bhubeny@salemstate.edu

Public four-year institution, primarily undergraduate

15-30

This is the second class for majors. It also can serve as the second class of a two class science distribution requirement for non-science majors. The prerequisite it Physical Geology. The course has a required two hour lab every week.

When faced with a new piece of geologic information, students will be able to determine HOW we know this information and what the assumptions are in the analysis.

Students will be able to cite examples from the past and make an informed prediction when asked about Earth's future.

Students will be able to synthesize the geologic history of a particular area by interpreting the regional geologic evidence and be able to put this information in the context of Earth history.

We will spend time practicing the critical evaluation of the material that we cover, as far as understanding hypotheses, interpretation of data, and assumptions. Over the course of the semester, the students will be transferred more and more of the responsibility for the critical review. The final unit of the semester will address the second goal as it will have the students evaluate present environmental concerns in light of past events. Finally, students will practice interpretting geologic evidence for all topics that we discuss to hone their skills at geologic interpretation.

Over the course of the semester students will improve upon their abilities to read and critically evaluate papers from the professional literature.

We have 4 paper discussions over the semester, one for each of the major topics. These will most likely be fairly guided discussions to start and progress to debates of conflicting papers by the end of the semester.

I plan on using exams, lab write-ups, and activity evaluations for this class. Exams will mostly include concept sketches, and I am contemplating using an oral format for the final exam.