Instructor: Dr.
Susan M. DeBari; Office ES 237; Phone 650-3588;
email: debari@geol.wwu.edu
Office Hours: M:
2-3, T: 12-1, Th: 3-4, or by ambush
NATURE OF THE
COURSE:
This 4 unit course is an introduction to
the global environment of the Earth we live on. We will study the processes that shape the earth's surface,
move the continents, and produce the minerals and rocks that comprise the
Earth's crust. We will study
earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers, the oceans, the atmosphere, weathering and
sedimentation, as well as topics of current interest such as groundwater,
global warming, and ozone depletion.
PREREQUISITE
KNOWLEDGE: I expect you to
know basic math and science skills that you were probably taught in grade school
and middle school. These skills include, but are not limited to: reading a
graph, the metric system (e.g., how many millimeters are in a kilometer), the
numerical meaning of the words "million" and "billion".
TEXTBOOK: Tarbuck & Lutgens: Earth,
An Introduction to Physical Geology (includes CD-ROM)
COURSE
WEB PAGE:
http://www.wwu.edu/~debari/g101/g101.html and a Blackboard site
READING
ASSIGNMENTS: Lectures will be backed up with
readings from your textbook and the internet. Keeping up with the reading is critical to your success in
the class.
WARM-UP
SURVEYS: An important
component of this course involves work performed prior to each lecture session.
These are located on the Blackboard site, and must be completed by 10 am the
day of lecture. The warm-up survey is intended to pique your interest in the
subject at hand, and get you thinking. They are graded for completeness rather
than correctness and generally involve open-ended responses. Some surveys
involve working through web-based exercises, and these can require as much as
an hour to complete, so budget your time accordingly. You may not make up any
survey (Blackboard does not allow it, from a technical standpoint), but the
three lowest survey scores will be dropped at the end of the quarter. I
strongly recommend that you do these exercises in an on-campus lab (or
someplace with a high-speed internet connection), the day before our lecture,
using an up-to-date web browser to ensure that technical glitches do not cause
you to score a zero.
EXAMS
AND GRADING 1000 points total, 75% lecture, 25%
lab. Lecture and lab points will
be combined to determine your final grade for the course.
1.
Non-exam
work (150 points):
Quizzes, Homeworks, & Warm-Up Surveys. There will be 5 on-line quizzes (10 points each), warm-up
survey questions prior to every class period, and homeworks. You cannot make up any quiz or
survey, but you can drop 3 of your survey scores.
2.
Midterm
Exams (300 points): 2 of them, 150 points each.
Exam 1: April 23
Exam 2: May 17
3.
Final
Exams (300 points total). The final exams will
be comprehensive, but will emphasize the portion of the course after the second
midterm. There will be two final exams, each one-hour long. The individual
final exam will be worth 200 points, and the cooperative final exam will be
worth 100 points. The two exams will have the same questions, but the
cooperative final will be answered in groups of up to three. More information
on this will be provided in the final few weeks of the quarter.
4.
Laboratory
(250 points).
INSTRUCTOR
EVALUATION: I value feedback on my teaching style and techniques. I am
glad to receive (and usually respond to) emails on the subject. For those of
you who are too timid, however, there is an anonymous comments form at http://geology.wwu.edu/resources/feedback.shtml. Just click on my name in the instructor panel and write a
comment in the space provided.
COURSE GRADE
DETERMINATION: Your final course grade is based on the
total points earned in lecture and lab.
Percentage is based on a total of 1000 points. Guaranteed minimum grades will be
A =93.0-100% B- 80.0-82.9% D+=67.6-69.9%
A- =90.0-92.9% C+ 77.6-79.9%
D=63.0-67.5%
B+ =87.5-89.9% C 73.0-77.5%
D- =59.0-62.9%
B =83.0-87.4% C- 70.0-72.9%
F =Below 59%
Departmental
policy: No early exams. Make-up exams given with official excused
absence from the Family Outreach office (x3846), Student Health Center, or your
coach.
1. Understand the role of plate tectonics as a general
explanatory hypothesis for a variety of geological phenomena. (Predict the
distribution of mountains, earthquakes, volcanoes and islands that you would
find in an area based on the nature of the plate tectonic boundaries, e.g., why
do we have earthquakes and volcanoes but New York does not?)
2. Recognize examples of the three major rock types (igneous,
sedimentary and metamorphic) based on visible physical characteristics and
explain how these rocks formed. (Look at a rock on the beach, or a photo of
a rock, and formulate a brief geological history of it based on visible
physical characters.)
3. Understand the origin, distribution, and classification of
volcanoes. (Analyze a map of a volcano and predict the regional risks of
blast, mudflow, lava flow and ash fall in the event of an eruption, e.g. will
the town of Glacier survive if Mt. Baker erupts?)
4. Understand how air, water and gravity have shaped Earth's
surface. (Describe the landscape out of the window of a car or airplane and
construct a brief geological history of the area, e.g., how did the Grand
Canyon form?)
