GEOL 499 – SPECIAL STUDY (for 1, 2, or 3 units)
SDSU - Department of Geological Sciences
Instructor: Isabelle SacramentoGrilo,
Office Phone: (619) 594 5607
Email: isacramentogrilo@mail.sdsu.edu
Website: http://blackboard.sdsu.edu
You’ll have access to this class in Blackboard as a TA
Scope of course: Assistance with GEOL 104 – Earth Science and GEOL 303 – Natural Disasters
(proctoring and grading), 3-unit courses for foundation and exploration science requirements, as a
means to practice teaching and grading pedagogies and methodologies, as well as a means to enhance
experience for a career in teaching K-12 Earth Science.
Brief Syllabus:
Number of units earned depends on how many of the tasks below the student will undertake.
I. Procedure for filling out GEOL 499 form:
Get schedule number and add code in the Geology department. Although you act as my “TA”, this is still a
class for which you sign up, like any other class. This is not a paid position.
From the Geology office, fill out form “GEOL 499 – Special Study”, which includes:
Title of project – Assisting two GE Geology classes, as a way to prepare for a career in teaching earth
science.
Reasons to take this course, not others in the department – you are a Liberal Studies student and you
have taken the GEOL 104 and GEOL 303 classes before, so you are ready to undertake the tasks related to
the course. Furthermore, you are a future science teacher, so you are getting valuable hands-on experience
right away, even though at a higher level.
Methodology and nature of the study – will depend upon individual case: Helping with grading online
homework and proctor 4 exams.
Final reports – final reflection paper summarizing all tasks accomplished and lessons learnt.
II. Tasks in GEOL 104 (with 120 students) and GEOL 303 (with 225 students):
By helping with the following tasks, you will learn several skills needed to be an effective teacher:
How to work effectively with students:
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work side by side with the instructor to help with any students’ needs, especially during exams.
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help proctor exams – 4 times a term for each class:
-
GEOL 104 exams will take place on a day of the week, GEOL 303 exams take place on Friday
afternoons.
How to work effectively with instructor:
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keeping up communication with me throughout the semester – mostly includes feedback on student
performance, especially for GEOL 303.
How to give detailed, constructive feedback on assignments:
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For GEOL 104 - grade Earthquake certificates and Geochronologist certificates when students turn
them in at different times in the semester.
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For GEOL 303 - help grade all written homeworks throughout the term (about 2 sets of homework in
the semester for GEOL 303); grade Earthquake certificates when students turn them in.
-
Detailed rubrics are provided for all work graded (please see below).
III. End of term assignment:
Write a 2-page final reflection paper summarizing all tasks accomplished, important lessons learnt, and
benefits of this course to future career as a teacher, to be submitted to supervisor on finals week. Exact
date to be determined.
Be advised that no late papers shall be accepted.
NOTE: all student records in the classes GEOL 104 and 303 must be kept confidential by the TA. This
includes names, red IDs, and all grades. Speaking as a TA about students’ grades to other students in these
classes, or any other students at SDSU, is a violation of students’ privacy rights.
IV. Rubrics for Homework
GEOL 303 - 2 ONLINE HOMEWORK ESSAYS
PLATE TECTONIC REPORT - RUBRIC
Note – questions and locations may vary from a given semester. This is a sample from SUMMER
2013.
Note also that students may have submitted more than one version. If so, you’ll have to open them
up and give the grade again.
These are the answers to the PT report. This is a summary of what I would like to see as students’
answers.
1. Boundary: Convergent boundary - SUBDUCTION of the oceanic Juan de Fuca plate under the
continental North American plate. (nothing else is accepted)
2. Describe fully this tectonic process – in great detail (this answer should have been 2/3 of your
paper). Here are the main points you needed to develop:
 most dangerous type of boundary in terms of human hazards
 plates involved and differences in density (why?)
 force for motion – slab pull (why?)
 undersea trench at plate junction
 how and why melting occurs at depth (magma chambers): the role of subducted water and
subsequent melts and convection
 what we see at the surface of the continental plate (mountains) with volcanoes
 how plates are stuck for a given time; how energy is released every so often - what we
see and feel: EQs, possibly tsunamis
 Optional:
 stresses applied to rocks – compressional
 faults formed in rocks – reverse and thrust
 rocks extruded – igneous volcanic
 subduction provides the means to recycle oceanic lithosphere back to the mantle - reason
why it's much younger than the continents.
 There are NO hot spots here.
3. Plate that's being generated on the west side of the ridge near here?
The Pacific plate. (nothing else is accepted)
4. Overall velocity of the North American plate?
Average out the velocities of the MAR = 2.2cm/yr (but I accept anything around this value)
5. List all hazards: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, landslides.
Optional: mudflows, heavy storms and subsequent floods, lightning, and even space impacts.
Mountain chains are not hazards! – just ignore it.
6. Population awareness: for the most part, the bulk of the population is somewhat aware of the
volcanic and quake hazards that they face. This is the USA, where prevention and mitigation are
put in practice most of the time. They know less about tsunami hazards. Some may be prepared;
most aren’t.
