Georgia Perimeter College (formerly DeKalb College)

Course materials on Web since 1994

Offering Physical and Historical Geology as:

• web-enhanced courses delivered over a videoconferencing system
• fully online courses

Fall 1998

First fully online courses: Physical Geology Lecture and Lab.

• 40 enrolled in lecture
• 24 enrolled in lab
• All within 1 hour drive
• Lab samples on reserve in library or to check out
• Lab samples also available by mail

Historical Geology Lecture and Lab to be offered fully online for the first time.

In-house Historical Geology lab manual now online.

Labs have links to outside web resources.

Introduces students with no prior geology to the major mineral and rock groups.

Lab 2. Weathering and Formation of Sediment

Introduces weathering, origin of sediment, texture and mineralogy of sands (including heavy minerals) with outside links to proposed heavy mineral mining project near the Okefenokee Swamp.

Discusses interpretation of sand in terms of:

• source area
• paleoclimate
• tectonic setting
• depositional processes
• time

Students examine and interpret sand samples (glued to cards).
Use Virtual Sand Collection on Web, Pasadena City College, California.

Students compare granite with granite saprolite.

Students study heavy mineral analyses and plot them using a spreadsheet program.

Lab 3. Sedimentary Rocks

Introduces textures and classification of various sedimentary rocks.

Lab 4. Sedimentary Structures

Introduces students to modern and ancient sedimentary structures, and the interpretation of depositional processes.

Lab 5. Depositional Sedimentary Environments

Introduces students to interpretation of environments using physical, chemical, and biological features in the rocks.

Lab 6. Sand sieve analysis
Contributed by John Anderson at GPC.

Introduces students to statistical measures associated with studying sands and interpreting environments.

Lab 7. Relative dating

Introduces students to:

• Lithologic symbols
• Up-indicators
• Steno's Laws
• Principle of Cross-cutting Relationships
• Principle of Intrusive Relationships
• Principle of Components
• Principle of Fossil Succession
• Types of Unconformities

Lab 8. Stratigraphy and Lithologic Correlation

Introduces students to:

• Lithostratigraphic units
• Facies
• Transgression and regression
• Walther's Law
• Drawing, correlating, and interpreting stratigraphic sections.

Lab 9. Fossils on the Internet

Students take a virtual fieldtrip to:

• Royal Tyrrell Museum
• University of California Berkeley Museum of Paleontology

To learn about:

• Preservation
• Evolution and Natural selection
• Dinosaur extinction
• Geologic Time Scale
• Phylogeny
• Classification of life
• Uses of paleontology (correlation,etc.)

Lab 10. Invertebrate Macrofossils

Students learn to:

• Identify major phyla, classes, and orders
• Identify genera using pictures
• Plot geologic ranges
• Identify extinction events

Lab 12. Preservation

Introduces students to major modes of preservation, making of casts from molds.

Additional labs available:

• Microfossils
• Evolution of the Vertebrates
• Biostratigraphy
• Evolution
• Interpreting Geologic History from Maps

Several labs are still undergoing revision.

All are being supplemented by links to external resources and additional images

pgore@gpc.edu

http://www.gpc.edu/~pgore/
geology/historical_lab/contents.php

Thank you.