FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

The State University of Florida at Miami

 

Department of Geology

GLY 1010 Introduction to the Earth Sciences - Section 04;   Summer B ,2003

MW  9.30-12.15 pm;  Room: ZEB 110

 

Dr. G. Draper; PC 316

web site:  http: //www.fiu.edu/~draper/               Office Hours: MW 1.15-4.30pm or by appointment

Geology Department Office: PC 344, tel.: 348-2365                                                                    Rm: PC 331

 

Welcome to Introduction to the Earth Sciences. This course is concerned with the planet that you live on - the Earth: its composition, structure and the dynamic processes that have both shaped the present appearance of the planet and will cause its continued evolution. The course is about rocks and minerals, but it is also about the drifting of continents, about vast expanses of time that make human history seem insignificant, about slowly changing sea levels and violent earthquakes.

Required textbook:  Press and Seiver, Understanding Earth , Freeman and Co.  3rd Edition,  573pp +CD-ROM

Recommended:  Kresnan, Mencke and Bingham, Study guide for Understanding Earth.  Freeman and Co., 3ed edition

 

Grading Policy: exams,  mini-projects

 

Exams: There will be a  series of 6 mini-exam consisting of multiple choice questions given every Monday (except for the first mini exam, which be on a Wednesday). These mini exams will take place in the first 20 minutes of class. If you are late, this will cut into the time allowed for the exam.  If you snooze, you lose. I will allow you to drop the worst score on ONE of these mini-exams.  There will also be a comprehensive, multiple-choice, machine-graded, final exam.  Scores will be calculated as follows

                  5 best mini-exams              60% of grade

                  Final exam                             40% of grade

Bonus  point mini-projects:  about every week a mini-project will be emailed to your FIU mailbox and only to your FIU mailbox.  You must therefore check your mailbox regularly and clear it of out of date mail.  If you do not know your FIU email address go to webmail.fiu.edu, enter your student number and it will return your email.  The mini projects will each constitute 1% to your overall score

 

Study methods

Read the relevant chapters in Press and Seiver briefly before the lecture. After the lecture read the chapter again, and make changes or additions to notes as necessary.  Use the CD-ROM and by all means surf the internet for related material.  You are responsible for material in the text unless I specifically tell you that a chapter or part of a chapter is not  assigned.

Remember that the standard formula for college study is that for every classroom hour you should put in at least two hours outside of class.  For a 3 hour course in a normal semester,  this means that you should be spending at least  6 hours per week outside of class doing reading,  re-writing notes, working  in study groups,  working with the CD -ROM etc.  As this is an accelerated summer semester you should spend double this amount of time; that is, at least 12 hours per week

 

Of Attendance, Punctuality, Cell Phones and Beepers

€ I will cover some material not in the text therefore you need to attend class. Anyway if you miss class you have thrown away about $24 (Fl resident) or $88 (non-Fl resident).  Not too clever. Do you buy tickets to the movies and then not go?

€Be on time for class. Anyone can have trouble finding a parking spot, but there is no excuse for being habitually 15 minutes late (you also lost $1.20 of education). Tramping into class late disturbs your colleagues and may cause you to miss a mini-exam. If you are late, you will also miss the quiz.

€ Turn your cell phone, or beeper, off.

 

 

 

 

Schedule  

(note:  subject to change - stay posted for the latest developments)

Date                         Topic   and Chapter in Press and Seiver

 

June  25 1                 Introduction;  Overview of the Earth (1); Matter (2)                                                                                 

 

June 30                     Minerals (2);  rocks and rock cycle (3); Igneous rocks(4)

July 2                        1st mini-exam: Volcanoes  (5);  Weathering and erosion (6)

 

July 7                        2nd mini exam  Sedimentation and sedimentary rocks (7) Metamorphic rocks (8)

July 9                        Deformation of rocks: fractures, faults, foliations and folds (10)

                                    Stratigraphy and relative time (9)

 

July 14                     3rd mini exam Isotopic dating and the age of the Earth (9), Hydrologic cycle and groundwater (12)

July 16                     Rivers and fluvial systems(13), Glaciers, ice ages and changing sea levels (15)

 

July 21                     4th mini exam  Coasts and Oceans (17); Earthquakes (18)

July 22 : Last day to drop with DR grade, or to withdraw with a WI grade                      

July 23                     Earthquakes cont. (18)  Earthquakes and the Earth's interior(19); Continental drift (20)                                                                            

 

July 28                    5th mini-exam Continental drift, seafloor spreading, subduction, plate tectonics (20)

July 30                     Plate Tectonics and continental crust; rifts, mountain belts .

 

Aug 4                        6th mini exam Earth Resources and Earth Management (if time; 22,23);   Review                                    

Aug  6                       FINAL EXAM