Reviewing stress orientations in Andersonian faulting and stereo projection
Initial Publication Date: June 1, 2012
Summary
This activity is a PowerPoint presentation to be used with a personal response system. It begins with a review stereonets and progresses to predicting the type of fault, and the orientation of potential faults and slickenlines given the orientation of stresses. The use of clickers with these slides resulted in very positive feedback from students.
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Context
Audience
Undergraduate required course in structural geology. Mostly senior geology majors, but education majors typically take the course as juniors as spring semester of their senior year is reserved for student teaching.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
The activity tests the students mastery of stereo projection, Mohr-Coulomb failure and Anderson's theory of faulting.
How the activity is situated in the course
This is a stand-alone exercise at the end of a discussion of stress and brittle failure. A lab exercise on Mohr's circle for strain and using the stereonet to find stress orientations has already been completed prior to using this activity.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
The activity seeks to help students evaluate their understanding of the relationship between the orientation of stresses and fault formation and movement.
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Promote visualization of geometric relationships on a stereo plot.
Other skills goals for this activity
Description and Teaching Materials
Teaching Notes and Tips
The response software allows for the range and number of different responses to be displayed, without revealing the correct answer. Thus, if a significant number of students answer incorrectly, or if there are a range of responses, the question can be repeated. I request that students answer the first attempt on their own, but they can discuss the question among themselves before answering the second time.
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Assessment
Assessment is based on correct response to questions. The response software allows for the range and number of different responses to be displayed, without revealing the correct answer. Thus, if a significant number of students answer incorrectly, or if there are a range of responses the question can be repeated. I request that students answer the first attempt on their own, but they can discuss the question among themselves before answering the second time.