[Petwksp] Igneous suite project

[Kent Ratajeski]

Petrologists,

I'm writing for the usual reason--I'm looking to scavenge some ideas from
you all.  In this case, its regarding a 1/2 semester-long project with
igneous suites that I am trying to develop by this WEDNESDAY.  Our
department has some really excellent igneous suites in its petrology
teaching collection (mostly the old Western Minerals collections), but its
thin-section collection isn't as well developed.  So I thought the perfect
solution would be to assign our students (10 of them this semester) a 1/2
semester project in which they would make some thin-sections for us and
learn about the settings of famous igneous suites in more detail.  Here are
some issues I've been thinking about regarding this project:

- I'm thinking about 5 thin-sections per student (from the same suite) would
probably be a reasonable workload

- I'm not sure if single-student projects or small groups are the way to go.
5 thin-sections is a pretty small number for a representative sampling of
some of these places.  With a group of 2, you could get 10 sections from
each suite...a nice start to building our collection.  Anyone with previous
experience with such projects care to advise me on this issue?

- I'd like them to take photomicrographs of their thin-sections and
interpret what they see.  I'm not sure how productive this will be, however.
Some of the samples will be more useful for interpreting processes than
others.

- I'd like them to do an in-class presentation (a PowerPoint presentation
summarizing the setting and origin of the igneous suite they choose) and I'd
also like a written report (complete with thin-section descriptions, modes,
rock names, etc.)

- I'm not sure how much whole-rock geochemistry to integrate into this; we
don't have the time or facilities (right now) to do an entire "pet rock"
project including geochemical analysis.  Again, does anyone who has done a
largely petrographic project like this care to comment about how this might
work?

- I'd also like to get them into the literature.  Many of the refs listed in
the Western Minerals documentation are EXTREMELY old, and that may be a
problem. I don't want the students getting bogged down reading the wrong
papers (i.e., those above their level of understanding).  I'm leaning
towards suggesting they use their textbook as a place to start, and also
listing a few recommended papers for each suite.
    
If this project sounds like one you have assigned in the past, I would love
to correspond with you.  Any materials you would care to share with me would
be very helpful!  I didn't really see anything on the Teaching Petrology
site that seemed to correspond with what I had in mind.

Thanks in advance for your help!

- Kent


--------------------------
Kent Ratajeski
Assistant Professor
Department of Geosciences
University of West Georgia
1601 Maple Street
Carrollton, GA  30118

Phone: (678) 839-4059
Fax: (678) 839-4071
Email: kratajes at westga.edu
Web: http://www.westga.edu/~geosci/People/Bio-Folder/Bio-Ratajeski.html