Academic expectations of students on the Arizona field trip 

Description

Date due

Marks

Oral presentation

April 26th

10

Pre-trip research paper

April 29th

15

Field presentation

varies

10

Journal

May 18th

35

Final essay

May 25th

30

total  

100

a) Oral presentation

You should read as much as you can about your topic and then be prepared make a 10-minute oral presentation on April 26th.  Your presentation should include a location map, a geological map of the relevant area(s) and a stratigraphic column showing how the rocks fit into the sequence of Arizona’s geology.  You should then describe the events that led to the formation of the feature, and how it is significant to our field trip. (10 marks)

 

b) Pre-trip research paper 

As in your oral presentation, you should summarize the location, geology and stratigraphy of your topic area, describing the events that led to the formation of the relevant feature, and how it is significant to our field trip.  Your paper should be no more than 4 pages long, and presented in a format that will be easy for us to copy to hand out to other students (eg. photos typically don’t copy well, so if you want to include photos, please give us a digital version.)  Your paper must include references to the information that you used in your research in a form that will allow other students to access the resources.  The paper must be handed in by April 29th.  (15 marks)

 

c) Field presentation

When we get to your site on the trip be prepared to give us a 10 minute overview of what we are looking at, and why it is important.  Your presentation doesn’t have to be right at the start of the visit, and it doesn’t have to be all at once.  For example, if we are hiking, you may want to point out things along the way.  One of us will be more than happy to help you identify what is important. (10 marks)

 

d) Journal

Keeping a journal of field notes is one of the most important activities of a field geologist.  Just the act of translating what you see into something on paper will help you to understand the significance.  Furthermore, your memory is never as good as you think its going to be, so you have to write down some important things that will help you to remember what you saw, the important spatial relationships between rock types, what you did and what it all meant.  For each stop you need to record at least the following:

  • date and time of visit
  • descriptive location (eg. “road cut 33 miles N of Flagstaff on Highway 21”)
  • the reason for visiting this site
  • the type of rocks (plus name, age etc.)
  • what you saw and what it means (including its significance to the geology of North America)

You should also draw some sketches (in addition to taking pictures if you want) so that you can understand relationships   Due date:  May 18th. (35 marks)

 

e) Final essay

In your final essay we would like you to review some aspects of the geology of North America with specific reference to what we saw on the trip. For example, you may want to describe how the very old crystalline rocks of Arizona fit into the North American geological context, or what the Mesozoic or Paleozoic sedimentary rocks tell us about depositional environments and tectonics in other parts of the continent.  Your essay should make specific reference to features that we observed, so you should make frequent use of your journal notes and photos while you are writing.  Photos taken during the trip will be made available on the website.

Your paper should be no more than 6 pages long, and your resources must be properly referenced.   Due date:  May 25th.  (30 marks)