource.
General Geology
Aspen Global Change Institute Introduction to Geology
- This website offers pages that provide students with an overview of geology in a virtual classroom setting.