GEOS 614 Advanced Structural Geology

Meeting times: Mondays & Wednesdays 3:30-4:45 pm: Lapham 268

Dr. Dyanna Czeck (pronounced "Diana Zeck") 354 Lapham; 229-3948

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 12-2, or by appointment.

Email is the best way to ask questions or set up an appointment (dyanna@uwm.edu).

 

 

Course Goals:

1.     The primary purpose of this class is to help you explore Structural Geology at an advanced level including topics of stress, strain, rheology, and deformation processes at the microscopic through regional scales. By the end of the course, you should be able to make appropriate inferences of rheologic model and small-scale deformation processes for naturally deformed rocks based on structural style and microstructure.

2.     The secondary goal of this course is to expand your scientific reading, thinking, and communication skills. Start to think like a scientist rather than a student.

3.     Graduate students will also be expected to learn how to devise viable research projects and learn how to clearly articulate and justify their projects.

 

Required Reading:

• An undergraduate structural geology course is a prerequisite for this class.  Hopefully, you saved your Structure textbook.  If not, you will want to buy or borrow one for the semester.
• Vernon, R. H., 2004. A practical guide to rock microstructure. Cambridge University Press, 594 pp.
• Articles and book chapters on reading list (will be handed out in class).
• Other professional articles dictated by your projects.

 

Assignments:

Assignment	Undergrad	Grad
Paper critique (Best 4 of 5), 20 points each	80	80
Class participation	20	20
3 proposals related to critiques		30
TOTAL POINTS	100	130

 

Graduate vs. Undergraduate Credit:

In order to receive graduate credit, you must complete additional work.  For graduate credit, students will need to devise three research proposals (~2-4 pages each) for future work based on subjects of the paper critiques.  The proposed project may be an offshoot of the evaluated paper, or it may be a new project utilizing similar techniques.  The purpose of the proposals is for graduate students to learn how to develop research projects, which is an advanced skill helping them to think like a scientist rather than a student.

 

 The final course letter grades will be based on the following percentages:

 

93-100% = A	87-89% = B+	77-79% = C+	67-69% = D+	<60% = F
90-92% = A-	83-86% = B	73-76% = C	63-66% = D
	80-82% = B-	70-72% = C-	60-62% = D-

 

Attendance and Assignment Deadlines:

• Attendance to all classes is expected.  The weekend field trips are optional, but strongly encouraged.
• You must complete all required reading prior to the designated class period.
• All projects are due at the beginning of class on the due date.  One letter grade will be deducted for assignments each day that they are late.
• If you have a legitimate reason to miss class (illness, emergency, etc.), please contact me as soon as possible (preferably before you miss class).

 

Expectations:

            The study of structural geology is both challenging and fun.  I hope that your experiences in this class are just that, challenging and fun.  I use alternative teaching strategies as much as possible in the classroom.  Rather than entirely teaching through lecture, I have tried to develop a more interactive course.  I have found that this style of teaching is most conducive to student learning.  We will be challenging ourselves to understand some difficult material.  IT IS NOT EASY TO READ THE BOOK OR PAPERS!  Don't expect to breeze through them quickly, but devote some time and effort to understanding them and thinking beyond what is written on the page.

Through this emphasis in critical thinking, I hope you find our class enjoyable and demanding.  This style of teaching/ learning requires more from YOU, the learner; but it is more rewarding in the long run.  In this class, you will need to be an active participant in the discussions and activities.  For this type of learning, it is ESSENTIAL that read the assigned pages prior to class and come to class prepared to participate.  As with all 600 level courses, you should expect to spend 3-4 hours outside of class for each hour in class.  So for this class, expect to spend 12-16 hours outside of class each week reading, working on the projects and papers, and preparing for the exams.

 

Course Policies

As a student in this course, you are responsible to abide by the Department of Geosciences teaching policies (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Geosciences/academics/policies.html) and all University established policies (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Geosciences/dept_info/honor_code.html).    Academic dishonesty of any type will not be tolerated.  Academic dishonesty, a breach of the standards of academic integrity, includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, and any act designed to give unfair academic advantage to a student.  In this course, the work you hand in for credit must be entirely your own work, except when group work is specifically authorized by the instructor.