GEOS 220: Environmental History of Southwest
Outside Activities


Outside activity #1:
Crossdating Tree Rings by Skeleton Plotting

Access this activity on the web through this page.

First, read the explanatory pages that lead up to the fun page: Try skeleton plotting for yourself.

When you succeed at crossdating a virtual sample:


Outside activity #2:
Arizona State Museum

The University of Arizona has many museums, most of which are on the main campus and are free of charge to students. In this activity, please visit the Arizona State Museum in order to learn about human-environment interactions in the Southwest. The actual assignment is as follows:




2022 Note: The Paths of Life exhibit at the Arizona State Museum is now permanently closed. See below for new suggestions for what to focus on for this activity.


  • The Museum is on the north side of University Blvd, across the street from Centennial Hall and west of Old Main. 
  • Museum hours are 10-4 PM on Tuesday–Saturday; closed Sunday.
  • Admission to the museum is free for UA people, including students. Bring your Cat Card.
  • For this activity, check out current exhibits that are relevant to EHSW. For example:
    • The mammoth bone bed and Pleistocene megafauna diorama: an obvious focus for EHSW.
    • The pottery exhibit: the Bridging of the Gap made educated guesses on where to search based on pottery sequences shown on the wall.
    • The basketry exhibit: basketry is not emphasized in EHSW, but it does represent practical and creative activities of Indigenous cultures.
  • Required: 1-page essay, typed, single- or double-spaced, your choice. 
  • Graded on depth and writing. 
    • Use more than one paragraph
    • Don't forget a topic sentence for each paragraph
    • As usual in this course, try writing completely without any first-person "I" or "we"
    • Also, it's not necessary to include the word people, as in the Hopi people
    • One more time: No quoting in this class, ever
  • Due Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in D2L.
  • Arizona Museum map





    Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona
    Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
    Comments to Paul Sheppard: sheppard @ ltrr.arizona.edu