Los microfósiles y la Crisis de la Salinidad del Mediterráneo como recurso didáctico en Ciencias de la Tierra

Resumen

The study of scientific topics is more interesting if theory is followed by practice. Through the activity herein presented students are introduced to the research carried out by geologists and palaeontologists by analysing microfossils. We propose an activity that, through biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental information provided by microfossils, can help to understand one of the most significant events in the recent history of the Mediterranean Sea: the drying up and later refilling of the basin, an event that happened about five millions years ago. The activities have been distributed in three sessions: a theoretical one, which introduces the basic concepts necessary for carrying out the activity through open-source articles and audiovisual material; a practical one, focused on data gathering, and a final one, when data are interpreted from a palaeoenvironmental standpoint and presented to the class, in the form of both scientific paper and oral discussion. All data needed for developing the activity are included in the present paper and references for the introduction of the theoretical concepts are proposed as well. It goes without saying that the proposed structure can be changed and improved according to the needs and experience of the teachers carrying out the activity. This workshop has been carried out in the course of Biology and Geology (4th ESO, compulsory secondary education) and faced the students with the exciting possibility of personally participating in all the steps of a scientific research, from data gathering to interpretation and modeling of the results.