Instructor: Dr. Pamela J. W. Gore, Professor of Geology
E-mail address: pgore@gpc.edu
World Wide Web Address: http://gpc.edu/~pgore/gore.htm
Office phone: (404) 299-4099
Clarkston Campus Science Department Secretary (for emergencies):(404) 299-4100
Fax : (404) 299-4130.
Alternate fax if other is not working: (404) 298-3833
Please include your name on all pages of faxes.
Mailing Address:
Catalog description:
Physical Geology is the study of the Earth and the processes which shape it. The course offers an overview of plate tectonics, volcanism, earthquakes, mountain building, weathering, erosion, soil, origin of minerals and rocks, and water and energy resources. A fieldtrip is optional.
Prerequisite: Exit or exemption from all Developmental Studies (Learning Support) and ESL requirements.
Corequisite: Students registered for GEOL 1421 must take the co-requisite GEOL 1421 Laboratory. GEOL 1121 is the non-lab option course.
Required textbook:
Tarbuck, E.J. and Lutgens, F.K., 2002, The Earth, SEVENTH Edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 670 p. with accompanying GEODe III CD-ROM bound into book inside back cover.
Note: Used textbooks may not have the CD-ROM. The CD-ROM may be purchased separately if it is missing from the book.
Recommended book:
Busch, R. M., Study Guide for The Earth, 7th edition.
Submitting Assignments
Assignments may be submitted by any of the following:
Online Information and Release Form
All students must fill out the online information and release form.
http://gpc.edu/~pgore/online/form.php
Class schedule:
You should plan on at least 10 hours per week dedicated to course work.
Please be sure you have set aside adequate time!!!
Attendance Policy:
Posting to the bulletin board or e-mail, and accessing the password-protected
WebCT course are considered to be equivalent to class attendance.
Students must post at least twice per week.
If you must be away for a certain period of time, please let the instructor know in advance.
Students who do not log in for 2 weeks jeopardize their grade by missing assignments and quizzes.
They may be considered to be inactive and may be Withdrawn.
Distance Learning Student Handbook
For basic information on online classes at GPC,
see the Distance Learning Student Handbook at the following address:
This must include:
Students who stop posting to the class and stop participating may receive an F for the class if they
do not officially Withdraw.
This page provides information to help you decide whether online classes are appropriate for you, provides basic information on orientation, admissions and registration, communicating with your instructor, obtaining a WebCT login and password, obtaining your books and other course materials, accessing the library, online courses offered at GPC (by semester), and lists technical requirements for online courses.
You must check your web browser with the GPC WebCT Personal Computer Analyzer http://gpc.edu/webct/analyzer/ to determine whether your computer and web browser will function properly with WebCT, the course management software.
A listing of technical requirements is included in the DL Handbook. For this course, you will also need to download the free Real Player 8 Basic FREE viewer to see the streaming video, which accompanies the WebCT lecture notes.
You must also work through the required Online Orientation/WebCT Tutorial. The link to the Orientation is on the DL Student Handbook page.
Technical Assistance:
For technical assistance,
please fill in the Online Help Request Form at
http://gpc.edu/webct/repform.html.
Your request should be answered within 24 hours during the normal work week.
If you are unable to access the form, you may send e-mail
to webct-help@gpc.edu
or call 404-298-5210 and leave a message.
There may be no helpdesk support on evenings and weekends, however.
WebCT is the official delivery system for online courses at Georgia Perimeter College. WebCT is also used at the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, The State University of West Georgia, Georgia Southern University, and many other institutions within the University System of Georgia. After you leave GPC and transfer to a four-year school, you are likely to find WebCT there too. It is the de facto "standard" around the State.
In addition, many major textbook publishers such as Prentice Hall, Harcourt Brace, John Wiley and Sons, Addison Wesley, W. W. Norton and Course Technology are using WebCT to create online material to supplement their existing textbooks.
WebCT is a course management software package that is accessed with a web browser such as Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. WebCT can be used to create sophisticated World Wide Web-based educational environments. It can be used with fully online courses, or to publish materials that supplement face-to-face courses.
WebCT courses also offer student tracking, allowing the instructor to determine at a glance how many times a student has accessed the course materials, which course materials a student has accessed, and times of first and last access.
