Course Syllabus

                                                                                

 

                                                                                               

 

                                                                                                           

Course No. & Title:    SCI C101 ID8W1, Our Environment, the Earth

Semester and Term:     FALL 2018

Day and Dates:   Wednesdays, 8/29/2018 – 10/17/2018

Time:  6-9pm

Campus Location:     Main Campus

 

 

Course Description:

The scientific examination of our planet focusing on the interaction of astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics, in the formation, evolution, and dynamics of the Earth.

Prerequisite Courses: None

Course Code: LA, NS

 

 

Instructor & contact information:  Joan van Geldern

Email:  jvangeld@bridgeport.edu

 

 

Required Textbook: 

Text: "Understanding Earth,” 7^th Edition, Grotzinger and Jordan

ISBN 9781464138744

To order textbooks, go to the bookstore website at ubcampusbookstore.com

 

 

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this course the student should be able to:

• Discuss the concepts and processes of physical geology, including plate tectonics, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanism.

• Examine the impact of geology on everyday life.

• Describe the formation of the Earth’s continents, ocean basins, and atmosphere.
• Identify earth’s most common minerals and rocks.
• Describe the various systems that influence atmospheric processes and generate climate.
• Describe the impact of volcanoes, earthquakes and other physical occurrences that impact the earth.

  

 

The Canvas online learning management system is fully integrated into the course. Students are expected to utilize Canvas extensively throughout this course.

 

Important course guidelines

1. Each week students will participate in an online or in class discussion, complete a written assignment and take a quiz outside of class each of which is due the following Wednesday.  There will also be graded lab activities during the class period.
2. Quizzes, Discussions and Written assignmentsare due 1 week from the time they are assigned.  The window is open for two weeks so these can be turned in up to one week late as well.  They earn reduced credit (minus 20%) if they are late. . After two weeks the window closes and these are no longer accepted.
3. Each quiz has 2 hours to complete and is available to be taken twice.
4. For the final assessment, students can choose one of three options: either take a final exam, write a research paper or present a powerpoint presentation to the class.  This will be due the last day of class and cannot be submitted late. 
5. Each week you will receive a participation grade.  To get 10/10, you must be on time, participate in class discussions and take part in all class activities.  You will lose 1 point for every 5 minutes you are late.  Missing a full class will result in a 0/10 for participation.
6. Computer and cell phone use is not permitted during class (unless required for a game/activity).
7. There is a Precourse Assignment that is due on the first day of class.

 

PRECOURSE ASSIGNMENT:   This is due on the first day of class.  The instructions for this assignment are as follows, and also will be made available to you through canvas at least 1 week prior to the beginning of class.

Prior to the first class, read Chapter 1 in "Understanding Earth,” 7^th Edition, Grotzinger and Jordan and answer questions 1-11 posted here (this is also posted in canvas).  For the second part of the assignment, choose one of the thought questions on page 25 to answer with a short reaction/response essay which is a writing assignment where you express your personal thoughts, interpretation, and evaluation of a particular topic.  It is not a research essay and investigation into other sources is not necessary. 

Questions you might ask yourself:

• How do you feel about the topic? 
• Do you agree with the author’s conclusion based on the presentation of facts?
• Could there have been another interpretation?
• How has this reading impacted your view of the topic? 
• Did you realize something that was unknown to you before?
• Did the reading simply reinforce ideas and beliefs you already had about the topic?
• Did you in anyway identify with the topic?

 

The pre-course assignments must be submitted through Canvas prior to the first class.

  Questions 1-11:

Questions 1-11

1. Illustrate the differences between a hypothesis and a theory using two examples from this chapter.
2. What is the shape of Earth?  Give two reasons that it is not perfectly round.
3. Why is the principle of uniformitarianism important to geology?
4. How does the chemical composition of Earth's core differ from that of the mantle and the crust?
5. Explain how Earth's outer core can be liquid while the inner core is solid?  Which is hotter?
6. What are the major components of the climate system.  Describe one way that these components interact.
7. What are the major components of the plate tectonic system.  Describe one way that these components interact.
8. What are the major components of the geodynamo.  Describe one way that these components interact.
9. Describe one way that interactions among the geosystems support life.
10.  How old is the Earth?  How did it form?
11. How long ago did life originate on Earth? (how old are the oldest fossils)

 

 

Course Layout for Weekly Topics:

 

Module 1   First Week of the Course

Chapters 1 and 2  The Earth System and Plate Tectonics

Chapter 1

The Earth System

Knowledge Objectives

• Understanding the meaning of the scientific method be able to use the scientific method to problem solve.
• Understand the layered composition of the earth.
• Understand the Earth as a system and a complex organization of various interrelated systems.

Other Skills/Applications/Attitudes

• Appreciate the historical development of a major scientific theory.

 

Chapter 2

Plate Tectonics, The Unifying Theory

Knowledge Objectives

• Know the basic components of plate tectonics and its history of development.
• Know the geologic characteristics of the different plate boundaries.
• Understand how the age of the seafloor is estimated and measured.

Other Skills/Applications/Attitudes

• Describe how geologists reconstruct the assembly and breakup of continents.
• Use a magnetic anomaly time scale and maps of the major ocean basin floors to determine the rate of seafloor spreading in the Pacific, North Atlantic and South Atlantic Oceans.

 

Module 2   Second Week of the Course

Chapter 12 Volcanoes 

Knowledge Objectives

• Know what kinds of rock materials erupt from a volcano.
• Know why volcanism occurs.
• Know the three major lava types and how they relate to eruptive style and volcanic

landforms.

