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Lecture Tutorials

Lecture Tutorials are short, interactive worksheets used during lecture. They are designed to combat the problem of students leaving typical lecture-based introductory geoscience courses with their misconceptions still intact. After a brief lecture on a topic, Lecture Tutorials are completed by students in small groups, adding an interactive component to the class and challenging students to think about their misconceptions. They have been successfully developed and used in physics and astronomy, and Jessica Jager Smay (San Jose City College) and I are currently developing them for the geosciences and for planetary/solar system astronomy.

Below are Lecture Tutorials which we have developed and tested.  Click on the title to view a pdf of the Lecture Tutorial.  Please let me know if you use Lecture Tutorials in your class.  We would love your comments and feedback so we can improve Lecture Tutorials in the future.  We also have additional geoscience Lecture Tutorials developed that are not listed here, so please email me if you would like me to send you the complete booklet.  We are currently in discussion with a publisher to publish the geoscience Lecture Tutorials into a workbook, so instructors can more easily implement them in their classes.

Geoscience

1. Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide -- Students analyze graphs showing past carbon dioxide levels and temperatures in order to predict their direct effect on human survival. Students learn that the effect of climate change is not going to be a heat wave or difficulty breathing due to excess carbon dioxide.

2. Rock Cycle -- Students learn how the three different rock groups change into each other and construct their own diagram of the rock cycle. This Lecture Tutorial helps students understand that there is no particular order to the rock cycle and any type of rock can become any type of rock.

3. Igneous Rocks and Mineral Sizes -- This Lecture Tutorial teaches students the cause of different mineral sizes in igneous rocks and how to determine the history of these igneous rocks. Students realize that magma that cools slowly results in fewer minerals that are larger in size, instead of smaller, more numerous minerals.

4. From Sediments to Sedimentary Rocks -- Students are often confused about how sediments become sedimentary rocks and the difference between sediments and sedimentary rocks, and this worksheet tackles that difficulty.

5. Seafloor Ages -- Students will learn about divergent boundaries and the history of the Atlantic Ocean as they think through diagrams and maps of seafloor ages. Students understand the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is where the youngest rocks are – that is where they are forming, even though they are far from the shore.

6. The Outer Core -- Using P- and S-waves, students investigate the interior structure of the Earth. This Lecture Tutorial helps to highlight the thin crust and how scientists use data collected from earthquakes to learn more about Earth’s interior.

7. Magma Source Depth -- Students think about the formation of magma within the Earth, and they compare that depth to the layers within the Earth. Specifically this Lecture Tutorial clarifies the difference between the molten outer core and the source of magma for volcanoes.

8. Volcanoes on Another Planet -- Students examine patterns of volcanoes and think about what could have caused those volcanoes to form. The lack of effect of climate on volcano formation is addressed.

9. Flood Frequency Curve -- In this Lecture Tutorial, students construct a flood frequency curve and use it to determine the likelihood of floods in a single year. It helps students understand what a recurrence interval means, and the chance of a flood does not change from year to year.

10. Metamorphic Rocks -- This Lecture Tutorial works through the changes in rocks when they are metamorphosed through different metamorphic grades. Often students do not realize how minerals in rocks change as they are metamorphosed.

11. Locations of Earthquakes -- This Lecture Tutorial steps students through thinking about the locations of earthquakes around the world and the plate tectonic reasons for the pattern. Students do not think about the reason why faults are where they are, and that it is not related to external conditions.

12. Earthquake Intensity and Magnitude -- This Lecture Tutorial clarifies the difference between the magnitude and intensity of earthquakes.

13. Tsunami -- Students learn about the formation of tsunami at convergent plate boundaries in this Lecture Tutorial and understand why they only occur at convergent boundaries, rather than during any underwater earthquake.

Planetary/Solar System Astronomy

1. Booklet of all 17 Lecture Tutorials (2776KB) -- Warning: This file is large!