Obtaining your WebCT password:
On the first day of classes, or shortly thereafter, go to http://gpc.edu/studentid and follow the directions on the screen. You will need to enter your student number (no hyphens) and birthdate in the specified format. Click submit. Please write down your user name and password for your WebCT course(s). You may access this information three times, and after that will have to call the Educational Technologies helpdesk for assistance at (404) 299-4232.
WebCT ID's will not be available before the first day of classes.
Accessing your course notes using WebCT:
The class is to be accessed through the following password-protected web page:
In case of difficulty with password, course notes may also be accessed at this address:
You must log into WebCT so that your class attendance and progress can be tracked.
Logging Out of WebCT
Be sure you close ALL copies of your web browser when you wish to log out, so that others using the computer after you will not have access to your password-protected files.
If you do not exit ALL copies of your web browser, someone using the computer after you could post messages to the e-mail and bulletin board under your identity!!
Communicating with the Instructor:
Regular communication is a very important part of this course.
Please feel free to ask questions at any time, either by e-mail, on the bulletin board, by phone during office hours,
or in person during office hours (call first to be sure I am not in a meeting or on another campus). E-mail response time: I will generally reply to your e-mail within 24 hours unless I am out of town
(which I will announce through Bulletin Board, e-mail, or the calendar).
I may or may not check e-mail on weekends, depending on my schedule,
so do not expect a prompt reply if you post Friday afternoon or Friday night.
I may not see your message until Monday morning. I check e-mail frequently during office hours.
Exams :
You may take the proctored Midterm on Tuesday February 25, 2003 , or by appointment before February 28, 2003.
You must sign up for a time to take your exam on the class Bulletin Board in WebCT.
You may take the proctored Final Exam on Friday May 2, 2003 or
by appointment during Finals week (as specified in the Schedule of Classes).
THE FINAL EXAM IS CUMULATIVE AND COMPREHENSIVE A note about the final: If you score less than 70% on the final exam, you
will not receive an A for a final course grade, and similarly,
if you score less than 60% on the final exam, you will not will not receive
a B for a final grade, regardless of your overall average plus any extra credit.
If you fail one or both proctored exams, but do well on the unproctored quizzes,
you will be asked to retake the quizzes in a proctored setting before your grades are turned in.
This may necessitate a return to campus after final exams. If the student is unable to
take the quizzes in a proctored setting before final grades are due,
the quiz grades may be dropped from the calculation of the final grade.
Testing centers are available on some campuses.
Please check with the campus of your choice to determine whether there is a testing center available.
If you want to use a Testing Center, you will need to arrange this with your instructor several weeks before the date of the exam.
Your instructor will need to know when and where you wish to take the exam,
if you are not coming to Clarkston on the date listed above, so that the exam will be ready for you.
(LAB exams must be taken at Clarkston, if you are in lab.)
We do not recommend that you take your final exam at a Testing Center because of time delays in returning your exam for grading.
If you are out-of-the area, you may be able to arrange for an approved outside proctor
at your own expense, if you need to take an exam elsewhere.
Basis of Grading:
33% Proctored Final Exam
33% Homework assignments, reports, projects, online quizzes, etc.
Each assignment and quiz is due to be completed within ONE WEEK
of the date that is printed on the WebCT calendar, unless another date is given.
Assignments will be returned by mail once or twice during the semester, and at the exams,
or you may pick them up in my office.
Your grades will be posted in password-protected WebCT.
Note on online quizzes: All online quizzes are closed book,
closed note quizzes. Students are not to give or receive help on the quizzes.
If a student's quiz grades are substantially higher than their proctored
Midterm and/or Final Exam grades, the student may be required by the instructor
to retake the quizzes in a proctored setting, before the final course grade
will be assigned.
The lecture grade is separate from the lab grade,
if the student is enrolled in a lab. Grading scale: 90-100% A 80-90% B 70-80% C 60-70% D below 60% F EXTRA CREDIT: There will be opportunities for extra credit projects or papers during the semester.
Up to five earned extra credit points can be applied to your final class average.
Submit your ideas for extra credit by e-mail to your instructor for approval of topics.
Extra credit exercises must be done independently from other students.
