Discussion worksheets for popular literature readings on river processes and policy
Summary
These five worksheets guide student preparation for in-class discussion of reading assignments from Life on the Mississippi, Cadillac Desert, and The Control of Nature.
Context
Audience
Undergraduate honors earth science colloquium (focused-topic class) on rivers.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
The following topics are introduced in lecture/practicum before each discussion:
- Cadillac Desert Ch. 1, 3, 4: drainage basins, flow in channels
- Life on the Mississippi: basin and channel hydrology, canoe trip, erosion and sediment transport, channel forms, channel patterns
- Control of Nature Ch. 1: sediment deposition, delta formation
- Cadillac Desert Ch. 11, 12: longitudinal profiles
- Control of Nature Ch. 3: channel-head processes
How the activity is situated in the course
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Other skills goals for this activity
Description of the activity/assignment
Determining whether students have met the goals
Monitoring of verbal contributions by individual students in discussion; related essay test questions.
Teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment (Microsoft Word 56kB Mar27 06)
Other Materials
Supporting references/URLs
Reisner, Mark, 1993, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (Revised and Updated): New York, Penguin, 582 p.
Book review of Cadillac Desert
Clemens, Samuel, 1883, Life on the Mississippi (multiple editions).
Available online at http://www.online-literature.com/twain/life_mississippi
McPhee, John, 1989, The Control of Nature: New York, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 272 p.
More information at http://us.macmillan.com/Book.aspx?isbn=9780374708498
Excerpt from the New Yorker magazine: Atchafalaya