Plate Tectonics
Sarah Titus
, http://www.people.carleton.edu/%7Estitus/index.html
, stitus@carleton.edu
Carleton College
a Private four-year institution, primarily undergraduate
.Summary
Course URL: http://www.people.carleton.edu/%7Estitus/teaching/220/index.html
Subject: Geoscience:Geology:Tectonics, Geoscience, :Geology:Structural Geology
Resource Type: Course Information:Goals/Syllabi
Ready for Use: Ready to Use
Course Type: Entry Level:Earth Science, Upper Level:Structural Geology/Tectonics
Course Size:
15-30
Course Context:
This is a mid-level Tectonics course for majors and introductory geology is a pre-requisite. This course has a required four-hour laboratory section.
Course Goals:
This is a mid-level Tectonics course for majors and introductory geology is a pre-requisite. This course has a required four-hour laboratory section.
How course activities and course structure help students achieve these goals:
For each goal listed above:
- We look at maps in lectures and in laboratory exercises. Maps are included on each exam.
- Homework exercises are designed to explore plate tectonic problems such as isostasy and euler poles using quantitative methods. Similar problems show up on exam questions.
- The writing goal is achieved through a course wiki, where students have weekly assignments and receive feedback from the instructor and fellow students above ways to improve each written assignment. To ensure that editing occurs, changes can be tracked using the wiki format and part of the final grade is based on editing their own and their peers work. If curious about the quality of student work, check out: https://carlwiki.carleton.edu/bin/view and click on the Tectonics links on the left side of the page.
- Experimental labs: half of the labs in the course are dedicated to designing an experimental lab for their peers. This lab must include an experimental component as well as other exercises that help illustrate their chosen plate tectonic concept (like hotspots, focal mechanisms, convection).
Skills Goals
These are folded into the content goals above, but this Tectonics course stresses:
- quantitative skills
- student writing and editing
How course activities and course structure help students achieve these goals:
Attitudinal Goals
not provided
Assessment
Syllabus:
Syllabus (Microsoft Word 89kB Jun20 07)