All extra credit must be typed using a word processing program.
Possible extra credit projects (one point each):
Withdrawal Policy
The midpoint of the semester is Monday March 10, 2003.
A student who officially withdraws by the midpoint of the semester will
receive a grade of "W". A student who withdraws after the midpoint of the
semester will receive a "WF" unless approval as a hardship withdrawal is
received from the dean. If you choose to stop logging in to WebCT, or to stop reading and
responding to e-mails from the instructor, you must complete the
withdrawal process through the Registrar's Office by the specified dates,
or you will receive an "F" for the course. It is not the instructor's
responsibility to withdraw students, but the instructor reserves
the right to withdraw a student for non-attendance (not logging
into WebCT, not responding to e-mails, or not turning in assignments). Lecture and lab are corequisites in GEOL 1421. Any student who
withdraws (or is withdrawn) from a lecture must also withdraw
(or be withdrawn) from the lab. Likewise, any student who withdraws
(or is withdrawn) from the lab must also withdraw (be withdrawn) from
the lecture. Rare exceptions must be approved by the department head or
academic dean, and the course must be taken the following semester
(or the next time it is offered at the college).
Policy on Academic Honesty
Academic dishonesty (cheating and plagiarism) will not be tolerated.
Students should read the sections on cheating and plagiarism in the
Georgia Perimeter College Student Handbook and
Georgia Perimeter College Catalog. Cheating includes (among other things),
use of unauthorized papers during a quiz or exam (no matter what the content),
looking at any notes or books or other materials during an unproctored online quiz,
talking with someone about the quiz material during an unproctored online quiz,
telling a student who has not taken the quiz or exam about the quiz or exam after you have taken it,
copying from another student's paper during a test, allowing another
student to copy from your paper during a test, unauthorized access to
old exams or to an exam given to the class if you are taking it late for
some reason, copying another student's homework assignments, using or
turning in a photocopy of another student's assigned work, paying someone
to write a paper or do an assignment for you, buying or downloading a term paper,
or leaving the room during a test without permission or before turning in
your paper. With online testing, it is particularly important to pay strict attention
to academic honesty. Do not access a test online before you are ready to take
it.
Do not look at a printout of the test before you take it.
Do not look at your books or notes or other papers while taking an online test.
Do not have another person take the test for you.
Do not have another person tell you answers to the test. Plagiarism includes copying any phrases, sentence, or sentences
verbatim from the reference source without using quotation marks and without
providing a complete reference (author, date, source of material,
volume, pages, etc.), or printing out an article directly from a computer
database (such as Encarta or off the World Wide Web) and turning it in
as your own work. Students must read, synthesize, and write their own original
sentences; learn to paraphrase. Even when paraphrasing, a complete
reference must be provided to the paraphrased sentences. NEVER steal words
directly from any source and present them as your own. Students are responsible for doing their own work, even if they
"work together". If two papers are turned in that show great similarity
such that the instructor interprets it as evidence of cheating or plagiarism,
both will be penalized. A report will be filed with the Campus Dean of Student Affairs for any
alleged cheating or plagiarism incident. (See procedure in College Catalog.)
The case will be heard by the College Court. Penalties may include suspension
or expulsion. The faculty member is free to assign the grade he or she thinks is appropriate
for the assignment or quiz, or exam, or for the semester (regardless of any outcome from College Court). Any student found by the instructor to have represented someone else's work
as his/her own, will receive a zero for that quiz, exam, or assignment
for the first offense. The second offense will result in the assignment of a
grade of "F" for the course. (If several papers are turned in together
or at the same time, and each contains evidence of cheating or plagiarism,
they will be considered as separate offenses, and will result in immediate
assignment of a grade of "F" for the course.)
This policy applies to cheating or plagiarism on extra credit work as well. Cheating on an exam will jeopardize your grade; if you receive a zero on
an exam it will be extremely difficult to receive a passing grade for the
course.
STATEMENT OF NON-DISCRIMINATION
Georgia Perimeter College supports the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order #11246, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. No person shall, on the basis of age, race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or disability, be excluded from participation in, or be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity of the college.
Any individual with a grievance related to the enforcement of any of the above provisions should contact the Assistant Director of Human Resources, Ombudsperson.
