General Oceanography - Geology 105
Final Exam Instructions
See Greensheet for Date and Time of Final Exam
Throughout the class, you have participated in several critical steps in the scientific method
and have joined a number of virtual scientific expeditions. The purpose of the final exam is
to engage students in the process of the scientific thinking as practiced by contemporary
ocean scientists.
As defined by Undergraduate Studies at SJSU Area R courses “will help students become
integrated thinkers who can see connections between and among a variety of concepts and
ideas. An educated person will be able to apply concepts and foundations learned in one area
to other areas as part of a lifelong learning process. These courses will help students to live
and work intelligently, responsibly, and cooperatively in a multicultural society and to
develop abilities to address complex issues and problems using disciplined analytic skills and
creative techniques.”
In particular, this exam is designed to meet the goals stated above by addressing the
three required learning outcomes in the SJSU Studies Earth & Environment (Area R)
category. Students should be able to (1) demonstrate an understanding the methods and
limits of scientific investigation; (2) distinguish between science and pseudoscience and (3)
apply a scientific approach to answer questions about the earth and environment.
I. Final Exam Scenario – Read Closely
The Don Reed Trust for Ocean Science is giving out a total of $10 million in awards to
support scientific research of the ocean and coastlines. The average level of funding per
award is usually between $150,000 and $1,500,000, spread over three years. All
investigators, that means you, proposing to conduct studies must be the lead scientists on
the project and be fully responsible for supervising the effort. You are the scientist in the
project!
On the final examination students will be asked to combine: (1) the scientific knowledge
gained from this class, (2) their personal imagination, critical thinking skills, and insight
about the methods of ocean science, (3) ability to communicate in a well-organized
discussion (clarity of thought), (4) a respect for accurate scientific data, and (5) a sharp
focus on developing a means of answering a very specific scientific question or hypothesis
pertaining to a research project of their own design.
II. Final Exam Format
The final exam will consist of two essay questions, each with specific word limits, both
minimum and maximum. Student will spend between 1.5 and 2.5 hours completing the final.
Working less than 1.5 hours will likely produce answers that lack the depth of knowledge and
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detailed analysis that are required to fully and clearly address the questions. The exam will
end at 2.5 hours.
The questions will be broad and open-ended, so students will have some flexibility in the
subject matter from the class that they address, however, the answers need to be as
precise and detailed as possible. Students will be required to focus their discussion and not
provide a rambling discourse on general ideas or misconceptions.
In preparing for exam, students should review the topics in the class that they believe are
the most interesting and about which many questions remain to be addressed by
oceanographers. Students should also focus on topics that they understand the best.
The exam is about using critical thinking skills to discuss thought-provoking ideas that can
be addressed by ocean science.
III. A Plan for a Scientific Study of the Ocean
The final will be about applying a scientific approach to a question on the ocean, which is the
third required learning outcome of all Area R classes at SJSU.
After formulating a hypothesis or research question, scientists need to develop a detailed
plan of action or study plan, which often includes:
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who will be involved in study,
where the data will be collected (specific locations – stations);
when will the study take place,
what type of data will be collected and why,
how the data will be collected,
how often data will be collected, and
how one type of acquired data relates to another type of acquired data
in addressing the specific scientific question or hypothesis.
The scheme for data collection is directed towards providing potential information on the
main scientific objectives of the proposed study, and be logical, well conceived, and
justifiable.
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IV. Devising a Study Plan - Some of the questions you need to answer
1. What is needed to conduct your study?
"What do we need to know?"
a. What type of data will you need to address your question or hypothesis?
b. What resources are required to acquire these data? (Don’t worry about
specifics)
c. Where will you conduct study?
d. How will you organize your experiment or study?
e. Will you require a control group?
f. How long will it take to collect and analyze data?
V. Recap and Summary
You will be asked two essay questions on the final about your question or hypothesis
that you will provide in the required discussion associated with expedition 22.
As I have mentioned in the video clips, on the exam you will be a professional
oceanographer proposing to lead a scientific study that will contribute to our
understanding about this question or hypothesis. Therefore, you will need to
address the “What, Who, How, When, and Why” of your hypothesis/question and
the scientific approach you will present to address your hypothesis/question.
These will be broad questions, but will require detailed answers to illustrate the
depth of your knowledge on your chosen subject as well as your ability to apply a
scientific approach to answer questions about the Earth and environment, which is
the third required learning outcome in this class. You must also keep your answers
realistic in order to demonstrate an understanding of the methods and limits of
scientific investigation, another required learning outcome in this class.
Students will likely need the full 2 hours and 15 minutes to Complete by the exam
as the exam may require as much as 900 words of writing in all. Students will be
given specific word length expectations, both minimum and maximum, on each
question. Answers that are too brief or lack a precise approach or clear focus will
receive point deductions.
The final exam is only a small part of the 1000 points in the class, so it has only a
small effect on your overall grade, unless you are on a borderline between letter
grades or put in either a truly stellar or very poor performance.
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A small percentage of the exam score, approximately 20 points, will be assigned to
writing quality as required of all Area R classes. Obviously, I need to be somewhat
flexible on this aspect of grading Complete by to the time constraints of an exam
format, but I do need to understand your answer in order to assess your ability to
communicate in writing. The remainder of grade, about 80 points, will be assessed
on your ability to describe various aspects of the way you propose to address your
selected question or hypothesis through a scientific study, in the context of the
required learning outcomes in this course.
You can use any sources of information that you wish to either prepare for exam or
address the questions on exam, including outside websites, however, you may not
plagiarize from the works of others, including websites, or use materials provided
by students in previous sections of this class. Of course, you cannot copy and paste
text from outside web sites into your answer as this is clearly plagiarism -- I want
to review your writing, not that of another website.
Essay answers in final will be automatically submitted to www.turnitin.com through
Desire2Learn for an originality check.
All scientific studies build upon the work of previous studies, so you may need to
present the ideas of other scientists, however, you do not need to cite references
in exam as there is simply not enough time. Let me repeat (and I apologize for the
repetition), you cannot copy material directly from other sources and paste text
into exam without substantially rewriting it in your own words - your answer should
reflect your words, not those of the others.
If you have any questions, please keep in touch.
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