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COURSE SYLLABUS
1. TITLE OF COURSE: Physical Geography: Landforms
PREFIX/NUMBER: GEO 111 CREDIT HOURS: 4
2. PREREQUISITE: REA 090 or permission of instructor.
3. RESOURCES NEEDED:
TEXT: TBA
SUPPLIES:
4. COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduces the principles of landforms as a major aspect of our natural environment. Incorporates an integrated process of lecture, discussion, and laboratory assignments.
5. COURSE GOAL:
The student will examine the Earth’s major environmental systems in order to understand the patterns and processes in the world around us. Areas of study include weather systems, climate, vegetation, soils, plate tectonics, landforms, and human/environmental interrelationships.
6. COURSE OBJECTIVES:
I. Understand and calculate the following expressions of scale on a map: verbally stated scale, graphic scale, and representative fraction scale.
II. Locate points on a map using any of the following coordinate systems: geographic grid, U.S. Land Office Grid System, and the U.S. Military Grid System.
III. Describe direction on a map using any of the following systems: nominal system, azimuthal bearing system, and full-circle bearing system.
IV. Recognize and account for the advantages and disadvantages of each of the following types of map projections: azimuthal or zenithal, cylindric, or conical.
V. Recognize and calculate the following - using U.S. G.S. topographic maps: elevation, contour interval, area, slope direction and gradient, local relief, and land use functions.
VI. Use stereoscopes to analyze aerial photographs and infrared imagery to interpret landscapes.
VII. Appreciate the immensity of geologic time as a necessary ingredient to the understanding of geologic processes that are at work below and on the earth`s surface.
VIII. Understand and be able to explain the following relative and absolute dating techniques to determine the age of rock strata; fossil correlation, radiometric dating.
IX. Understand the organization of the geologic timetable.
X. Understand the significance of the Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic Eras and the Pre Cambrian Eon.
XI. Identify and characterize the following layers that constitute the lithosphere: core, mantle, moho, aesthenosphere, simatic crust, and sialic crust.
XII. Explain the energy exchanges that occur between the following lithospheric layers: core, mantle, and crust.
XIII. Understand how the record of geologic time is an accounting of past changes in the earths crust.
XIV. Understand that the rocks of the earths crust are composed of naturally occurring substances called minerals and that minerals are combinations of chemical elements in solid form.
XV. Identify samples of the common rock-forming minerals known as silicates.
XVI. Use the following tests of the physical properties of minerals to identify the silicates: color, hardness, crystal form and cleavage pattern, fracture, streak and luster.
XVII. Know the three major classes of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
XVIII. Identify the common rocks in each of those classes.
XIX. Understand and describe the relationships present in the rock cycle.
XX. Be familiar with the ideas of Alfred Wegener.
XXI. Understand paleomagnetism.
XXII. Understand the work of Harry Hess and the concept of sea-floor spreading.
XXIII. Understand convection theory and plate movement.
XXIV. Understand how plate movement is measured.
XXV. Understand the behavior of the following plate boundaries: diverging plate boundaries, converging plate boundaries and transform plate boundaries.
XXVI. Understand the following factors at work that determine the differentiation of landforms; geologic structure, tectonic activity, gradational process, time.
XXVII. Understand slope as the basic element of landform evolution.
7. COURSE OUTLINE
I. The Tools of Physical Geography: Maps.
II. The Lithosphere: The Age of the Earth.
III. Remote Sensing
IV. The Structure of the Earth
V. The Composition of the Earth
VI. Plate Tectonics: Continental Drift.
VII. Landforms: Differentiation of Landforms.
VIII. Landforms Produced by Intrusive Igneous Activity
IX. Landforms Produced By Extrusive Igneous Activity
X. Landforms Produced By Gravity
XI. Landforms Produced By the Channeled Flow of Water
XII. Landforms Produced By Water Working On Limestone and Dolomite
XIII. Landforms Produced By the Work of Wind
XIV. Landforms Produced By the Action of Waves
XV. Landforms Produced By Glaciers
8. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION:
To be successful in this course, students are expected to participate in discussions, readings, in-class writing, and peer review activities. The instructor may assign point values to such activities.
9. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
The very nature of higher education requires that students adhere to accepted standards of academic integrity. Therefore, Pueblo Community College has adopted a policy of academic conduct as described in the Student Handbook. Violation of academic integrity may be defined to include the following: cheating, plagiarism, falsification and fabrication, abuse of academic materials, complicity in academic dishonesty, and personal misrepresentation. It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the behaviors that constitute academic dishonesty. Sanctions for violating the standards of academic integrity may include warning, probation, suspension, and/or failure of the course or assignment at the discretion of the instructor.
10. ADA NOTICE:
Students who have a documented disability may be eligible to receive accommodations for this class. Please contact the Disability Resources Center at 549-3446 for further information.
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