Conveying the relationship of hillslope to mathematical slope
An instructor's guide to Calculating slope/gradient
by Dr. Jennifer M. Wenner, University of WI Oshkosh Geology, and Dr. Eric M. Baer, Highline Community College Geology.
What should the student get out of this page?
This page is designed to help students to understand the relationship of slope in the geosciences to calculation of mathematical slope. Before attempting this page, students should know how to read a topgraphic map and the contour lines on it. By the time the student finishes the page, s/he should:- Understand why s/he should know how to calculate slope in the geosciences
- Become more comfortable reading and examining topographic maps and contour lines
- Be able to calculate slope (in feet/foot or m/m or some sort of unitless number)
- Be able to calculate % slope
Why is it hard for students?
Students often struggle with the transfer of mathematical concepts to the context in which they are used, particularly if the concept is something tangible.Ask a student how to calculate slope and most will simply reply "rise over run". But what does that mean when talking about the slope of a hillside or the water table? Often students need explicit help when it comes to transferring the ability to calculate slope on a graph to calculating slope of a surface. There are many places that students get stuck visualizing slope:

- understanding that "rise" represents change in elevation, and "run" represents distance.
- understanding the concept of slope.
- translating 2-D to 3-D and vice versa. Often in introductory geoscience we are examining something that is a three dimensional surface but just want them to calculate a slope along a given line. This makes the mathematics much more simple but may confuse the students.
What did we leave out of this page?
Because this page is meant to help students with slope in the geosciences, we do not spend much time discussing the mathematical definition of slope. We also avoid use of calculus because most introductory geoscience student have not yet encountered calculus.Instructor Resources
The Teaching Quantitative Skills in the Geosciences has a page about teaching students how to understand trends and includes some information about calculating slope.The trigonometry page on The Math You Need also provides some information about how to use trigonometry to calculate slope.