Coastal Processes CogSketch geoscience worksheet

Bridget Garnier
,
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Summary

Sketching activity that uses a sketch-understanding program, CogSketch. Students understand sediment transport and beach erosion by using wave front geometries to sketch particle pathways and determine sediment transport directions along beaches.

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Context

Audience

Undergraduate introductory course in geoscience

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should be introduced to coastal processes associated with waves and sediment transport along beaches.

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

Students will be able to predict sediment transport, coastal erosion, and the changes in coastline over time associated with wave activity.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Dynamic processes: Students will understand the relationship between wave activity and changes in coastlines over time.

Disembedding: Students will recognize the key factors (coastal geometry, predominant wave direction) in coastal processes and be able to use them to make predictions about their interactions.

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

This worksheet focuses on understanding how waves transport sediment to coastlines and affect sediment transport along beaches. Students are given three cartoon images of different beach geometries and approaching wave fronts: a flat beach with a bay with waves approaching at an angle, headland and embayment with waves approaching straight on, and a flat beach with a man-made groin with waves approaching at an angle. For each scenario, students use the wave fronts to draw particle pathways from the ocean to the shore to show the path sediment would travel given the wave geometries. Students also draw arrows to show the transport direction of sand on the beach. Once all tasks are complete, students answer 5 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.

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.

Teaching materials and tips

Other Materials

Supporting references/URLs