Questions
1. Describe the difference between relative and chronometric dating. Give an example of each.
2. Describe uniformitarianism and the principle of superposition. How might this be used in determining geologic time?
3. Search Google for a scientific article that discusses a past mass extinction event. How was this determined? When was the event (approximately)? What was the event that lead to the extinction? How much life died? Does the event/period have a name? Describe it. Remember to provide a reference list at the bottom of your discussion post.
4. What are the pros/cons of at least two renewable energy resources?
5. Describe how oil forms as well as how we find and extract it. You should mention the typical geologic setting of where one would expect to find deposits.
6. Search Google for an article about mining minerals (anywhere in the world). Are there human impacts? Health problems? Environmental damage? What is being mined? How is it mined (people/machine)? Describe the who, what, where, when, why (what it’s being used for)…. cite your sources.
FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL DISCUSSIONS – DISCUSSION INSTRUCTIONS: A significant portion of your course grade comes from discussions. Put effort into your discussions and response posts. In order to receive full credit, students must utilize professional grammar, spelling, capitalization (“i” is always “I”), be on topic with meaningful academic posts. Answers should be at least 4 complete sentences, on topic, scientific, and adequate. Be thorough with your discussions. Be academic with your work as if you’re in a science classroom discussing science with other student scientists. Use keywords/terms from that week’s reading within your discussion (this is what we mean by being academic). Use a word processor to check your work (save your work locally to your computer as a backup). Ensure that your post properly submits/is visible after submitting/posting. No fluff/filling material is permitted (put effort into your discussion posts). All work must be in your own words. No cut/pasting/copying or quoting (no quotes) is permitted, regardless of source. Take this seriously! Copying is cheating and the consequences could be severe. Discussions are a chance for a student to demonstrate knowledge of the subject matter and interact with other students in your own words – not quote or copy something else. Finally, a response to at least one other student’s post with something meaningful is required. Simply replying to a student’s post with “I agree” or “great post” is not sufficient. Have something to add to the discussion, why you agree/disagree, back it up with a science source, for example. Failure to comply with this will result in zero score.
Students should use reputable sources for their references, such as scientific journal articles, science textbooks, articles written by scientists, or other expert publications. You may use media articles as well (although these are not as good as official scientist publications). Provide a link to your reference and a reference list at the bottom of your initial discussion post. References should be in APA format. If you need help with APA format see the easy 2 minute help guide for APA citation guidelines at http://www.easybib.com/reference/guide/apa/website (Links to an external site.) or https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ (Links to an external site.)
