Metamorphic Facies CogSketch geoscience worksheet

Bridget Garnier

University of Wisconsin-Madison

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection. (view details)

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This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

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Initial Publication Date: May 25, 2016 | Reviewed: November 25, 2019 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

Sketching activity that uses a sketch-understanding program, CogSketch. Students plot pressure and temperature points from metamorphic environments (i.e. subduction zone and continental convergence) onto the Metamorphic Facies diagram. Students then connect points to draw pressure/temperature pathways and identify the metamorphic facies associated with these environments.

Metamorphic Processes, PTt Relationships, Metamorphic Rock Suites and ...(more) | College Introductory

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Context

Audience

Undergraduate introductory course in geoscience

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should have learned about metamorphic environments (subduction zones and continent/continent collisions) and metamorphic facies.

How the activity is situated in the course

We have used this activity as a homework assignment after the topic is introduced in lecture and reading, but it could also be used in class, in lab, or as group work.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Metamorphic facies

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Understanding dynamic earth processes related to changes in pressure and temperature in the subsurface

Other skills goals for this activity

Plotting points and connecting points on a graph

Description of the activity/assignment

This worksheet helps students understand the metamorphic facies diagram and connects it to metamorphic environments. Students plot pressure/temperature points from a subduction zone and a continent/continent convergence zone onto a pressure/temperature diagram with the metamorphic facies fields present. Students connect dots to create P/T pathways for each environment. Students then answer six questions about the concepts in the worksheet, including identifying metamorphic facies present in each environment and describing the pressure and temperature of each environment.

This worksheet allows students to graph with feedback since many introductory students struggle with graphing skills. We find that it also makes the chart more understandable and approachable.

This worksheet uses the sketch-understanding program with built-in tutor: CogSketch. Therefore, students, instructors, and/or institution computer labs need to download the program from here: http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/software/cogsketch/. At any point during the worksheet, students can click the FEEDBACK button and their sketch is compared to the solution image. The built-in tutor identifies any discrepancies and reports pre-written feedback to help the student correct their sketch until they are done with the activity. Once worksheets are emailed to the instructor, worksheets can be batch graded and easily evaluated. This program allows instructors to assign sketching activities that require very little time commitment. Instead, the built-in tutor provides feedback whenever the student requests, without the presence of the instructor. More information on using the program and the activity is in the Instructor's Notes.

We have developed approximately two dozen introductory geoscience worksheets using this program. Each worksheet has a background image and instructions for a sketching task. You can find additional worksheets by searching for "CogSketch" using the search box at the top of this page. We expect to have uploaded all of them by the end of the summer of 2016.

Determining whether students have met the goals

CogSketch has a gradebook feature that allows instructors to batch grade worksheets using the defined rubric in the worksheet. Once graded, instructors can also open all the sketches and evaluate student work. Instructions are given in the Instructor's Notes.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.