Abstract - Students in a surficial-processes class helped design and completed a research project to measure the weathering rates of marble tombstones at two locations in southwestern Montana. Measuring the rates of rapid geomorphic processes emphasizes the quantitative aspects of research project design, data collection, and analysis. The project reinforced students' recently acquired knowledge of statistics (from a required math class) as they used it, at their own initiative, to solve a geologic problem. When the field data were more complex than they expected, students demonstrated for themselves that mathematical analysis could give meaning to their data.
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