Geos 195d A Sense of Place Spring 2005
Guidlines for Grading and Notebooks

Guidelines on Grading:

1. Geos 195d is available either for letter grade or pass/fail.
2. You must attend at least three field trips for a passing grade.
3. Letter grades are based on your active participation and the quality of your field notebook.

Guidelines on Field Notebooks

1. Consider leaving adjacent pages blank so you can add additional information later. Take field notes and sketches only on one side of the page and use blank side for adding notes, interpretations, photos, and/or a summary of the field trip stops.
2. Provide yourself plenty of room to sketch and add labels.
3. Be sure to label all sketches, illustrations, and samples.
4. Sketches can be very simple. For example, draw simple layers to represent the rocks in the side of A Mountain.
5. Labels on sketches or diagrams are important; label as many features in your sketch as reasonable without too much clutter. Use numbers or lettering and arrows when describing features in your diagrams. Also, be sure to include a scale (i.e. How big of an area does your sketch illustrate?) and something to orient the image (i.e. A north arrow).
6. A suggested organization for activities and records in your notebook:
   1. For each field trip stop:
   1. Title the field trip stop.
   2. Indicate location (maybe time of day, weather conditions, etc.).
   3. Record your personal observations using written descriptions and/or sketches.
      Notes/sketches of rocks, plants, wildlife, human structures, etc.
   4. Look for patterns in the landscape:
      Orientations of rock layers, clusters or associations of plants, erosion features, etc.
   5. Analysis of observations.
      What do you guess might control patterns you observe in the landscape?
      Focus on observations and simple analysis of observations rather than jumping to grand interpretations.
   6. Discuss observations with fellow students and trip leaders.
   7. Record questions to ask when you have an opportunity or research the answers after the trip.
   2. At the end of each field trip:
      
      1. Synthesize your observations, discussions, and questions during the day.
      2. Think about the common threads and logical connections between the field trip stops.
      3. Summarize the field trip into one or two pages.
         Distinguish between observations and interpretations of those observations.
         Comment on what parts of the field trip stand out. What observations seemed confusing at first but make sense when you reflect on the whole trip and gain from the discussions?
      4. Incorporate additional notes and information photos, etc. into your notebook on adjacent blank pages.

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Last update: January 4, 2005