In-class review: folds

Elizabeth Goeke, Salem State University

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection. (view details)

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Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
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Initial Publication Date: June 18, 2012 | Reviewed: January 19, 2015 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

Short in-class review question about using given strike and dip information to classify a fold. Stereonets used.

Structural Visualizations, Folds/Faults/Ductile Shear Zones, ...(more) | College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

upper-level structural geology class

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

plotting strike & dip on a stereonet to determine fold axis, interlimb angles & cylindricity
fold classification schemes
ability to visualize strike & dip in 3D
understanding of rock competencies

How the activity is situated in the course

I've used these both as a quick review at the start of the class after fold classification schemes were discussed (the other material was covered earlier in the semester) and as an in-class quiz. Basically, these are meant to check & make sure students understand the material we just covered.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

deformation mechanisms
kinematic analysis
manipulation of data on a stereonet

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

analysis of data
visualization of data in 3D

Skills goals for this activity

Description and Teaching Materials

Single sheet that I give to students to work on for 5-10 minutes at the beginning of class. Students should have access to stereonets in order to complete the problems.

Review -- folds (Microsoft Word 33kB Jun18 12)

Teaching Notes and Tips

I tend to encourage the students to work on the sheets alone to start with and then discuss the results as a group and let the students correct one another. I find that question 4 throws them almost every time.

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Assessment

I check verbally to see if all the students (its a small class <8) understand the correct answers and how they were derived. A similar problem was placed on the final, which checked retention over the course of the semester.