Description

A geological history of the Earth with emphasis on fossils, evolution, depositional environments, and plate tectonics. A field trip will be required.

Rationale

As the world's population grows and expands, humans are placing a greater demand on earth resources, destroying habitats, contributing to the extinction of organisms, and causing rapid changes in our climate and oceans. To make educated decisions about these changes, consumers, voters, and decision-makers must understand how the Earth and its life forms have evolved and how scientists have obtained this knowledge. Studying historical geology provides a valuable perspective for this understanding.

Objectives

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• identify common sedimentary rocks and structures, and interpret and describe the depositional environments in which they form

• describe the sedimentological, paleoclimatic, and orogenic history of the Earth with a focus on North America

• explain and apply the principles of stratigraphy, paleoecology, and geochronology

• explain the theory of biological evolution and how it explains the diversity and extinction of organisms

• identify common fossil organisms and describe their habitat

• construct and interpret geologic and stratigraphic maps and cross sections.

 

Instructional Methods

This course will be taught in illustrated lecture, discussion, laboratory exercise, and field investigation formats. Student learning will be assessed through examinations of lecture and field trip material, through graded laboratory exercises and a graded well-core project, and through practical quizzes on laboratory material.

Registration

Textbooks and Materials

     Required Books

     Supplies

Laboratory

Field Trip

Communication

Assessment and Grading

     Examinations and Quizzes

Lecture examinations will be graded, in-class, closed-book tests containing multiple-choice, matching, and short- and long-answer questions drawn from lectures, handouts, reading assignments, and the field trip. A final lecture examination will be given on the last day of class and will emphasize material covered since the last mid-term examination. Three graded, in-laboratory, practical quizzes will contain questions about samples of earth materials, maps and photographs, as well as short-answer questions about terminology and methodology. No exams or quizzes will be given early. If a single exam is missed, the score on the final examination will be given for that missed examination.  Scores of 70 or greater on the final examination will substitute for the lowest  mid-term examination score. Review sheets will be distributed before each exam and quiz.

     Grading

Your final course score will be calculated as follows:

10% - Graded laboratory exercises	54% - Three mid-term lecture exams (each exam is 18%)
4% - Well core project	20% - Final lecture examination
12% - Three lab quizzes (each quiz is 4%)

There is no "extra credit."  You must notify your professor of any mistakes or disagreements in scoring within one week after a corrected exam, quiz, or assignment has been returned to the class.  The following scale will be used to determine your course grade: 90-100% = A, 80-89% = B, 70-79% = C, 60-69% = D and below 60% = F.  Students whose final course average is 59%, 69%, 79%, and 89% will be advanced to the next higher grade if their final lecture examination shows improvement over their mid-term lecture examination scores.

Course Policies

     Participation and Assignments

     Withdrawals

If you decide to drop this class, you must protect your academic record by withdrawing no later than Thursday, November 17, 2011. The professor reserves the right to withdraw a student for not complying with course/ACC policies or for not meeting course objectives.  Departmental policy forbids the professor from withdrawing you after November 17, 2011. See the attached ACC Withdrawal Policy for additional information.

     Incomplete Grade

An incomplete (grade of "I") will be given only if extenuating circumstances, such as illness or death of a loved one, keep a student from completing the final examination. Incompletes must be requested in writing with documentation of the extenuating circumstances. If a grade of I is given, the final examination must be taken no later than four weeks prior to the end of the 2012 Spring Semester.

See the attached "ACC Academic Policies and Services" for additional policies

Studying

Science courses, especially those with laboratory and field exercises, generally require a different approach to studying than other courses. In this course you will be asked to conceptualize things in three dimensions, understand complex concepts, conceptualize billions of years of geologic time, and learn a whole new vocabulary for describing your planet. You will improve your performance if you read each textbook chapter, review the chapter summary, take notes from both the textbook and the lecture, answer the review questions in each chapter, and learn the key terms shown with bold type in the text. Many students find it useful to make flash cards with the definitions and geologic signification of terms.  You may also find it beneficial to study in groups with your classmates. Visual learners may find it useful to study the Visual Overviews at the beginning of each textbook chapter. The textbook publisher's Web site, http://bcs.whfreeman.com/esh3e/, contains on-line self-corrected quizzes, animations, interactive exercises, and Web links for each chapter. Many students underestimate the amount of time needed to do pass this course. At a minimum, you should spend two hours outside of class studying for every hour you spend in class. A free geology tutor may be available in one of the ACC Learning Labs; check http://www.austincc.edu/tutor/ for locations and hours.

Etiquette