Planet Earth (Earth & Environmental Sciences V1053y)

Requirements:

• 10%: email questions about the earth
  • Each week, until spring break, each student should email a question about the earth (or a followup comment about a previous week's question) to the TA.
  • Logistical questions ('when is the final?') and simple requests for restatement and clarification ('Tell me again about -----; I didn't understand it in class) don't count.
  • First email question is due by Friday of the second week of class. Following spring break, the topic of your weekly email correspondance will switch to your paper/proposal topic.
• 30%: in-class activities
  • Weekly in-class activities will be carried out in a cooperative learning mode. For example, you might be given a thought question and an opportunity to discuss the question in pairs or groups; then asked to write out the answer to the question individually.
  • Your two lowest in-class activity scores for the semester (including absences, including "shopping period") will be dropped before calculating this part of your grade.
  • A make up opportunity will be provided at the end of the semester if a student has Dean's excuses for more than two in-class activity days.
• 30%: proposal
  • You should identify an unanswered question in earth sciences, and propose a strategy to help solve it.
  • Your strategy could involve making measurements, collecting samples, building a model, or any other approach that might constrain or answer the question you have posed.
  • IMPORTANT: You do not have to answer the question: you only have to pose the question clearly, and outline a viable course of action, which, if followed, has a decent chance of helping to answer the question.
  • Maximum length: four pages.
  • by the end of the week after spring break: some possible topics for the proposal must be submitted by email to the TA. Subsequent emails will narrow and focus the topic.
  • one week before the last day of class: optional critique session for proposals
  • last day of class: proposals are due
  • view example proposals
• 30%: final
  • The same sorts of questions as the in-class activities, covering the full semester's material.