GEOS 218 – Geological Disasters and Society, Spring 2009

 

Syllabus

 

Class Meetings: T & Th 12:30 – 1:45 PM, ILC 140

 

Instructor: Professor Peter Reiners

Office hours: GS 521, Tuesday 2:00 pm -3:00 pm or by appointment

Phone and email: 626-2236; reiners at u dot arizona dot edu

 

Teaching Assistants:

Willy Guenthner (wrg at u dot arizona dot edu) – Office hours Mon and Wed 10 -11:30 am, GS 517.

Goran Buble (gbuble at u dot arizona dot edu) – Office hours Mon 2-3 pm; Th 2:30 -3:30, GS 546.

 

Course Description:  Catastrophic and hazardous earth processes (earthquakes, volcanism, landslides, floods, hurricanes, meteorite impacts, climate change) are important in shaping the Earth and civilization. This course will acquaint students with the scientific principles governing these processes and consider their impact on society.

Units: 3

Prerequisite(s): two courses from Tier One, Natural Sciences (NATS 101, 102, 104).

Approved as:  General Education Tier Two: Natural Sciences

 

Required text: Patrick L. Abbott, Natural Disasters, 7^th ed., McGraw-Hill.

Website: http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geo2xx/geo218/

 

Grading (approximately):

1.      Exams (3, each 100 pts) = 300 pts

2.      Homework (5, each 30 pts) = 150 pts

3.      Quizzes and in-class assignments (3/5 count, each 10 pts) = 30 pts

Course grade based on percentage of total points: A = >90%; B = 80-90%; C = 70-80%; D = 60-70%; E = <60%

 

Exams: Study guides and review sessions will be provided within a few days of each of the exams. Exams will be about half short-answer and half multiple choice questions.

 

Picking up Assignments: Graded homeworks, exams, quizzes, etc., will be available in a cabinet in the foyer on the 2nd (ground) floor of Gould-Simpson, close to the Geosciences Main Office, where they will be sorted alphabetically. These may provide a valuable resource for your studying. Make sure you check this cabinet within one week of the in-class announcement that the assignments have been graded. Otherwise, because of the large number of students and assignments and the small number of TAs and instructors, we cannot respond to questions about the grading or any claims that your assignment was not recorded.

 

Attendance and missed work: Come to class. If you need to miss class let me or one of the TAs know beforehand. If you don’t and you miss a quiz or in-class assignment it will not be possible to make it up except under EXTRAORDINARY circumstances. Do not assume that instructors and TAs will be accomodating to makeup assignments, etc.

 

UA Policies:

Absence policies; in addition to the instructor’s own absence policies, the following kinds of excused absences are permitted: 1) All holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for those students who show affiliation with that particular religion, 2) Absences pre-approved by the UA Dean of Students (or Dean's designee) will be honored.

Policies regarding expected classroom behavior (e.g., use of pagers/cell phones); and policies against plagiarism, etc., within Student Code of Academic Integrity will be followed and are available at: http://dos.web.arizona.edu/uapolicies/.

Policies against threatening behavior by students: http://policy.web.arizona.edu/~policy/threaten.shtml.

Students with Disabilities: If you anticipate issues related to the format or requirements of this course, please meet with me. I would like us to discuss ways to ensure your full participation in the course. If you determine that formal, disability-related accommodations are necessary, it is very important that you be registered with Disability Resources (621-3268; drc.arizona.edu) and notify me of your eligibility for reasonable accommodations. I can then plan how best to coordinate your accommodations. More info: http://drc.arizona.edu/learn/index.html

Information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policies, may be subject to change with reasonable advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.

 

GEOS 218: Geological Disasters and Society

Tentative Schedule for Spring Semester, 2009

Last modified: 13 Jan 2009 (“^” means changed since 13 Jan 2009)