GPH 492/692 - Applied Geophysics - Lecture/Discussions

Lecture/Discussions

In general the instructor will hold three 50-minute team-based discussion sessions each week, focusing on processes, concepts, and methods reported in the literature. We will begin the sessions with individual students quickly answering a question based on the assigned reading materials. Students put their name, the date, daily question number, and circle their answer on an answer card, which the instructor collects immediately. Then the class will break into the assigned teams to discuss the question, and after team discussion each team will give their consensus answer to the question. Then the instructor will discuss the answers with the class, and ask each team for their reasoning.

Students can keep all their notes. Internet use in class is encouraged during team discussions, but please stay focused on the questions at hand. If time remains in the session, the instructor will put out additional questions.

The instructor will score responses on the individual answer cards toward 10% of the total grade. Showing up to class will give you a much higher participation score than having an unexcused absence, even if you get the wrong answer to all the questions. Please email the instructor to explain any anticipated or past absence; very likely you will be excused and not turning in answer cards that day will not affect your participation score.

In advance of each lecture/discussion, please:

view the lecture video,
read the assigned parts of the text, and
download and review the scanned overheads and other lecture materials.

Lecture materials are linked here:

Bringing the textbook to class, as well as the notes and overheads on your laptop will save you printing costs and some trees.

The required text is W. Telford, L. Geldart, and R. Sheriff, Applied Geophysics, Cambridge Univ. Press, ISBN 0521339383 (Google Books link) -$104.54 from Amazon.com; also availble new from Barnes and Noble and used from both for a little less. Buying from the ASUN Bookstore for $120 ($72 rental) helps support student activities. This text and others are on class reserve in the DeLaMare Library. (Go to ARES at https://ares.library.unr.edu/ares, log on with your NetID, and search on ''GPH'' or ''Louie''.) The full text is available here to UNR users. The schedule of readings from the text are noted in the syllabus below.

There are on-line courses elsewhere that may also provide helpful materials:

Environmental Geophysics by Larry Brown at Cornell
Geophysics: Abbreviated Course Notes by Dr. Susan Clark Slaymaker of California State University, Sacramento

We suggest you view the lecture videos with subtitles on YouTube. The subtitles may be helpful to all students.

Some year's classes ask the instructors to give abbreviated summary lectures at the beginning of each discussion session. If you think this will be more effective for you as the semester progresses, please email or talk to the instructors.