Course Structure

The Learning Environment

EARTH 520 will be conducted entirely on the World Wide Web. There are no set class meeting times, but you will be required to complete weekly assignments. Registered students will need to navigate between two environments in the World Wide Web. Why two? Why not just one? Here's why: I am committed to making my course content open to the public; however, PSU's lawyers are committed to keeping certain types of data behind a wall that only those with PSU credentials can access. For us, this latter category boils down to anything with a grade on it and anything with a copyright. So, quizzes, discussion boards, problem set feedback, and material from library e-reserves will all require you to login. I keep all that stuff separate from the main course content so that the content can stand alone.

This Web site

The instructional materials in this site consist of eight lessons of study, each including multiple pages of text, graphics, and activities. Activities prompt readers to explore selected Web sites, to download data and/or software, or other adventures. Registered students are also prompted to enter discussion forums and turn in problem sets.

Canvas

Penn State's course management system. We'll use Canvas's quizzes, discussion boards, and gradebook in this course. 

Penn State Library

Penn State's library hosts the scientific articles we'll read in this course. There's a link to the PSU library site in the Resources drop-down menu on this website. I have also made durable links to each article inside Canvas.

Topics of Study

There are eight lessons total that will be completed at a rate of either one or two weeks per lesson. Lesson learning activities will be in the form of background reading and discussion that outlines a current scientific problem in solid Earth sciences, the collection and manipulation of appropriate data, and the assessment of the results of this work. By doing this, you will simultaneously become familiar with the content as well as the practice of science, just like the Next Generation Science Standards wants you to. You will also participate in online discussions about how to teach this content to others. For the last lesson, you will complete a capstone project where you will construct a teaching plan based on the topic of your choice.

Lesson 1 - Content Pre-instructional Activities

The main priorities in Lesson 1 are to learn a bit more about you and your background in Earth science and to get some free practice doing things that you'll have to do later on in the course for a grade. These activities include creating plots electronically and participating in the class discussion of a scientific paper.

Lesson 2 - The Giants of Science

You will research the scientist of your choice whose work directly contributed to the plate tectonics revolution or to current knowledge of solid earth geophysics. You'll create a Web page within this course's Canvas space to teach your topic to the rest of your classmates.

Lesson 3 - The Geodynamo

In this lesson, we'll discuss the Earth's magnetic field, including simulations of the field, field reversals, and biological interactions with the field.

Lesson 4 - Earth's Interior

How big is the core? How hot is the core? What's it made of? How do we know it is there?

Lesson 5 - FBI agents, Drugs, and Volcanoes

Case studies in forensic geology involving mineralogy and murder.

Lesson 6 - Volcanic Eruptions

This is another dangerous part of geology.

Lesson 7 - Faults and Earthquakes

Is it true that there are more big earthquakes now than there used to be? Where do big earthquakes happen? Can we predict them? Find out in Lesson 7!

Lesson 8 - Capstone Project

Create a lesson plan on the topic of your choice.

Course Assignments

In EARTH 520, I will rely upon a variety of methods to assess and evaluate student learning, including:

Required participation in online discussion forums

to provide opportunities for me to gauge your progress and ability to articulate key concepts. I will assign weekly readings and ask you to discuss and debate the significance of these readings within the larger framework of the current lesson's topic. The discussions will also be a venue for you to get help or give help when performing the data analyses.

Data analyses and write-ups

that require you to collect and interpret datasets.

A capstone project

that will be used to evaluate your knowledge and skills through the production of a learning module that you, in turn, will be able to use to teach course concepts to your own students.