Reading and responding to geological journal articles

Rory McFadden, Salem State University

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: June 1, 2012 | Reviewed: January 17, 2015 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

This a semester long activity for students in a plate tectonics course will be read one (or two) geological journal articles every other week on the major topics covered in the course. Students will submit reading responses and there will be class discussions of each paper.

Geodynamics, Geophysics, Folds/Faults/Ductile Shear Zones, ...(more) | College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

This activity is aimed for undergraduate, sophomore-junior level course on plate tectonics.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

At the sophomore-junior level, students need significant background to read and decipher these papers (as well as other journal articles). Papers are chosen to build directly from lecture material.

How the activity is situated in the course

This activity is a biweekly, semester long project.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Concept and content goals students should gain:

seafloor spreading and magnetic anomalies
strength of the continental lithosphere
morphology of ocean ridges
models for wide rifting (e.g., Basin and Range)
strike-slip partitioning
tectonic underplating
Appalachian orogen: Acadian Orogeny
Himalayas: Channel flow

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Higher order thinking skills goals for students are:

formulation of hypotheses
critical evaluation of competing models
synthesis of ideas

Skills goals for this activity

Other skills goals for students are:

writing
oral presentations

Description and Teaching Materials

This activity is designed to enhance students' depth of knowledge on specific topics in plate tectonics. It is also used to introduce students to reading, interpreting, and discussing geologic literature. The activity consists of biweekly reading assignments with accompanying reading response (one-page) and class discussion.

ReadingList_PlateTectonics_McFadden ( 31kB May4 12)

Teaching Notes and Tips

Leading the first discussion and giving specific examples of details that belong in the reading responses is important. The reading responses seem to help students be prepared to discuss the papers.

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