Department of Geoscience
Learning Outcomes ~ Undergraduate Geoscience Programs
By the completion of their B.Sc. degree, all Geoscience students are expected to be able to:
Think like a scientist
- Use scientific principles to analyze ideas and data
- Distinguish between observation and interpretation
- Generate new knowledge and understand the limits of knowledge
Integrate concepts
- Transfer and develop knowledge and skills from one course or discipline to another
Locate, acquire, and evaluate information
- Critically assess relevant geoscientific literature
Appreciate spatial and temporal scales of geological and geophysical processes
- Visualize and reason in three dimensions within the context of geologic time
Identify rocks and minerals
- Recognize and classify the common rocks and minerals in different contexts (including hand
sample, thin sections, outcrops, cores, and chips)
Conduct field investigations
- Observe and record data in the field, and make interpretations
- Generate scientific reports (including maps, cross sections and geophysical sections/profiles)
Solve problems in pure and applied geosciences
- Use computers/software
- Use field/laboratory equipment and instrumentation
- Work with real geoscientific data
Conduct research (in one or more of the following ways):
- Term lecture/lab projects
- Independent study courses
- Summer/part-time research positions
Communicate effectively
- Write scientific documents
- Represent data and ideas visually
- Give oral presentations
Collaborate with others
All Geoscience undergraduates are also expected to understand basic concepts in the following
areas:
Geoscience as an interdisciplinary science
- Chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics and biology
- Methods for studying Earth materials, processes, and history
Earth history
- Geologic time
- Evolution of the solid Earth
- Evolution of life
- Interplay of gradual and catastrophic change
Earth as a complex and dynamic system
- Interaction of the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, biosphere on a variety of
temporal and spatial scales
- Interaction of the Earth with the solar system/space environment
- Plate tectonics and related internal geological and geophysical processes
- Geological and geophysical processes at or near the surface
- Material and energy cycles
- Global change
Earth resources
- Water, energy, minerals
- Distribution
- Extraction / exploitation / development
- Sustainability
Geoscience and society
- Natural hazards
- Human effect on the Earth
- Environmental responsibility
Updated: April 15, 2010
Compiled by the Geoscience Undergraduate & Curriculum Committee (GUCC); M. Spila, Chair
Based on resources found at:
www.earthscienceliteracy.org
http://serc.carleton.edu