UIC - EaES 101

EaES 101
Exploring the Earth's Surface

Teaching assistants: Scott Bick, Andrew Burkemper, Brittan Hlista, Alexs Thompson, Petia Tontcheva

Welcome to the EaES 101 homepage! This website provides the syllabus of EaES 101. The main purpose of this course is to provide you with a general understanding of how the Earth "works", and, in particular, how processes at the Earth's surface may interfere with, and respond to, human actions. This course is relatively labor-intensive, and you should be prepared to spend a substantial amount of time on it. It includes lectures, labs, discussion groups, and a one-day field trip. A general understanding of basic math, physics, and chemistry is expected.

Literature

This course uses the following textbook, available at the UIC Bookstore:

Marshak, S., 2001. Earth. Portrait of a Planet. W.W. Norton, New York, 735 pp. ISBN 0-393-97423-5.

The same textbook is currently used in EaES 102 (Exploring the Earth's Interior). For EaES 101, we will cover the following parts of the book: Prelude, Interludes A-B and D-E, and Chapters 4, 7, 12, 16-23.

Lectures

The course consists of the sections listed below. Note that the length of each section varies and that sections do not necessarily correspond to weeks. Also indicated are the corresponding parts from the textbook.

Introduction (Prelude)
Earth materials (Interludes A and B)
Plate tectonics (Chapter 4)
Sediments and sedimentary rocks (Sections 7.1 and 7.4-7.10)
Life, evolution, and geologic time (Interlude D and Chapter 12)
Landscape and the hydrologic cycle (Interlude E)
Groundwater (Chapter 19)
Weathering and soils (Sections 7.2 and 7.3)
Hillslopes (Chapter 16)
Rivers (Chapter 17)
Coasts (Sections 18.1 and 18.5-18.9)
Deserts (Chapter 21)
Glaciers and ice sheets (Chapter 22)
Atmosphere and climate (Chapter 20)
Oceans (Sections 18.2-18.4)
The Earth system and global change (Chapter 23)

Labs

Labs take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in room 1099 SEL and will begin during the third week of the semester, according to the schedule below. The labs are an essential component of this course and be aware that it is NOT possible to earn a passing grade in this course without passing the labs!!! As a guidelline, be sure you maintain a lab grade higher than 60%. At the end of the semester, the lowest lab score will be discarded in the lab grade calculation. Lab exercises must be turned in during the next lab meeting (that is, within one week after the date of the lab) - this is a very firm deadline! A penalty will be assessed for late hand-ins. Be sure to read the lab exercise before coming to the lab and note that some labs require work to be done prior to the lab session. Pay thorough attention to the feedback you receive from your TA with respect to the labs - it will help you to prepare more efficiently for the lab exam, as well as for the other exams.

The lab manual for EaES 101 is available at the UIC Bookstore. You will also need a scientific calculator, or better yet, use a spreadsheet.

Week 3 (Lab 1): Earth materials and the geologic cycle
Week 4 (Lab 8): Sediments and sedimentary processes
Week 5 (Lab 11): The preservation and habitat of fossil organisms
Week 6 (Lab 2): Topographic maps
Week 7 (Lab 13): Chicago area field trip (October 9)
Week 8 (Lab 6): Groundwater
Week 9 (Lab 3): Stream experiments
Week 10 (Lab 4): Streams and stream development
Week 11 (Lab 7): Wavetank experiments
Week 12 (Lab 5): Glaciers and glacial landforms
Week 13 (Lab 14): The Earth's heat budget
Week 14: Thanksgiving week - no lab
Week 15: Lab exam

Discussion meetings

Discussion meetings also take place in room 1099 SEL (Thursdays) and will begin during the second week of the semester. The purpose of these meetings is to help clarify the materials from the lectures, readings, and labs. Note that we will not have a separate review section at the end of the semester; your best opportunity to review the material is during these weekly discussions. Also note that you will receive a grade for your participation during these meetings.

Field trip

A Chicago area field trip will be held on Saturday, October 9. This field trip is strongly recommended but not required. By participating in the field trip and turning in the related lab section you can earn bonus points towards your lab grade.

The trip will leave from the north side of SES (845 West Taylor Street) at 8:00 AM sharp, and should return prior to 6:00 PM. No private automobiles will be permitted. The trip will be made regardless of weather, so dress appropriately! Expect mud, water, and brush, and bring your own lunch.

Holidays

There will be no class meetings on Monday, September 6 (Labor Day), and Thursday-Friday, November 25-26 (Thanksgiving).

Grading

Grades are calculated as follows:

Written exams: 50% (Midterm exams 1 and 2: 10% each; Final exam: 30%)
Labs: 45% (Weekly labs: 35%; Lab exam: 10%)
Discussion participation: 5%

Midterm exams

There will be two midterm exams during the semester:

Friday, September 24, 10:00-10:50 AM, F3 LC (first half alphabet: Aguilar - Khajehhosseini) and F4 LC (second half alphabet: Khamoo - Zubor). Materials to be studied: Lecture notes of the first five sections ("Introduction" through "Life, evolution, and geologic time") plus Prelude, Interludes A, B, and D, Chapters 4 and 12, and Sections 7.1 and 7.4-7.10. The key of the first midterm exam is provided here. Note that in addition to question 20, questions 14 and 23 have also been discarded; thus, the percentage scores are calculated out of a total of 37. The average score was 23.5 correctly answered questions.

