GEOSC 203     Physical Processes in Geology             Fall Term, 2008

Web site:	http://www.geosc.psu.edu/Courses/Geosc203/ Lecture notes and course information will be posted here regularly.
Class Meetings	TR 2:30-3:45, Room 341 Deike.  Classes will be structured around an interactive teaching approach.  Student participation (questions, comments, discussion) is essential for this method to be successful.
Lab Meetings	Section 01: W 2:30-5:30 Room 025 Deike, Section 02: F 12:20-3:20 Room 004 Deike
Field trips	Required field trip on Sunday 9/17. We may have one additional weekend field trip. Other field trips will take place during regular lab time. Please dress appropriately.
Instructors	Profs.  David Bice and Sridhar Anadakrishnan Anandakrishnan: 442 Deike, sak@geosc.psu.edu Office Hours: by appt. Bice: 540 Deike, dbice@geosc.psu.edu Office Hours:  by appt.
TA	Jon Samuelson is a graduate student in geophysics.  He can be reached at 312 Deike, jsamuels@geosc.psu.edu
Text	Required: Geodynamics 2^nd ed., Turcotte and Schubert Available at the bookstore or at amazon, powells, etc..
Problem Sets will be assigned on the course web site	Computational exercises will be assigned almost every week.  The main intent is of these to develop problem-solving skills that will help solidify your understanding of important equations and processes as well as prepare you to do well on the exams.  Some collaboration among students can be useful in facilitating this goal.  We consider the following approach appropriate.  First, spend a reasonable amount of time on your own attempting the exercise.  Then, feel free to discuss approaches with fellow students or come to us with questions.  Finally, work out the solutions individually.  Do not copy verbatim from fellow students, web pages, or any other source. Cite references when appropriate.
MATLAB	Some of the problems sets and lab exercises will involve using MATLAB to solve problems and display data. MATLAB is a kind of programming language that is widely used in the sciences and engineering; it is relatively easy to use we will help you learn some basics of working with this program. MATLAB is on all the computers in the 3^rd floor computer lab.
Laboratories	Laboratory exercises will be assigned most weeks. These will be due the following week.  Please follow the guidelines above concerning working together and discussions with fellow students.  Do not copy verbatim from fellow students or any other source. Cite references when appropriate.
Exams	Three exams (two in class and a take-home, open-book final). Exam grade (see below) is based on top two scores. The final will emphasize material from the last third of the course material, but it will include material from the whole course. Crib notes: one-page set of notes can be used during the 2 in-class exams (one side of an 8.5x11 page).
Reading, Writing, & Discussion	Topical readings will be assigned every 3-4 weeks on a Thursday. We will read short summaries of current research written for a general scientific audience. These will serve as a springboard for further literature review, an in-class discussion and as a writing exercise.  A short synopsis of the article will be due at the beginning of class on the following Tuesday . You will exchange papers with classmates and each student will review a classmateÕs paper, providing careful, helpful criticism that will form the basis for a 2^nd draft, which we be turned in to the instructors. Based on the grade for your 2^nd draft, you may elect to submit a final draft to the instructors; the grade we will count is the higher score from the 2^nd and 3^rd drafts. Your papers will be ~2 pages, typed, double spaced, and neatly presented with a title, and reference to the article.  We expect you to dig into the literature a bit more to enhance your understanding of the topic, but your summaries must be your writing — do not plagiarize and take care to cite references properly.
Grading	Laboratory exercises (30%), problem sets (15%), weekly writing assignments and classroom participation (15%), exams (40%).
Course Goals	This course is about the physics of geological processes. We will use physics and mathematics to solve problems from many areas of the geosciences.  The intention is to focus on a braod range of fundamental questions -- we won't delve too far into any one topic.  A primary goal is to provide exposure to topics in geophysics and to get across the idea that, with a little bit of effort, we can set up a quantitative framework to describe and predict Earth processes. Related goals are the development of skills in quantitative problem solving, the use of basic calculus and differential equations, some elementary computing, and an understanding of the role of modeling in understanding complex natural problems. Another important goal is developing your abilities to read and write about scientific literature.
Academic Integrity	As usual, we require that all students abide by the rules and standards of academic integrity, which largely boil down to being honest and considerate of others, but for the full statement, follow this link: http://www.ems.psu.edu/students/integrity/statement.html