Bridget Garnier

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Undergraduate introductory course in geoscience

Students should be introduced to slope stability and associated stress and factors.

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.

Students will be able to evaluate the risk of slope failure in various scenarios

Understanding dynamic processes

This worksheet focuses on understanding slope stability and slope failure by having students work on sliding box problems that are often used in physics courses. Students are given 4 sliding box problems with 2 different slopes, low/moderate/high resistive force (Fr) preventing the box from sliding, and the same gravity vector (Fg) for each box. For each problem, students decompose the gravity vector into a shear force (Fs) and a normal force (Fn). Then students compare their Fs vector to the given Fr vector to determine if the box would slide down the slope or not. For a second task, students are given two problems where they must decide which slope scenario has a greater risk of failure. One scenario has the addition of a shale unit and the other scenario has an increase in slope. Once all tasks are completed, students answer three multiple-choice questions.

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.

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.

Download CogSketch: http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/software/cogsketch/