You are expected to read and abide by the General Policies of Georgia
Perimeter College, as stated in the College Student Handbook and in the
College Catalog.
Tentative Lecture Schedule and Required Readings Please follow the schedule presented in the WebCT Calendar. This is
a rough estimate of the layout of the course.
Week: Includes overview of history of geology, geologic time, scientific method, earth systems, origin of the earth,
internal structure of earth, plate tectonics, and rock cycle.
This chapter presents a broad overview or "big picture" of geology.
Work through CD-ROM on The Wonders of Rocks and Minerals
as you work on the minerals and rocks chapters.
3
Mineral resources and igneous processes, p. 604-607. 4
Video: Volcanoes - Exploring the Restless Earth 5
Weathering and Soil, Ch. 5; Geologic work of groundwater, p. 319-323. Weathering and ore deposits, p. 608-609. Energy Mineral Resources, Chapter 21, p. 586-604, 609-613. 7
Mineral resources and metamorphic processes, p. 607-608 8
9
See video. Nova: Earthquake.
10
11
Plate Tectonics, Ch. 19
See video Planet Earth Series- The Living Machine
Work through CD-ROM: The Theory of Plate Tectonics
Optional Extra Credit Movie: The Great River 14
Optional Extra Credit Movie: The Beach - A River of Sand Optional Extra Credit Movie: Portrait of a Coast Mass wasting, Ch. 9
This schedule is tentative and may change.
All changes will be announced through the WebCT calendar, e-mail, or the electronic bulletin board. Quizzes, homework assignments, reports, and projects will be required, but are not all listed above.
Please see WebCT calendar for specifics.
It is your responsibility to check your e-mail (personal e-mail, in addition to WebCT internal e-mail),
Bulletin Board, Calendar and Quiz icon or you may miss a quiz or homework assignment.
Be sure that you know all of the bold terms in the textbook in the
assigned pages. Be sure to think about the review questions at the
end of each chapter. The textbook does not cover all of the material presented
in this course. LECTURE NOTES are available for most chapters on the World Wide Web. WELCOME TO GEOLOGY! Guide to Writing College Papers for Geology Classes 1. Must be typed on a word processor, not typewriter, and not handwritten. 2. Must be spell-checked and grammar-checked. 3. Must be proof-read by at least one OTHER person (include their signature and date at the end of your paper as proofreader). 4. Double-spaced. 5. Never in all uppercase. 6. No font size larger than 12 point. 7. No margins over 1 inch (standard setting with word processors) 8. Use subheadings to organize your work. 9. Staple in upper left corner. 10. No folders or plastic covers. 11. Illustrations are helpful (but not included in page count). 12. White paper only. 13. Don't use its unless it is a contraction of it is. 14. Don't use were when you really mean where. 15. The plural of scientist is scientists with an s on the end. 16. Do not plagiarize. When quoting directly, use quotation marks and provide a reference. 17. Include references within your text, AND a list of references at the end. 18. Always put your name in the upper right corner. If multiple students are involved, alphabetize by last name. 19.Consult a style manual if necessary. 20. Number your pages, bottom center.
GENERAL EDUCATION OUTCOMES:
Syllabus dated January 3, 2002.
There may be some flexibility, but late assignments will likely lose points.
No assignments will be accepted after they are two weeks late, or after
the instructor has returned corrected and graded assignments to students,
which ever comes first.
1
An Introduction to Geology, Ch. 1
2
Matter and Minerals, Ch. 2
Igneous Rocks, Ch. 3
Volcanoes, Ch. 4
Review the Rock Cycle, p. 15-17.
6
Sedimentary Rocks, Ch. 6
Metamorphic Rocks, Ch. 7
Face-to-face Midterm Exam
Clarkston Campus CC-1150.
Crustal Deformation, Ch. 15
Earthquakes, Ch. 16 The Earth's Interior, Ch. 17
The Ocean Floor and Seafloor Spreading, Ch. 18
12
Mountain Building, Ch. 20
13
Hydrologic Cycle, Running Water, Ch. 10
Groundwater, Ch. 11
15
Shorelines, Ch. 14
16
Face-to-face Final Exam, Clarkston Campus CC-1150.