• Know the global pattern of volcanic activity, and how it relates to plate tectonics.
• Know how geologists monitor and predict volcanic activity.

Other Skills/Applications/Attitudes

• Discuss important considerations for major volcanic landforms related to level of hazard dangers.

 

Module 3   Third Week of the Course  

Chapter 13 Earthquakes

Knowledge Objectives

• Know the factors that define an earthquake
• Learn to recognize the three types of seismic waves and their basic characteristics.
• Understand what is meant by earthquake magnitude and intensity
• Know that most earthquakes are associated with tectonic plate boundaries.
• Know that earthquake activity at each type of tectonic plate boundary has distinctive
• Learn what governs the type of faulting that occurs in an earthquake.

Other Skills/Applications/Attitudes

• Evaluate the geologic circumstances that contribute to the destructiveness of earthquakes?
• Given seismic data from three separate seismograms from different locations, determine the location of the epicenter of an earthquake

 

Module 4   Fourth Week of the Course

Chapter 3

Earth Materials Minerals and rocks

Knowledge Objectives

• Know what defines a mineral.
• Know the building blocks of matter and how they chemically bond.
• Know how atoms combine to form the crystal structures of minerals.
• Know some basic atomic structures for common rock-forming minerals.
• Know the major rock-forming minerals and their physical properties.
• Know that rocks are classified based on their mineral content and texture.
• Know the three major types of rocks and how they are formed.
• Understand how the rock cycle is linked to plate tectonics.

Other Skills/Applications/Attitudes

• Explain how the physical properties of minerals are linked to a mineral’s atomic (crystal) structure and chemical bonds.
• Identify common rock-forming minerals based on field and hand-specimen
• Use common characteristics of minerals to identify various minerals.
• Use the rock cycle to describe relationships between different rock types.

 

Module 5… Fifth Week of the Course

Chapter 15  The Climate system

Knowledge Objectives

• Know that the primary source of water and gases on the Earth surface is volcanic gases, which outgases from the planet’s interior over geologic time.
• Know that oxygen gas was and continues to be added to Earth’s atmosphere and oceans by photosynthetic organisms.
• Understand how carbon dioxide and other trace atmospheric gases are transparent to sunlight, but absorb heat (IR radiation) which warms Earth’s surface environments, as in a greenhouse.
• Know how cycles trace the flux of Earth’s elements like carbon from one reservoir to another.

Other Skills/Applications/Attitudes

• Understand how human activities (pollution/CFCs/acid rain) and natural events (bolide impact) can significantly alter geochemical cycles and therefore impact Earth’s environmental conditions.
• Appreciate and describe how life processes are an integral part of many of Earth’s geochemical cycles.
• Understand and appreciate the significance of linkages between the carbon cycle, life processes, and climate change.
• Gain an understanding of the processes involved that enabled Hurricanes Irene and Sandy to unleash some of their fury on our shores.

 

Module 6   Sixth Week of the Course

Chapters 20

Coastlines and Ocean Basins

Knowledge

• Can enumerate specific ways in how the geology of the oceans differs from that of the continents.
• Know how waves are created by the transfer of energy from wind to water.
• Understand how waves and tides shape the shoreline.
• Know the major components of the continental margins and adjacent ocean floor.
• Know what causes ocean tides.
• Know what produces a storm surge.
• Know how beaches form and can change due to natural factors and human
• Understand how changes in sea level affect a coastline.
• Understand how the deep seafloor is formed.
• Understand turbidity currents and how they transport fine sediments off the continental shelf and onto the adjacent abyssal ocean floor.
• Know which types of sediments are deposited on the deep ocean floor.

Skills/Applications/Attitudes

• Given appropriate figures and maps and a list of locations (Hint: See Exercise 2 in the Student Study Guide, available in the Understanding Earth e-Book), identify each location as to whether it is an active or passive margin.
• Can explain how waves can advance even though the water molecules do not.
• Given unlabeled versions of Figure 20.3b, can correctly identify which represents a neap tide and which represents a spring tide.
• Can explain the formation of a hurricane.
• Can explain how a sand beach is in dynamic balance determined by sediment input, output, and longshore currents. For example, describe the impact of the construction of a groin.
• Can explain how a turbidity current works.
• Can explain the mechanisms that produce sediment in the ocean and why these processes are limited by ocean depth.
• Appreciates the ocean as a vital geobiological system.

  

Module 7 … Seventh Week of the Course

Chapter 21   Glaciers

Coastlines and Ocean Basins

Knowledge

• Understand Ice as a Rock.
• Understand how Glaciers form.
• Understand how Glaciers move.
• Understand Glacial Cycles and how they affect Climate Change.

Skills/Applications/Attitudes

• Can explain the importance of glaciers to Earth's System.
• Can explain how glaciers shape the landscape.
• Can explain what the geologic record tells us about past ice ages.

Module 8…Last Week of the Course

Submit Final Research Paper or Present Powerpoint Presentation or complete the Final Written Exam  (descriptions and rubrics are posted later in this syllabus)

Note:  Due to student interest, class progression and emerging topics the professor reserves the right to modify the course schedule at any time, and will announce any changes to the class appropriately.

Grading Weights  

Written Assignments	15%
Final Exam, Research Paper or Powerpoint Presentation	20%
Labs, Classwork	15%
Participation	15%
Written Discussions	10%
Weekly Quizzes	25%

 Letter Grading Scale used for this course

% of Points Earned	Letter Grade		% of Points Earned	Letter Grade
100-94	A		76-74	C
93-90	A-		73-70	C-
89-87	B+		69-67	D+
86-84	B		66-64	D
83-80	B-		63-60	D-
79-77	C+		Below 60	F