Upper level undergraduate course in geophysics
Designed for a geophysics course

Students need to have a basic understanding of the geophysical method being used in the papers they are reading.

This is a cumulative project over the course of the semester.

Some major concepts I try to get across with this assignment are: a) there is only one Earth; i.e.; the different geophysical datasets are coming from the same piece of crust/mantle, and b) each geophysical technique constrains the range of possible answers but does not provide a unique solution.

Students are asked to compare/contrast results derived from different geophysical techniques and attempt to synthesize these into a "single model".

Literature research, comprehension of technical material, writing skills.

This is a term paper submitted as a series of iterations over the course of a semester. Students, with guidance from the professor, select a region and find papers in the literature describing geophysical data and interpreted results. Each iteration adds a new set of geophysical data (following the sequence covered in the course) and the students gradually build a geophysical cross section across their region of interest. What is effective about this assignment is that it both exposes student to current literature and allows them to compare/contrast the results derived from different geophysical techniques in the same area. This exposes students to the advantages and trade-offs between different techniques, and how combinations of geophysical data are more effective at illuminating crustal properties than any individual technique alone. It also reinforces one of the basic concepts I emphasize in the lectures—that variation in physical characteristics (density, magnetic susceptibility, seismic velocity, etc.) between sandstone/basalt/granite can be used to characterize them.
Has minimal/no quantitative component

Students are evaluated on the paper format, accurate descriptions of the geophysical data presented, writing style and degree to which they properly synthesize the material. Also, it is noted whether or not they revise material in earlier versions based on feedback from me.

R. J. Lillie, Whole Earth Geophysics, Prentice Hall, 1999 (textbook).