GEOLOGY 303: ADVANCED PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY (Lecture and Lab)

Fall 2009

Instructor: Dan Karner

Office: Darwin 124      

Phone: 664-2854    

e-mail: karner@sonoma.edu

Website: http://www.sonoma.edu/users/k/karner (announcements, lecture notes, viewgraphs, exam study sheets, etc.).

Office hours: M: 11-12; T, Th: 10:30-11:30

Lecture Schedule: Tuesday, Thursday 1-2:15 pm

Lab Schedule: Thursday 2:30 – 5:20 pm     

Place: Darwin 128

Furloughs for 2009-2010 academic year.  All faculty members for the California State University system have opted to take a 10% work furlough (a 10% reduction in pay with a commensurate 10% reduction in workload).  This was done to preserve jobs of other instructional faculty.  However, the CSU Administration was unwilling to reduce the number of courses each of us teaches by 10%, and so it has become necessary for us to reduce the content and instructional hours of each course by 10% in order to meet the conditions of the work furlough.  For Geology 303 this will be done by eliminating lecture on Tuesday, September 8, Lecture and Lab on Thursday, October 15, and Lecture on Tuesday, November 24.

Attendance: Make sure to be on time for lectures and labs!  You must be present for the whole lecture period.  The start of the lab will be essential whereas the later parts are for you to complete your assignment.  Note that most students complete their labs during non-instruction hours.

Grading

Geology 303 is a four-unit class with a single letter grade assigned at the end of the semester. I will construct your letter grade based on the combined scores that you obtain on the following exercises (percentages show the weighting factor for each component of the class)

Lecture

Midterm 1= 25%

Midterm 2 (Final) = 25%

Highest exam score will be weighted another 5%

Homework= 20%

Laboratory= 25%

Lecture information

Text: Earth: Portrait of a Planet, Stephen Marshak 3rd Edition

Lecture schedule (see attached)

Laboratory information

• Each lab is worth 20 points and is due at the beginning of following week’s lab.
• Late labs will be docked 10%, and must be turned in before the next lab section.
• If you are going to miss lab, you need to inform me before lab period and set up a time of mutual convenience to meet.  Your lab assignment will still be due by the start of the following lab meeting.
• Lab exams will each be worth 20 points.
• Lab score will be combined with lecture score to construct final grade (lab score = 25% weighting, lecture score = 75% weighting).  Class scores will be curved to assign letter grades, and I will consider student’s majors when constructing the curve.

Lab course materials

• Lab assignments will be handed out at the start of each lab meeting.  You will need a protractor, ruler, calculator, 10x hand lens, colored pencils, a copy of Dietrich and Skinner’s: Rocks and Rock Minerals.  Reading will also be assigned from Marshak’s Earth: Portrait of a Planet.  My goal will be to assign reading the week ahead of each laboratory topic so that you can be prepared.  You will use these at different times throughout the semester so please keep them nearby.

General laboratory procedures

My plan is to start each lab with a discussion to stir your creative juices, and to explain the relevance of each lab exercise. I will follow this with a short lecture (hopefully less than 30 minutes).  During this time you are encouraged to ask questions; questions let me know that you are absorbing information and beginning to formulate and process ideas. After this I’ll turn you loose to work on the exercise while I circulate to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.