GEY113-Historic Geology

Syllabus and Class Schedule (Spring 2007)

 Instructor: Professor Chunzeng Wang

Office: Room 306, South Hall; Phone: (207) 768-9412

Email address: chunzeng.wang@maine.edu; Official website: http://www.umpi.maine.edu/~wangc

Office hours: 9:00-10:30 AM, Monday through Thursday; or by appointments;

Lecture hours: 5:00-6:15 PM, Tuesdays and Thursdays

Lab hours: Lab Section 002—6:30-8:30 PM, Tuesday and Lab Section 004—3:00-5:00 PM, Thursday

Textbook: Historic Geology, by Wicander and Monroe (5^th edition) (4^th edition also acceptable)

Lab manual: Lab Manual for Historical Geology, by Kevin McCartney

NOTES:

1.  Attendance: Attendance is strongly required. Past experience shows that students who missed classes had hard time to catch up and in the end could not do well at their exams. Let your professor know if you have to miss a class please.

2.  Class Presentations: Each student will select, prepare and present a topic to the class. You may select any topic from the topics covered from March 6^th (the 8^th week) through May 1^st in the class schedule (see below) as long as your selection does not repeat others. You have to let me know which one you select before the first lecture exam. Your presentation is supposed to last minimum 30 minutes in the class time, and to be a Powerpoint presentation.  Your presentation will earn you maximum 10 points toward your total GEY113 grade (the maximum of the total is 100)! So you should be serious in preparing your presentation.

3.  Exams and Grading: Three lecture exams are scheduled with each account for 20% toward your total GEY113 grade. Your presentation will earn you 10% of the total GEY113 grade. Your lab grade is worth 30% of your total GEY113 grade. Please note that your total GEY113 grade will not be assigned on a curve. There is not a predetermined number of As, Bs, or Cs.

4.   Finally, keep in mind that there will be no any “extra-credits” assignments (because you already have so much work/assignment to do).

CLASS SCHEDULE:

The lectures are divided, by February and Spring breaks, into three sections. Section 1 focuses on basic concepts of historic geology and methods of how geologists figure out geological history of the earth. Sections 2 and 3 will aim at the geological and life history of the earth, from its beginning to present. Section 2 will cover the period of the earth history from the Precambrian till the end of the Paleozoic Era, while section 3 the period from Mesozoic to the Cenozoic (till present).

Two lectures of plate tectonics theory will be given before getting into the history of the earth because the earth is a dynamic system and plate tectonics is a unifying theory of geology to explain why the earth is dynamic. Understanding plate tectonics will help a lot in learning the history of the earth.

See the class schedule/calendar below. (Note: Bracketed are page numbers for each chapter for the 5^th edition)