Course Details

Physical geology is a course designed to provide you with a broad picture of geological processes operating on and within the earth. We will be studying plate tectonics and how these global scale processes create, alter, and are responsible for the world around us. A wide range of individual topics will be covered including minerals, rocks, fossils, weathering/erosion/sedimentation, earthquakes, volcanism, and map reading.

1. Identify the dynamics of the Earth’s interior and its relationship with Plate Tectonics and the formation of plate boundaries.

2. Identify the rock forming minerals by their physical properties.

6. Recognize 20–30 of the most common earth minerals by applying only their easily discernible physical properties.

3. Identify the three major rock types and their geologic processes.

7. Classify rock samples representative of some of the most common varieties of the three major rock families. It is expected that students will identify with at least 60% accuracy.

4. Analyze geologic deep time and the geologic time chart.

5. Demonstrate map scale and location.

Project Goal: Provide Evidence of your Knowledge

I believe the best way for me to guide you as you build your knowledge is to use an ePortolio for you to submit evidence of your growth and knowledge of each of the individual student learning objectives for this class.

Assessment Examples (extremely minimal list of ideas):

• Can you produce a YouTube video explaining a particular concept, such as the process of plate tectonics?

• Could you produce a news article discussing ways a particular mineral is mined and how you use it in every day life?

• What about a discussion/essay of recent journal articles and their connection with concepts from the objectives?

• How about a critique of a science fiction film and how it got the science right and/or wrong based on your knowledge?

• You decide to make personal changes in your life due to concepts you've learned in this class. So you write an explanation of what changes you're making, what led you to make them, and journal/photo document your journey.

How to achieve this:

Please create an e-Portfolio SHELL. I recommend Google Sites as they are very simple and I know it best so will be able to help you when you need it. However, Wix is another common one as is Portfolium. You can choose whichever one of them you feel most comfortable with.

This project is what your final grade for this class will be based on, so start building with the goal of continually building, adding, tweaking as we move through this semester.

For this assignment you need to complete the following (steps are for google site but similar steps for the others):

• Create a google account if you do not already have one

• Create a google site

  • Think through what you want to name your site. If you wish to name it something related to this class that is fine, but keep in mind that you'll be able to take this with you for your future use.

• Set up your google site to include the following pages, SHELL ONLY. None of this needs filled in right now, but get started on learning how to create pages.

  • Class reflections (you can copy your first reflection into here)

  • ePortfolio page

    • SLO 1

    • SLO 2

    • SLO 3

    • SLO 4

    • SLO 5

• Submit the form below once you have created your google site shell

Submit ePortfolio link

Submit your ePortfolio link here