(I don’t grade this last question. The above is what I would like to see, but you’ll find that answers
will vary a lot. Not answering this question, however, will work against them, as it will writing more
for this than for no.2 above)
The average on this should be about 76-78%.
Most commonly I assign 8s. There will be a fair no. of 10s, some 5s and 6s, but the vast majority
will be 7 and 8.
Having the tectonic setting totally wrong will warrant about a 5. Answering most of the stuff above
correctly will warrant a 10.
Note: The numbering may not show up for some students. Bb does this sometimes. Don’t penalize
them for it if they have separate paragraphs for each answer.
You also need to let me know if they’re answering questions about a different location (which
constitutes cheating from previous semesters).
Read here what I would post after I would grade the papers:
If you are wondering why you lost points in this report, please consider some of these culprits:
- Paper too short - less than 250 words.
- Writing about any other plates or boundaries other than the one where the arrow was pointing
(ex. oceanic ridges or transform). All questions pertained ONLY to the specific location pointed at
with the big arrow. This was only a subduction zone.
- Number 2 - wrong boundary (no transform (that’s south of here), no hot spots or mantle plumes
here, not at all continental collision or rifting. It is a convergent plate boundary and it is subduction
only.
- Tectonic setting generally very incomplete or wrong, often very repetitive. Here I had asked for a
great detail. For ex., you don't explain in detail what exactly subduction is, the most important part
of this paper as was stated. Giving examples of other subduction zones is not answering this
question, and neither is describing the 3 different types of convergent boundaries. Answering this
question by explaining why it isn’t any other type of tectonic setting is not correct either. Further,
the oceanic plate is always the densest.
- Number 4 referred to the speed of the NA, which was given to you right on the map (around 2 cm
per year). No other values were accepted but the ones right from the map at that location. You
needed to have the units attached to the number.
- Generally, hazards question was incomplete.
-If you answered more for the last question, or any other question, than for number 2, then you'd
have lost most of the points (as this was not part of the directions given).
If you identified the location at the arrow as the Cascades or Pacific NW or Cascadia subduction
zone, then you were half way there because this was covered in lecture. Subduction was
thoroughly discussed many times and in different contexts.
MASS WASTING REPORT – RUBRIC
Directions in the HW: Being clear and concise, answer the questions below for each of the 2 diagrams. Your
answers should be derived from the evidence shown below, such as direction of rock beds, type and
hardness of rock or sediment, fractures, slope angle, and any other features shown here and discussed in
lecture. You may answer in bullet form. Answer each question in order and labeled.
Cut and paste your answers directly onto the “Assignment Materials” box of Blackboard under this
assignment. Please submit your work directly into Blackboard. Papers are graded and grades are submitted
electronically. Do not email me your paper. Do no attach it.
Note: No late papers accepted at all, as you know. No exceptions! Personal computer problems of any sort
are not a valid excuse for missing the deadline. Use the computers in the Library.
Figure A)
1) What are the two most clear and obvious MASS WASTING HAZARDS or TYPES in Fig A?
2) Explain your answer clearly and fully.
Fig. A
Figure B)
1) What are the two most clear and obvious MASS WASTING HAZARDS or TYPES in Fig B?
2) Explain your answer clearly and fully.
Fig. B
Mass Wasting HW 15 points.
Note: again check for multiple submissions.
For image A:
The 2 most obvious are rockslide (translational slide) and rockfall (if they put creep instead of one of those,
it should be ok, but still not as much as the first answer. Slump (rotational slide) is not correct.
Reasons:
the tilt of the rock beds on the left side (same direction as the slope).
the excavation of the hwy decreases the stability of the slope on the left side and steepened it.
presence of clay between the beds of rock.
fracture in sandstone will result in loose rock for rockfalls
For image B
The 2 most obvious are coastal erosion/collapse, and rockfall (can also put rockslide)
Reasons:
wave energy undercutting base of cliff
hard rock with fractures will lead to rockfalls and to rockslides
high sheer cliff can collapse
There should be no flows of any kind (mudflows, lahars, avalanches, debris flows, debris avalanches)
There's no word limit, but short answers will lead to short grades; Big answers too, if they don’t stick to the
point.
9 – 60%
10 – 66%
11 – 73% (most)
12 – 80% (most)
13 – 86%
14 – 93%
15 – 100%
GEOL 303, GEOL 104 – RUBRICS FOR ONLINE VIRTUAL EARTHQUAKE CERTIFICATES
These are submitted by the students as an attachment in Bb after they do the activity. You will go to that
column – you’ll see the green exclamation points - and assign students the 15 points that the homework is
worth if they have the certificate posted. This requires no grading; very straight forward.
Certificate looks like this:
Some certificates look different. They will be square and look pinkish. They’re OK; you can accept those
too.
GEOL 104 – RUBRIC FOR LEARNING PROJECT
This is especially useful to you as a future teacher. This year we’re in the first phase of implementation of the
NGSS – New Generation Science Standards in Geol 104. You are going to grade parts of a small project
aimed at allowing these students to experiment in designing a model that answers a scientific question, make
observations and predictions, and write final thoughtful reflections.
Need more…