Recently in Tombstone Weathering Category

Magnolia Cemetery Field Trip, by Louisiana State University


How fast do materials weather? In each activity described on this SERC website, instructors giving a lecture on weathering ask students to calculate weathering rates from tombstone weathering data. Atmospheric (and precipitation) chemistry determines the rate of weathering for marble tombstones. Show the students data from a rural and an urban cemetery, ask them to estimate rates, and then have them speculate as to why the rates are so different.


Reinforcing quantitative skills with applied research on tombstone-weathering rates. This Journal of Geoscience Education article describes a tombstone weathering exercise that reinforces quantitative skills with applied research. The article describes an exercise designed and carried out by students in a surficial processes course. Measuring the rates of rapid geomorphic processes emphasizes the quantitative aspects of research project design, data collection, and analysis. The project reinforced students’ recently acquired knowledge of statistics (from a required math class) as they used it, at their own initiative, to solve a geologic problem. When the field data were more complex than they expected, students demonstrated for themselves that mathematical analysis could give meaning to their data.


Estimating historic weathering rates in western Oregon from tombstone morphology (PDF file). Laboratory exercise from Western Oregon University, with weathering data sheet (MS Excel).


I want a gravestone that lasts! An activity for 12th grade developed for Evergreen in Canada.

Tombstone data (rock type, weathering category, year) (MS Excel file) collected by TESSE 2009 teachers at Cumberland Cemetery.


Gravestone weathering data, compiled by University of Portsmouth, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth, Hampshire.


Article - Scientist Uses Tombstones to Track Environmental Changes. National Geographic News, 2001.

Videos in TeacherTube (prepared by Dr. Laura Guertin, Penn State Brandywine)
    For students engaging in cemetery research
    For teachers to engage students in cemetery investigations
    Preparing students for a cemetery visit (for teachers)
    Cemetery demography (for students and teachers)

Accompanying handouts (PDF format)
    Cemetery research, Cemetery demography


Google Earth module
     Cumberland Cemetery (Google Earth file)


Additional pedagogical links
    History Detectives - Written in Stone

In this lesson, students will be introduced to investigating history through a tour of a local cemetery. Students will investigate tombstones for historical information, make stone rubbings, and use this secondary source reference to obtain primary sources.

    GraveNet

A project to give K-12 students an opportunity to investigate community history, geology, etc., through cemeteries, by providing lesson plans and other resources.

Arlington National Cemetery investigation

In this lesson students will examine the history of the United States by visiting the Arlington Cemetery website.

CSI - Cemetery Scene Investigators

In this project-based learning module, students and community members become part of a "CSI" task force that investigates the entire cemetery. It is much more than just an occasion for making headstone rubbings; it is an opportunity for focused insight into the community's past-scientifically, mathematically, and historically speaking.

Graphing names in a historic cemetery

Tally and graph the most common names found in a local historic cemetery.

Additional cemetery-related lesson plans (PDF file)

Additional cemetery information

Gravestones: A reflection on American Lifestyle (undergraduate research project)
Glossary of Victorian cemetery symbolism
The Association for Gravestone Studies
From PBS - A Cemetery Special (site 1, site 2)