All the data analysis activities, regardless of length or difficulty, are worth 100 points because that makes my life easier. I make each numbered problem worth the same number of points also. So, if there are 10 problems, they are each worth 10 points. If there are 8 problems they are each worth 12 points (and I spot you the other 4 points because I’m just that benevolent).
My grading procedure is as follows:
My numerical grading scale (i.e. what range of scores equals an “A” or a “B”, etc.) can be found linked under Syllabus in the menu bar.
Go to the New Madrid Earthquake Catalog [1]
Now you will be taken to a page titled Catalog Search Results. From here you will want to click the link to "View or Download Catalog Search Results." This will bring up a plain text file that you can save to your own computer somewhere that you can find it later.
Once you have downloaded that file, hit the back button on your browser to return to the Catalog Search Results page. Choose any of the options you want and then hit the button that says "Generate Map." You will be taken to a page with a map of the earthquakes in your catalog. Save this map by right-clicking the image (control-click on a Mac), or taking a screenshot of it.
Go to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center [2]. Click the link for "SCSN Catalog Search."
On this page:
Still on the catalog search page,
Now you can download your map or take a screenshot of it to save it.
Go to the USGS Earthquake Search [3] page. Once you are there
Watch the videos below to see how I set up my data tables and make the plots for the earthquake catalog problem set in Lesson 4. In my example, I use Numbers, a mac spreadsheet program similar to excel.
In the first video, I show you how I sort the data in order to make counting a large number of earthquakes a straightforward and efficient process.
If you still aren't sure how to make a table of values out of your sorted list of magnitudes, watch the second video (below):
Want some further tips on how to make the plot after you've constructed your table of values? Watch the third video (below):
Having trouble plotting more than one dataset on the same axes? The video below gives some tips for doing this in Numbers.
If you are an excel user, much of the functionality of the program is similar to numbers, but if you have run into trouble making logarithmic axes, here's how: