My SMART goal for this class is to know how most of the geologic structures are formed in Southern California by asking questions and doing research, and my goal for this semester is to work on school regularly by setting time aside to get my work done.
The Student Advice I will try to follow is,
"I would say to make sure to put enough time and effort into this class because it needs a lot of your time to do well and make sure you understand the material fully."
Below are my reflections throughout the term for geology.
Introduction
The study of geology is the way minerals form, how minerals form into rocks, how geological structures are formed, how tectonic plate were formed, how they move and how that affects the the surface, how volcanoes are formed, how crystals grow, how we use geologic resources, and how weathering happens. The theory of tectonic plates is that they are floating on the crust. When there is heat from the core, it creates bubbles of magma which goes to the crust and then cycles back just to come back up again which then creates a current. The tectonic plates move with the current. When they move they sometimes collide or pull apart, go over or under, which creates fault lines or rifts, like the San Andreas fault line in California where the Pacific Plate is going under the North American Plate. When they collide or go over or under they can create mountains or valleys. At the San Andreas fault line it creates great mountains. In Iceland the Silfra rift creates a fissure that you can scuba dive in. Sometimes at fault lines or rifts you can find volcanoes opened by the tectonic plates.
Using the course objectives from the syllabus as my baseline, I feel comfortable in the following areas: 1) I have studied plate tectonics and the Earth’s interior. I do need to strengthen my understanding of all the internal structures; 2) I need to strengthen my ability to identify how rocks are formed by minerals with their physical properties; 3) I understand that there are igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks and how they are formed; 4) I know about geologic deep time, but I do not understand geologic time charts; 5) I have very little understanding about demonstrating map scale and location; 6) I can recognize 1-3 of the most common earth minerals by applying only their easily discernible physical properties; 7) I can classify rock samples representative of some of the most common varieties of the three major rock families. I can identify rocks with at least 5% accuracy.
Goals and Objectives
My SMART goal for this class is to know how most of the geologic structures are formed in Southern California by asking questions and doing research. Some steps that I will take to achieve this will be asking questions about the area around me while we are learning about how geological structures are formed.
Methods
One of the things that I am going to try to help me learn is to set a time and study/work until the time is up. Ungrading is the best way to learn because the focus is on learning and not the grade. I believe I am going to really benefit from it. I am looking forward to the group presentation and I am also a little nervous about the presentation because I have never done one before.
The study of geology is the way minerals form, how minerals form into rocks, how geological structures are formed, how tectonic plate were formed, how they move and how that affects the the surface, how volcanoes are formed, how crystals grow, how we use geologic resources, and how weathering happens. The theory of tectonic plates is that the plates float on the asthenosphere. When there is heat from the core, it creates bubbles of magma which goes to the crust and then cycles back just to come back up again which then creates a convection current. The tectonic plates move with the convection current. When they move they collide or pull apart, go over or under each other, which creates fault lines or rifts. The San Andreas fault line in California is where the Pacific Plate is moving past and going under the North American Plate. When they collide or go over or under they can create mountains or valleys. At the San Andreas fault line it creates great mountains. In Iceland the Silfra rift creates a fissure that you can scuba dive in. Sometimes at fault lines or rifts you can find volcanoes opened by the tectonic plates.
Using the course objectives from the syllabus as my baseline, I feel comfortable in the following areas: 1) I have studied plate tectonics and the Earth’s interior. I do need to strengthen my understanding of all the internal structures; 2) I need to strengthen my ability to identify how rocks are formed by minerals with their physical properties; 3) I understand that there are igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks and how they are formed; 4) I know about geologic deep time, but I do not understand geologic time charts; 5) I have very little understanding about demonstrating map scale and location; 6) I can recognize 1-3 of the most common earth minerals by applying only their easily discernible physical properties; 7) I can classify rock samples representative of some of the most common varieties of the three major rock families. I can identify rocks with at least 5% accuracy.
My SMART goal for this class is to know how most of the geologic structures are formed in Southern California by asking questions and doing research. Some steps that I will take to achieve this will be asking questions about the area around me while we are learning about how geological structures are formed.
I feel that I am coming pretty well with understanding geologic structures, though we have not gone over geologic structures, and that I am seeing how lots of the geologic structures are formed. I have recently gone on a road trip and saw lots of geologic structures, most of those being sedimentary rock structures.
At first my method was setting a time and studying/working until the time was up. I have realized that I need to be more specific with how I spend that time and when I spend that time. For example, work for 30 min, take a snack break, after one hour, walk for 5-10 min and so on. I had been stressing about my group presentation and had been only working on other homework and not the presentation. I had to get it all done in two days because I kept putting it off. Now the group presentation is over so I do not have to have that stress and I can focus on having a regular work schedule. I have been trying to be present in every class and I have only missed three classes due to family affairs and sickness. I love learning about geology and want to understand it, this is why I am focused on what is being taught in class.
I spend about 8-10 hours at home for this class every week, and I feel that the progress that I have achieved has been enough to understand everything in this geology class.
Writing and time management are some of the main things that I have been learning, besides geology, but there are many other things that I am learning in this class. People skills, mineral uses, teamwork and how an in-person class works just to name a few. I am working on my time management by being very specific with when and how I use my work time so that I am not so stressed out.
In this class I feel that I am understanding and learning about everything that is being taught. How I have achieved this is because of the way that Dr.Cooper has been teaching the class and help and support from my family. Some of the things that I have exhibited my personal strengths in this class are that I am a hard worker, being patient with my teammates for the presentation and I love learning. When I was having a hard time with homework or my group presentation I was able to bounce back. This exhibits my reliance. Where I feel I am the weakest is that I get overwhelmed and stressed out easily. I also have a hard time reading the textbook by myself. I have found out that I learn the best when my grandpa reads that textbook to me and we discuss it.
I would give myself an A grade, because I have worked hard and am learning and understanding the geology. One of the things that I did not do so well was the group presentation. Some of the reasons that I struggled with it is because I did not have very many times to talk with my teammate and plan.
I would like to say thanks to my Mom, Dad and Grandpa for all their help and support. I also really like the way that Dr. Cooper does ungrading. Ungrading is a learning based, self-graded way of grading.