teaching journal
University of Arizona structural geology preceptorship
Fall 2002: Associate Professor Paul Kapp, Teaching Assistant John Volkmer
Spring 2003: Associate Professor Mihai Ducea, Teaching Assistants Andrew McCarthy and Shundong He
Strained, extended, overturned, metamorphosed. A student
in college experiences extremely high pressure and temperatures under the
collar — and undergoes tremendous changes as a result. The dynamic stresses
acting on him are as powerful as tectonic forces; however, these forces
are at work not on his body, but his mind.
The preceptor is in a unique position to adjust the brittle-ductile transition zone in the minds of fellow undergraduates to maximize plastic, fluid, comfortable mind extension and minimize the painful brittle kind. Still a student but in a position to offer instruction, a preceptor can lead by example and teach in an especially sympathetic way — in a way that can increase the fluid pore pressure in students' minds in order to soothe their growing pains and prevent potentially damaging internal combustion. Usually, the preceptor has just the semester before completed the subject he is teaching and knows what questions the students will ask even before they frame the questions themselves.
Being a preceptor for structural geology for two semesters has been an extremely rewarding experience, both in terms of having increased my understanding of the material taught in the introductory course and having assisted students in their struggle to absorb and apply the complex concepts in the laboratory and the field. The opportunity to be an assistant to instructors Paul Kapp and Mihai Ducea, and graduate teaching assistants John Volkmer, Andrew McCarthy and Shundong He was invaluable, since I was able to learn from their individual approaches to the subject of structure, and compare their unique approaches to dealing with students.
Preceptoring the class was a tremendous opportunity to practice how be an effective teacher — and I believe I was of some help to students learning the material for the first time. Some of my greatest contributions, I believe, were in the field, where I was able to help the teaching assistants aid students in taking the measurements they needed to complete their mapping assignments, while offering students guidance on how to visualize the structures and relate them to the larger regional tectonic context. In the lab, I was able to apply my own memory of being a structure student to passing on clues about how to solve problems that naturally often seem overwhelming to some students at first.
The most fundamental field technique for the structure students to master was how to measure the strike and dip of planes, and plunge and trend of lines. We has several labs in which they practiced identifying and measuring planar features, including sedimentary beds, planes of foliation and fault surfaces. This was a real practical challenge at first for students — to find a proper surface, to find strike accurately according to the right-hand rule, and to learn the tricks to taking measurements in tight spaces. To help students get comfortable with these skills, I made sure in the earliest labs to circulate among every student to make sure they were actually doing the measurements for themselves (I had my first encounters with students who preferred to copy each others’ work) and not learning any mistakes. Also, I made myself available for any student to ask for help any time, and tried to find the balance between giving them verbal suggestions and doing the measurements for them. Some students, I found, were more hesitant than others to ask for help, and so I tried to seek them out. These students, I noticed, often needed help most of all because their sense of independence often outpaced their accuracy; but they also tended to be among the most receptive to suggestions.
The next step in the hierarchy of their field practices was to understand the significance of their field measurements in terms of identifying large-scale structures. In mapping anticlines and synclines and identifying the axial traces of folds we encountered in the field, many students were confused at first by the seemingly overwhelming number of data; I found I was able to help students with this by encouraging them to practice good mapping habits such as drawing strike and dip symbols directly onto their maps, in addition to in their field notebooks, in order to immediately visualize the significance of their measurements. Students were able to benefit from the experiences of John, Andrew, Shundong and myself, since each of us was able to share different techniques or styles of plotting the data. This was a difficult lab for many students at first since it forced them to connect the definitions of structures they learned in class with the measurements and other observations they gathered in the field. But with practice and the opportunity to ask questions, they got the knack.
Perhaps the most fun field lab for students and myself was the chance to synthesize the concepts of brittle and ductile deformation in making observations at Tanque Verde Wash of rocks associated with the Santa Catalina metamorphic core complex. Not only did students observe the orientation of brittle deformation in high-angle normal faults, but also they analyzed the sense of shear indicators in the ductilely deformed footwall mylonites, including S-C fabric. One of my favorite lessons to teach was looking for hackles on slickened fault surfaces; I enjoyed getting down on the ground with students to show them how to run their hands along the hackles in order to identify the direction of fault motion. This simple excercise brought the big picture to the perceptual level for many. Students also needed extensive one-on-one help in determining sense of shear by examining the mylonite's S-C fabric. After trying different methods, I found that drawing with colored pencils on the rocks was the most effective tool in identifying their crenulation cleavage and schistocity and determining maximum stress direction.
