The Magic Window Teaching Tool Background and Purpose in Place-Based Learning

How can teachers help students visualize the past or future of a place? How can looking at the past or future generate relevant discussions about changing landscapes or neighborhoods?

We developed the Magic Window teaching tool to facilitate “hands-on” discussions about how and why natural, cultural, and historic environments change.

Park Rangers Trina Kvale and Roxi Farwell, Magic Window co-developers

Magic Windows can be part of an inquiry discussion in the classroom, outdoors, or in our neighborhoods. Although this teaching tool was developed for the Rocks on the Move curriculum, Magic Windows can be used in a variety of disciplines in which time and place are components. We use the Magic Window teaching tool to prompt discussion of the essential question of our secondary geology curricula: How do I recognize evidence of geologic change in my environment? When looking through an image on a transparency, we can see two time periods simultaneously. Our observations help generate questions about the changes we see.
Creating the teaching tool

Magic Windows help students think about the processes of geologic change during their field programs in the park. It is a teaching tool suitable for an outdoor program: inexpensive, portable (can fit into a day pack), durable, and able to withstand exposure to varying weather conditions.

The archives of the park are rich in historic photos, including this photograph of Point Bonita taken by Eadweard Muybridge in 1871. The peninsula at Point Bonita is exposed to occasional violent storms. Landslides are common. Historic photos document 150 years of human interaction with a dynamic landscape that experiences plenty of erosion and weathering of rocks.

Our challenge was to find a way to illustrate geologic processes through historic and contemporary photos. We considered ways to create an “overlay” effect as you looked at a particular view. We thought we could create something similar to transparency sunlight grids used by young students in Muir Woods.

Our first effort involved making a grayscale image of a historic photograph, then copying it onto transparency film and mounting the image on a transparency frame. The photo contained so much visual information that it was difficult to focus on the geologic aspects of the image.
We made a pen-and-ink drawing of the photo. We decided which elements of the photo were necessary to include in the Magic Window, and which could be dropped, or de-emphasized.
This process worked well, and produced suitable images, such as this one, that can be used as students approach the entrance to the tunnel on the Point Bonita trail:

On the left is a photo (circa 1871) of the old trail to Point Bonita before the tunnel was built in 1876. On the right is a pen and ink drawing for a Magic Window.

Photo by Eadweard Muybridge (GGNRA Archives). Drawing by Trina Kvale (NPS)

Not all of us are so fortunate as to have an artistic colleague who can render detailed pen and ink drawings. A Magic Window can be very minimalist, and still be very effective. Here is another example which we have used successfully.

On the left is a photo (circa 1943) of the tram that was used to haul coal and other supplies up to the Point Bonita trail. On the right is a digitized drawing of the same scene for a Magic
Window. In this investigation students notice how some rocks are strong and resilient, and show almost no evidence of change over time.

Photo: GGNRA Archives. Drawing by Amir Najam (NPS)

We use cardboard transparency mounting frames to mount the windows. These work well in outdoor settings. See the document, “How to Make a Magic Window,” for a detailed description of the steps to make one.

Using Magic Windows in the Classroom

A Magic Window teaching tool is included in our traveling trunks we loan to all participating teachers. The classroom lesson enables teachers to provide a guided inquiry that introduces the essential question, and to give students an opportunity to become familiar with the new teaching tool. This streamlines the explanation process during field programs.

For the classroom lesson, we chose a 1930s historic photo of the Golden Gate Bridge under construction. This photo is available as a poster sold by our park partner, and it is easy to line up a transparency to the central element of the poster: the bridge. We drew two Magic Windows to accompany the poster. Window “A” depicts a time before the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Window “B” depicts a time after the bridge is constructed, with a noticeable change in sea level and a futuristic mode of transport.

Drawings by Trina Kvale (NPS)

After students line up the Magic Windows, they respond to the following questions:
•	What timeframe does the poster represent? How do you know?
•	What timeframe does each Magic Window represent? How do you know?
•	How is each window different from the poster? What is the same?
•	What questions do you have about your observations?
•	Do the Magic Windows illustrate processes that change the Earth’s surface? Explain.
•	How do you recognize geologic change in your environment?
•	How can recognizing geologic processes help your community?

During these inquiries, students to develop their own definitions of environment. The essential question, How do I recognize geologic change in my environment?, is meant to be flexible; environment may be global, local, even just your neighborhood. “Geologic change” is any change in our planet’s landforms. It may be a slow change, or something that happens quickly (like the changes on the Earth’s surface that occur during an earthquake, or heavy rain storm). It may be a big event, like the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, or it might be a very small movement of sediment, as seen in clogged gutters and mud puddles. By keeping the essential question flexible, all students have knowledge or experience of geologic change in their environments, and the question is applicable to park and non-park settings.

Using Magic Windows in the Park

We find that including the Magic Window activity and discussion in the classroom improves the field program. Students remain focused on the geology theme of their visit and are able to discuss the essential question. While working in small groups on their field investigation, students refer to their journals to guide them through the investigation and respond to investigation questions:

Magic Windows in action during a 2018 geology inquiry methods workshop at Rodeo Beach, GGNRA, for San Francisco State University students

Starting indoors:  Magic Windows and the Golden Gate Bridge poster

 	

Outdoors: Squinting helps you see two time periods at once!

Group work: Observations lead to discussions and debate about geologic change in our environment.

Debrief: How did we arrive at our conclusions? Does our dialogue lead to more questions? What else would we like to know?