GEOLOGY 215                                                                                                                   

 FALL 2006

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY

Lecture:  MWF 12:00-12:50                                                                                                 Room: Bracy 127

Instructor: Mark McNaught                               Office Bracy 111                   Phone (330) 829-8226         

                                                            Hours  MWF 9:00-10:00 

                                                            Email:      mcnaugma@muc.edu

                                                                Home page: http://www.muc.edu/~mcnaugma/

GOALS/OBJECTIVES:

            To understand the relationship between earth processes and society.

To be able to apply knowledge of basic earth process to solving and preventing environmental problems.

COURSE CONTENT

This course focuses on the relationship between human activity and natural earth processes. The three main groups of topics covered in this course deal with: 

Geological Hazards (natural threats to life and property):  How do you build a stable society on a planet that is constantly changing?  How do we protect ourselves from the earth’s sudden violent rampages? 

Resources (materials needed for human survival or modern society):  How do we maintain current standard of living with the earth’s dwindling resources?  Where do we find resources for the worlds growing population?  How do we minimize the impact of resource recovery?

Waste Disposal:  How do we get rid of waste so it does not contaminate our limited resources?  Can we find ways to isolate the most deadly wastes from the environment?

These issues are real world problems that appear almost daily in any newspaper.  You will face these issues in the future, either personally or as part of collective decision making in your community or country.  Viable solutions will only be found if basic earth processes are understood.

TEXTBOOK: Montgomery,  Environmental Geology,  7^th  Ed.  Reading assignments are noted on schedule.

CLASS SCHEDULE:

A tentative schedule of lecture and lab topics is attached.  While individual topics are subject to change the date of exams are fixed.   Also note an all day field trip will be held on a date to be arranged in the future.

GRADING

Hour Exams (40%): There will be THREE hour exams (15%, 20%, and 20% respectively) given in class on days noted on the schedule.  Hour exams will not be cumulative.  Topics covered on each exam will be announced in class.

Final Exam (25%): A cumulative final exam will be given on the date determined by the registrar. 

Environmental Impact Analysis Project (20%):  As part of a group you will conduct and environmental impact assessment of a yet too be determined project.  More details will come later in the course.

My grading scale is roughly as follows:

                        93 - 100                  A                                              73 -76                     C

                        90 - 92                     A-                                           70 - 72                     C-

                        87 - 89                     B+                                           67 - 69                     D+

                        83 - 86                     B                                             63 - 66                     D

                        80 - 82                     B-                                            60 - 62                     D-

                        77 - 79                     C+                                           < 60                         F

I do reserve the right to modify the precise limits for each grade.

GENERAL EDUCATION: 

This class can be used to partially satisfy the natural sciences general education requirement (non lab) (IIB2).  See the Mount Union Catalogue for details.  

ATTENDANCE

Students are expected to attend all classes.  Students who miss more than three lectures may be penalized.   Make up exams will only be given for officially excused absences.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

Students are expected to obey the conduct guidelines and rules of Mount Union College (see your student handbook) with respect to academic honesty and preparation of work for this class.

Note: Students with documented disabilities are entitled to reasonable accommodations.  Please see the instructor and/ or the director of disability services at the beginning of the semester for more information.

            HOW TO DO WELL

1.  Attend Class

Should be obvious but every year someone thinks the extra hour of sleep will do more good than coming to class.  WRONG.  Emphasis will be placed on material covered in class so to do well you need to be there.

2.  Read Early

It is important to keep up with reading assignments. Reading should be done before material is covered in class.  You will get more out of this course if you are not seeing material for the first time in class.  Lectures will serve to reinforce important points.

3.  Read Critically

It is not enough just to read, you must understand what you are reading.   In addition it will be necessary to decide what is important when you reading so you do not get bogged down in detail.  Critical reading is a skill that is essential to do well in college and will only come with practice.

4.  Take (Good) Notes

You are responsible for all material covered in lecture unless you are told explicitly not to worry about something.  It is important to extract important points from lecture and record them in your notes.  Don't assume if things are not written on the board they are not important.

5.  Understand, Don't Just Memorize.

Unfortunately, geology has a large vocabulary and you will need to do some memorization.  But it is more important to understand why and how things happen then memorizing terms.

6.  Ask Questions

If you don't understand material in class stop me and ask questions! If there is material in the textbook that is confusing ask questions.  The only bad question is the one that is not asked. 

7.  Don't Cram

There is too much material in this class to sit down the night before an exam and learn it all.  Study early and study often.  If you learn material as we go along it will make studying for exams easier.

8.  Get Help

I am here to help you.  If you are having major difficulties, or just minor questions, please come by and see me.  It doesn't have to be during office hours. If I am not busy I will help you right away or we can set up another time to meet. Or you can call or email with questions or to set up an appointment.