Spring 2009
Lab: T 1:00-5:00 in Mudd 66 or
Lab: R 1:00-5:00 in the senior room
Introduction
This course will get you thinking like a field geologist. Most of the labs are designed to help you along this journey by getting you outside to bang on rocks, muck around in rivers, and learn how to ask questions that can be answered using careful observation, collection and interpretation of data, and experimentation. You'll find quickly that there is rarely a right answer in geology but there are often several possible answers with perhaps a good answer and an even better answer among them. In the process of going outside each week, you'll learn a great deal about the geology of the Northfield area as well as basic field geology skills.
Text
Reynolds, Johnson, Kelly, Morin & Carter, 2008. Exploring Geology, McGraw Hill.
Schmidt, E.W., 1938. Geological Features of the Northfield Area, Mohn Printing Company.
Grading
To receive the "s" part of the scrunch grade, you must do the following:
Attend all labs (unless you are very ill, in which case I'll need a note from the Wellness center)
Complete one Geology in the News report
Complete lab write-ups
Pass several in-class quizzes (mostly about rocks and minerals)
Participation, design, and unfettered excitement about the Revised Geological Features of the Northfield Area report
Field trips
There is an ALL DAY required field trip to Taylor's Falls on Sunday May 10. We should return by 6:00 PM.
Upper Peninsula, MI: Mark your calendars. This is a great, optional (and free) opportunity to go on a field trip with the geology department. The field trip leaves on Saturday May 2 and returns Wednesday May 6. If you choose to go (which you should really consider), you must contact the professors in your other courses ASAP to see if they can accommodate this trip. This is an annual tradition in the geology department, so most professors will know about it, but be polite and ask permission to go. I strongly encourage you to come along.
Geology in the News
Each Thursday, pairs of students will present that week's roundup of the recent geology-related news stories. Your presentation can be in any sort of format or style that you desire, but you'll likely want to show some pictures (so I recommend Powerpoint or Keynote for storing those pictures). Plan on spending about 5 minutes presenting the news.
Group project
During the second half of the term, you'll have the chance to work on a small research project where you'll test some of your own ideas (hypotheses) about local geology. This project will give you a taste of what research is all about. That is, research typically involves a few moments of inspiration (the idea) followed by many hours of frustration, reformulation of the idea, banging your head against a wall, and finally some sort of conclusion that often is not where you expected to end up. It'll be great.
Another important part of the research process is dissemination. If you, as a scientist, do not share what you have learned with your peers and the public, then how can your conclusions be verified, tested, and assimilated? Therefore, as part of this project you will design a short write-up of your project including figures, text, graphs, results, etc. This will be included in the Revised Geological Features of the Northfield Area.
Geological Features of the Northfield Area
I'll give you each a copy of this small book from 1938 to read from throughout the term. The major product of this class will be to revise this book to reflect a more current take on the geological features of the Northfield area, which will be done as a group effort. Your results from the group projects will be included in this exciting new document as well as a write-up of some of the local features that we visit in lab.
Potential lab topics (in no particular order)
What are rocks and minerals and how can I identify them?
What are the local rocks around Northfield and what do they mean about the paleo-environment in southeastern Minnesota?
I adore topographic maps galore.
How do I make a geologic map and what the heck is a cross-section?
What kinds of fossils can we find around Northfield?
What evidence of past glaciation can we find around Northfield and what does that tell us about southeastern Minnesota during the Ice Ages?
What does the topography around Northfield tell us about geology and glacial history?
Ah, the Cannon River: what can I learn about rivers?
Dates to watch out for
April 7, 8, 14 and 15 - senior geology major comps talks including Kort
Spring 2009