Friday, October 29, 10:00-10:50 AM, F3 LC (first half alphabet: Aguilar - Khajehhosseini) and F4 LC (second half alphabet: Khamoo - Zubor). Materials to be studied: Lecture notes of the next six sections ("Landscape and the hydrologic cycle" through "Coasts") plus Interlude E, Chapters 16, 17 and 19, and Sections 7.2-7.3, 18.1 and 18.5-18.9. The key of the second midterm exam is provided here. The average score was 23.8 correctly answered questions.

Make sure you start preparing in time for the exams. The midterm exams consist of 40 multiple choice questions (mostly with four alternatives, but occasionally two or three). You can expect questions that cover anything from the corresponding chapters in the textbook, including aspects that have not been discussed in class. However, the main focus will be on materials discussed during the lectures. These tests are designed in such a way that anyone who has seriously studied the materials should be able to obtain a satisfactory grade. This means that the majority of the questions focus on replicating knowledge, such as the definition of terms, and the understanding of major concepts as explained in the book and lectures. To give you an impression of the level of detail of questioning, we do expect you to know what a triple junction is, but we do not expect you to know the half-life of potassium-40. A limited number of questions (about five) concern the application of your knowledge to a new situation, i.e., something that has not been explicitly discussed in the book or lectures. Finally, exams are always closed book! An example test is provided here.

For the exams, make sure to bring a nr. 2 pencil and an eraser, and be aware that we do not allow any use of cellphones or headphones. Also keep in mind that if you can't make it to an exam, we only allow for any kind of alternative solution under exceptionally well-motivated conditions (i.e., emergencies).

Good luck!

Final exam

Wednesday, December 8, 8:00-10:00 AM, F3 LC (first half alphabet: Aguilar - Khajehhosseini) and F4 LC (second half alphabet: Khamoo - Zubor). Materials to be studied: All lecture notes plus Prelude, Interludes A-B and D-E, Chapters 4, 7, 12, 16-23.The key of the final exam is provided here. The average score was 34 correctly answered questions.

The final exam will consist of 60 multiple choice questions, similar in style and level to the midterm exams. About 35 of these questions will cover the last five sections of the materials that have not yet been covered by midterm exams.

Additional help with preparation for exams

For those who seek additional means to prepare themselves for exams, we offer the following options:

1. The Study Guide that comes with Marshak's textbook is now available in the UIC Bookstore. It provides extremely helpful guidelines to help you absorb the class materials in an effective way.

2. The Science Learning Center will offer tutoring in one or more peer-led study groups, specifically aimed at this course. On Fridays from 2:00-4:00 PM, Petia Tontcheva will lead such a group in the Pasteur section.

EaES 101 "Bill of Rights"

What we promise to do for you:
1. Treat you with the same courtesy and respect that you treat us.
2. Provide the best learning experience we possibly can.
3. Answer all your questions to the best of our ability.
4. Start and end lectures on time, and make sure that the last 5 minutes are just as important as the first 5 minutes.
5. Hand lab assignments back in 1 week, and exams in 3-4 days.
6. Deal with any problems you may have in a timely manner, if they are brought to our attention in a timely manner.

What we expect in return:
1. Attend all lectures, labs, and discussion sections in their entirety. You must attend the lab or discussion group for which you are registered!
2. Do not talk to your neighbors during the lecture or carry out any distracting behavior that prevents others from listening to the lecture. This applies to the last 5 minutes as well.
3. Ask a question when you have one. You will never be made to feel dumb for doing so. If you didn't understand something, most likely others didn't as well. You'll be the smart one for asking the question.
4. Turn all assignments in when due.
5. Discuss your reasons for missing any labs or exams in advance or within 24 hours afterwards. As a general rule, the only valid excuses for being absent are medical, and a signed doctor's note will be required. Remember that we cannot offer "makeup" labs.
6. Make sure we can reach you at your UIC E-mail address; if you use another E-mail address it is your responsibility to make sure that E-mail announcements are forwarded to that address.

Animations and related materials

Mineral Growth
Shale to Schist
Granite to Gneiss
Plate Boundaries
Rifting
Cross Stratification
Stratigraphic Analysis
Unconformities
Geologic History
Himalayas
Debris Flow
River Meandering
Modern Flood
Historic Flood
Wave
Glacier
Atmospheric Circulation
Milankovitch Cycles
Wetland Loss
Manipulating Climate Science

Graphics

The following PowerPoint-files provide all the graphics (slides, diagrams) that was presented in class but is not part of the textbook:

Sections 1-5
Sections 6-11
Sections 12-16