In the laboratory, I tried to help students apply abstract structural concepts to dealing with their field observations. One example is providing extensive assistance with was plotting planes, lines and poles to planes using a stereonet, and solving problems such as finding lines of intersection or fold axes. Students often needed a great deal of individual assistance in plotting their measurements in order to discover how they correlate. Other concepts, such as maximum stress direction and the relationship between stress and strain were difficult enough for some students that having me re-explain them in undergraduate language was often helpful. One particular assignment in which students had to calculate the amount of stress necessary to fracture a rock under certain conditions by applying the concept of Coulomb’s failure envelope drew several students to my office hours for extra help.
In Paul's class, the final challenge structure students had to tackle was writing a six-page fault profile paper. They each chose a major fault from anywhere on the globe and had to describe every aspect of it from its geometry and kinematics to its history and impact on regional civilization, following the format of a scientific paper. The task was more difficult for some students than for others, and a few consulted with me for advice. Paul allowed me to give each of the rough drafts their first read, and I edited the papers for content and style. Many students needed major help with basic organization, while others were struggling to find their voice in a scientific paper. It was clear that many students were writing for the first time to a specialized audience and had trouble (as I myself did the previous semester) abandoning the need to define every basic geological concept and focusing on the bigger picture. In a way, this problem was endearing because it was obvious that these authors may have been digesting these concepts for the first time as they composed the paper; this was the first time many had had to put their knowledge in context. Others wrote at a surprisingly sophisticated level, and only needed suggestions on how to improve their consistency in grammar and style. In addition to corrections throughout the text, I composed a long paragraph at the end of each paper to summarize the work's strengths and weaknesses, and offered suggestions on how to improve it.
A new responsibility I undertook under Mihai was updating and maintaining the class Web site. This required making design updates as well as establishing new organization systems for presenting each lecture’s Powerpoint file and homework assignments.
My experience as a structure preceptor was personally challenging, and having completed it I feel more confident in my ability to present ideas, to help students understand difficult material both in the laboratory and in the field, and to approach them even when they don’t ask for help. It was an important step toward developing my personal approach to the art and science of science teaching. I feel certain that my work was helpful to some students, and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn from and develop a relationship with Paul, Mihai, John, Andrew and Shundong in the process.
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The preceptor is in a unique position to adjust the brittle-ductile transition zone in the minds of fellow undergraduates to maximize plastic, fluid, comfortable mind extension and minimize the painful brittle kind. Still a student but in a position to offer instruction, a preceptor can lead by example and teach in an especially sympathetic way — in a way that can increase the fluid pore pressure in students' minds in order to soothe their growing pains and prevent potentially damaging internal combustion. Usually, the preceptor has just the semester before completed the subject he is teaching and knows what questions the students will ask even before they frame the questions themselves.
Being a preceptor for structural geology for two semesters has been an extremely rewarding experience, both in terms of having increased my understanding of the material taught in the introductory course and having assisted students in their struggle to absorb and apply the complex concepts in the laboratory and the field. The opportunity to be an assistant to instructors Paul Kapp and Mihai Ducea, and graduate teaching assistants John Volkmer, Andrew McCarthy and Shundong He was invaluable, since I was able to learn from their individual approaches to the subject of structure, and compare their unique approaches to dealing with students.
Preceptoring the class was a tremendous opportunity to practice how be an effective teacher — and I believe I was of some help to students learning the material for the first time. Some of my greatest contributions, I believe, were in the field, where I was able to help the teaching assistants aid students in taking the measurements they needed to complete their mapping assignments, while offering students guidance on how to visualize the structures and relate them to the larger regional tectonic context. In the lab, I was able to apply my own memory of being a structure student to passing on clues about how to solve problems that naturally often seem overwhelming to some students at first.
