A day at the
Racetrack
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
A day at the
Racetrack
Why do you think rocks like this move?
Source: https://maps.google.com
The moving rocks are found in a place in Death Valley National Park.
Source: https://maps.google.com
The moving rocks are found in a place in Death Valley National Park.
Why is this area called Death Valley?
Source: https://maps.google.com
They are found in a place called Racetrack Playa inside of Death Valley National Park.
Source: https://maps.google.com
They are found in a place called Racetrack Playa inside of Death Valley National Park.Why is this area called Racetrack Playa?
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Why is this area called Racetrack Playa?
Source: https://maps.google.com
Using Google Maps or Google Earth, locate Racetrack Playa
The ‘sailing stones’ have intrigued Geographers for a long time.
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
There has to be an explanation for this strange movement of rocks …
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Your mission is to solve the ‘mystery’ of the moving rocks.
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
In a group of three or four, sort the cards (shown on the following slides) …
Your mission is to solve the ‘mystery’ of the moving rocks.
Source: rgs.org website on Fantastic Places – A Day at the Racetrack
Source: rgs.org website on Fantastic Places – A Day at the Racetrack
Source: rgs.org website on Fantastic Places – A Day at the Racetrack
Source: rgs.org website on Fantastic Places – A Day at the Racetrack
Image: Some rights reserved by stevelyon
You should sort the cards into three main types …
Image: Some rights reserved by stevelyon
You should sort the cards into three main types …• Background information on Death
Valley• Not useful in answering the question• Helps answer the question
Image: Some rights reserved by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Each group should prepare an explanation on a poster to answer the main question, which will then be explained to the rest of the class.
Image: Some rights reserved by kugelfish
The class will give feedback on each explanation, and will vote for the most reasonable one.
To find out more, you can visit this site …
http://geology.com/articles/racetrack-playa-sliding-rocks.shtml
Context: This presentation is to accompany the Fantastic Places Scheme Of Learning as developed by the Royal Geographical Society.
This particular resource is also found on this website:http://year7geo.com/
It is partly comprised of other people’s images which I have credited.In the same spirit of sharing as those whose work I’ve borrowed, this presentation by James Penstone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.