Learning pseudosections with Perplex
Dave Hirsch
, Western WA University
Summary
This is a set of five assignments that build upon each other to teach students how to use Perplex to make pseudosections.
Context
Audience:
I use this assignment for a good portion of my Advanced Metamorphic Petrology course (graduate students/seniors).
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered:
Students should understand the concept of a solution model, and basic thermodynamics.
How the activity is situated in the course:
I assign these, one per week, for five consecutive weeks. We spend part of a lab session in the computer lab each week getting started on that week's assignment. Note that I run these on a Macintosh. Some of the text is particular to our computer lab setup, and would need to be modified for others.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity:
Goals include understanding the use of thermodynamic databases, learning to use Perplex, understanding pseudosections and how to use Perplex to make them.
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity:
During this activity students learn how to develop computer representations of metamorphic rocks.
Other skills goals for this activity:
Students also learn to use the command-line (Mac/Unix/PC) to run computer programs.
Description of the activity/assignment
This is a set of five exercises that teach the basic skills of using Perplex and the possible types of understanding one can gain from the use of internally-consistent thermodynamic databases. The exercises culminate in the creation of a pseudosection for a particular rock.
Determining whether students have met the goals
Students are evaluated by checking that turned-in homework has the correct figures, reactions, etc.
More information about assessment tools and techniques.Download teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment (Acrobat (PDF) 314kB Apr20 07)
- Solution Set (Acrobat (PDF) 280kB Apr20 07)
Other Materials
- A zipped set of supporting files to be given to students ( 1.6MB Apr20 07), along with versions of the assignment file ("Perplex Tutorials") in Microsoft Word and Macintosh Pages formats
- A zipped set of supporting files for the instructor ( 17.9MB Apr20 07). This contains all Perplex files for each task, together with correct output for each task.
Supporting references/URLs
Current versions of Perplex (it is updated often) can be found here: http://www.perplex.ethz.ch/perplex.html