5. Understand the physics, distribution, origin of and damage
caused by earthquakes. (Assess the earthquake risk of a building based on
type of bedrock, type of construction, and the nature of frequency of earthquakes
in the region, e.g., what is the most earthquake-dangerous building in
Bellingham?)
6. Understand the influence of environmental hazards (e.g.
flooding, landslides) on society (e.g. resource use, voting decisions). (Evaluate
the geological qualities and hazards of a potential building site and know what
questions to ask about the geology of the area that are pertinent to building
construction, e.g., is this a good place to build a house?)
No. Date Lecture
Topic Reading Assignments
WEEK 1
2 April
2, Fri Structure
of the Earth, Earth properties Chapter
1; p.485-487
WEEK 2
3 April
5, Mon Plate
tectonics
Skim Chp. 18; Read 19
4 April
7, Wed Plate
tectonics
QUIZ 1 Chapter
19
LAB 2: PLATE TECTONICS
5 April
9, Fri Minerals,
rocks, the rock cycle Chapter
2
WEEK 3
7 April
14, Wed Igneous
rocks Chapters
3&4
LAB 3: MINERALS
8 April
16, Fri Volcanoes!
QUIZ 2 Chapter
4
WEEK 4
9 April
19, Mon Volcanoes
(Mt. Rainier, Perilous Beauty) Chapter 4
10 April 21,
Wed Weathering
and erosion, Rock breakdown Chapter
5
LAB 4: IGNEOUS ROCKS
April
23, Fri EXAM
1 (covers March 31 Ð April 21)
WEEK 5
11 April 26,
Mon Sedimentary
rocks, Oil and Coal Chapter
6
12 April 28,
Wed Metamorphic
rocks
QUIZ 3 Chapter
7
LAB 5; SEDIMENTARY ROCKS & METAMORPHIC ROCKS
13 April 30, Fri Geologic
time (i.e., think big) Chapter
8
WEEK 6
14 May 3, Mon More
geologic time Chapter
8
15 May 5, Wed Streams
and Floods Chapter
10
LAB 6: GEOLOGIC TIME
16 May 7, Fri Groundwater Chapter
11
WEEK 7
17 May10, Mon Glaciers
& ice ages QUIZ 4 Chapter
12
18 May 12, Wed Past
glaciation/floods in the Pacific NW Chp
12
LAB 7: STREAMS AND GLACIERS OR GROUNDWATER
19 May 14, Fri Shorelines
(or catch up day) Chapter
14
WEEK 8
May
17, Mon EXAM
2 (covers April 26 Ð May 14)
20 May 19, Wed Earthquakes I Chapter
16
LAB 8: TOPO MAPS
21 May 21, Fri Earthquakes
II Chapter
17
WEEK 9
May
24, Mon Faults
& Earthquakes QUIZ 5 Chapter
16
22 May 26, Wed Big Earthquakes
in the Pacific Northwest! Chapter
16
LAB 9: EARTHQUAKES
23 May
28, Fri More
on plate tectonics/Washington tectonics Chp 18&19
WEEK 10
24 May 31, Mon HOLIDAY
25 June 2, Wed Atmosphere
I - introduction; ozone depletion
LAB
10: LAB FINAL
26 June 4, Fri Atmosphere
II - global warming & greenhouse
JUNE 7, Monday: 1:00-2:00
FINAL EXAM(ALONE)
2:00-3:00
FINAL EXAM (COLLABORATIVE)
Pre-course assessment
- Geology 101
Instructor: S. DeBari
Note:
This pre-course assessment will NOT be graded, and will in no way affect your
grade. This is for your benefit
and for mine in order to (1) see what level to teach this class at, and (2) see
how much you improve after taking this class.
1.
There is a
way of looking at the world that some people call the scientific world
view. In your mind, what does this
mean?
2.
To be more
specific from (1) above, what constitutes science? Is it a body of knowledge to be memorized? Is it a process? Is it an attitude?
3.
The entire
Earth system (from here on Earth to outer space) can be imagined as four
inter-connected subsystems that interact with each other. What are those subsystems?
4.
The theory
of plate tectonics has survived 40 years of rigorous testing, with each
subsequent test more strongly supporting the theory. In just a couple of sentences, please describe how this theory
explains how mountains are formed.
How long does it take to build a mountain chain?
5.
Plate
tectonics is thought to be responsible for creating mountains, while weathering
and erosion are thought to bring mountains down. If plate tectonics ceased immediately for some reason, what
would happen to the EarthÕs surface?
How long would this take?
6.
Global
warming and its relationship to human inputs of CO2 into the atmosphere has
recently come to the forefront as one of the major concerns of the 21st
century. (a) How does the amount
of CO2 emitted from burning of fossil fuels (anthropogenic CO2) compare with
that produced by natural causes (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc.). (b) What is the percentage of CO2 in
the atmosphere? How much has it
changed throughout geologic time?