The most fundamental field technique for the structure students to master was how to measure the strike and dip of planes, and plunge and trend of lines. We has several labs in which they practiced identifying and measuring planar features, including sedimentary beds, planes of foliation and fault surfaces. This was a real practical challenge at first for students — to find a proper surface, to find strike accurately according to the right-hand rule, and to learn the tricks to taking measurements in tight spaces. To help students get comfortable with these skills, I made sure in the earliest labs to circulate among every student to make sure they were actually doing the measurements for themselves (I had my first encounters with students who preferred to copy each others’ work) and not learning any mistakes. Also, I made myself available for any student to ask for help any time, and tried to find the balance between giving them verbal suggestions and doing the measurements for them. Some students, I found, were more hesitant than others to ask for help, and so I tried to seek them out. These students, I noticed, often needed help most of all because their sense of independence often outpaced their accuracy; but they also tended to be among the most receptive to suggestions.
The next step in the hierarchy of their field practices was to understand the significance of their field measurements in terms of identifying large-scale structures. In mapping anticlines and synclines and identifying the axial traces of folds we encountered in the field, many students were confused at first by the seemingly overwhelming number of data; I found I was able to help students with this by encouraging them to practice good mapping habits such as drawing strike and dip symbols directly onto their maps, in addition to in their field notebooks, in order to immediately visualize the significance of their measurements. Students were able to benefit from the experiences of John, Andrew, Shundong and myself, since each of us was able to share different techniques or styles of plotting the data. This was a difficult lab for many students at first since it forced them to connect the definitions of structures they learned in class with the measurements and other observations they gathered in the field. But with practice and the opportunity to ask questions, they got the knack.
Perhaps the most fun field lab for students and myself was the chance to synthesize the concepts of brittle and ductile deformation in making observations at Tanque Verde Wash of rocks associated with the Santa Catalina metamorphic core complex. Not only did students observe the orientation of brittle deformation in high-angle normal faults, but also they analyzed the sense of shear indicators in the ductilely deformed footwall mylonites, including S-C fabric. One of my favorite lessons to teach was looking for hackles on slickened fault surfaces; I enjoyed getting down on the ground with students to show them how to run their hands along the hackles in order to identify the direction of fault motion. This simple excercise brought the big picture to the perceptual level for many. Students also needed extensive one-on-one help in determining sense of shear by examining the mylonite's S-C fabric. After trying different methods, I found that drawing with colored pencils on the rocks was the most effective tool in identifying their crenulation cleavage and schistocity and determining maximum stress direction.
In the laboratory, I tried to help students apply abstract structural concepts to dealing with their field observations. One example is providing extensive assistance with was plotting planes, lines and poles to planes using a stereonet, and solving problems such as finding lines of intersection or fold axes. Students often needed a great deal of individual assistance in plotting their measurements in order to discover how they correlate. Other concepts, such as maximum stress direction and the relationship between stress and strain were difficult enough for some students that having me re-explain them in undergraduate language was often helpful. One particular assignment in which students had to calculate the amount of stress necessary to fracture a rock under certain conditions by applying the concept of Coulomb’s failure envelope drew several students to my office hours for extra help.
In Paul's class, the final challenge structure students had to tackle was writing a six-page fault profile paper. They each chose a major fault from anywhere on the globe and had to describe every aspect of it from its geometry and kinematics to its history and impact on regional civilization, following the format of a scientific paper. The task was more difficult for some students than for others, and a few consulted with me for advice. Paul allowed me to give each of the rough drafts their first read, and I edited the papers for content and style. Many students needed major help with basic organization, while others were struggling to find their voice in a scientific paper. It was clear that many students were writing for the first time to a specialized audience and had trouble (as I myself did the previous semester) abandoning the need to define every basic geological concept and focusing on the bigger picture. In a way, this problem was endearing because it was obvious that these authors may have been digesting these concepts for the first time as they composed the paper; this was the first time many had had to put their knowledge in context. Others wrote at a surprisingly sophisticated level, and only needed suggestions on how to improve their consistency in grammar and style. In addition to corrections throughout the text, I composed a long paragraph at the end of each paper to summarize the work's strengths and weaknesses, and offered suggestions on how to improve it.
A new responsibility I undertook under Mihai was updating and maintaining the class Web site. This required making design updates as well as establishing new organization systems for presenting each lecture’s Powerpoint file and homework assignments.
My experience as a structure preceptor was personally challenging, and having completed it I feel more confident in my ability to present ideas, to help students understand difficult material both in the laboratory and in the field, and to approach them even when they don’t ask for help. It was an important step toward developing my personal approach to the art and science of science teaching. I feel certain that my work was helpful to some students, and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn from and develop a relationship with Paul, Mihai, John, Andrew and Shundong in the process.
back to top