Landslides and the Colorado Front Range Debris Flows of 2013

Mark Bowen

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

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This page first made public: Nov 24, 2014

Summary

Students complete two background readings to answer a variety of questions about landslides

Mass Wasting | College Introductory

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Context

Audience

The activity is used in an online undergraduate introductory physical geography course. The focus of the course is landforms and soils. The course is predominantly composed of non-majors.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

None

How the activity is situated in the course

This is a stand-alone exercise that reinforces concepts introduced in lecture.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Become familiar with the different types of landslides and their properties, and how landscape-scale factors such as slope aspect, vegetation, and geology can impact landslides.
Identify the different types of landslides
Recognize the different causes of landslides
Convert between standard and metric units of measurement
Interpret graphs and maps

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

This is a basic introductory online exercises that introduces students to landslides. Students complete a background reading about landslides in general and answer a series of questions. Students then complete a background reading about the numerous debris flows that occurred near Boulder, Colorado in 2013. Students determine answers to questions from the text as well as interpreting graphs and maps.

Determining whether students have met the goals

Students complete the exercise during the week it is assigned. Upon completion of the laboratory exercise, students must complete an online quiz that consists of the same questions in the exercise. The online quiz is within the Desire 2 Learn (D2L) online learning platform, so answers are automatically graded and imported into the student's grade book.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.

Teaching materials and tips

Activity Description/Assignment: Landslides and the Colorado Front Range Debris Flows of 2013 exercise (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 31kB Nov23 14)
Instructors Notes:
This exercise was developed for an online class and intended for students to work independently. Both readings used in this exercise are open-source and can be downloaded for free. All answers to questions can be determined from the readings.
Solution Set:
Landslides and the Colorado Front Range Debris Flows of 2013 answer key -- private instructor-only file

Other Materials

Supporting references/URLs

U.S. Geological Survey, 2004, Landslide Types and Processes, Fact-sheet 2004-3072. Available at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2004/3072/fs-2004-3072.html

Coe, Jeffrey A., Jason W. Kean, Jonathan W. Godt, Rex L. Baum,
Eric S. Jones, David J. Gochis, and Gregory S. Anderson, 2014, New insights into debris-flow hazards from an extraordinary event in the Colorado Front Range, GSA Today, Vol. 24, No. 10. Available at: http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/10/article/i1052-5173-24-10-4.htm

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