Geology 110
Spring 2019
Introduction
This course is designed to give you a tour through the planet Earth - from the inside to the outside and from the past to the present. Think of it as the opposite of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth with more science and less science fiction. We’ll learn about the large-scale structure of the Earth, formation of mountains, explosive processes like volcanoes, earthquakes, and how water, glaciers, and mass wasting can shape the landscape.Learning goals
Much of your success in this course will be measured on your ability to think like a scientist rather than your ability to recall facts (although a moderate amount of recollection of concepts and terms is necessary, too).Text
Reynolds, Johnson, Kelly, Morin & Carter, 2008. Exploring Geology, McGraw Hill.Grading
This is the breakdown for grading. For more information about each category, continue reading below this list.- 40% - Exams
- 10% - Homework and class participation
- 20% - Laboratory exercises
- 10% - Geology in the News
- 20% - Visual journal
Academic Integrity
Standard rules of academic integrity apply to all assignments. Namely, your work should be your own. If you solve problems with other students, please list their names and explain the nature of your collaboration. Please review the College webpage about plagiarism.Technology guidelines
- Note taking: Please take notes on paper rather than on a laptop - I make a lot of drawings on the board. Talk to me in person if you really want to use a device. No photographs of the board are allowed unless you ask permission.
- Calculators: It would be better if you used a real calculator rather than your phone. Exceptions may be made for in-class work but be sure to have an app with trig functions.
- Phones: We're going to try an experiment in lab this term: Phones will not be allowed during lab unless specified by me.
Exams
There will be two exams. The first will probably be during week 5 and the second during week 9 or 10.Homework and class participation, labs etc.
I may assign short homework exercises based on the reading and/or course material. These are designed to allow exploration of important concepts in geology or current geology events in the news. There may be unannounced in-class quizzes about the reading material. Class participation (and obviously attendance) is expected for all class and lab meetings. If you are too ill to come to class, please let me know via email ASAP (preferably prior to class).Laboratory exercises
Labs will be focused on the local geology in southeastern Minnesota. We will often go outside, so you'll need to dress appropriately. This may mean that you need to wear warmer clothes than you normally do for walking across campus. Being outside for several hours is different than walking to Sayles. Also, I need you to wear sturdy shoes in lab - no sandals or flip-flops ever. Your phones must be off during lab - I want you to be observing the world around you and navigating through it. Lab activities are usually turned in as a group. Please be neat. Lab exercises are typically due at the end of lab.Geology-in-the-News
Each week, a group of students will be responsible for presenting a weekly wrap-up of geologic events that have happened in the news that week. This will be in the form of a 10-15 minute presentation in lab. Each student in your group should discuss 2 stories from the news, with accompanying images. Choose actual news sources (e.g., NY Times, Washington Post, Economist, your hometown paper etc.) not nerd science sites (Science Daily, Science News, Yahoo science news), although the nerd sites might help you track down good stories. Because this is a graded presentation (see rubric), be sure to practice with your group and arrive in lab early the day of your presentation in order to make sure that it is set up.Here are a few more specific requirements:
1. For each story, give us the reference (what paper it comes from, what date it was printed) as the first slide about the story.
2. Show us a location map for each story - probably as the second slide about the story. You can make your own easily in Google maps.
3. For the meat of the presentation, tell us what the main point was. Then spend a little bit of time on the "geology behind the story." This is especially important for topics that we haven't talked about in detail in class.
4. Remember to talk about the images that you put in your presentation. Use the laser pointer to indicate important features in each diagram that your audience should be looking at.
5. A good rule of thumb is that you should spend about one minute per slide. If you spend multiple minutes per image, then you probably should find more images that illustrate what you're talking about to keep your audience listening.