I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Planet Earth

2. Course Prefix & Number:
ESCI 1454

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 4

Lecture Hours: 3

Lab Hours: 2

4. Course Description:

This beginner's course explores Earth's solid, liquid, gas, and living layers; what they are, how they act, and how they interact. In this course you can expect to not only learn about geoscience, but engage with it, by practicing the techniques of working professionals in the field.

5. Placement Tests Required:

Accuplacer (specify test):

Reading College Level CLC or Reading College Level

Score:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

9. Co-requisite Courses:

There are no corequisites for this course.

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

Ridgewater College, ENVS 141 Environmental Science, 4 credits
MCTC, BIOL 1136 Environmental Science, 4 credits

III. Course Purpose

2. MN Transfer Curriculum (General Education) Courses - This course fulfills the following goal area(s) of the MN Transfer Curriculum:

• Goal 3 – Natural Sciences
• Goal 10 – People and the Environment

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Demonstrate written communication skills	Demonstrate written communication skills in laboratory reports and other assignments.
Analyze and follow a sequence of operations	Correctly operate modern laboratory and field equipment or correctly follow other directions as explicitly laid out in laboratory activities.
Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and environments	Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and Environments as regards geoscientific and environmental issues.

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Demonstrate understanding of scientific theories as pertaining to geology, meteorology, and oceanography (MnTC Goal 3);
• Submit a weekly written summary of their experimental results in laboratory (MnTC Goal 3);
• Evaluate environmental issues and their impact on society from an earth science perspective (MnTC Goal 3);
• Recognize the role natural resources, environment, and climate play in shaping society and culture (MnTC Goal 10);
• Describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, religious) that are evolving to deal with environmental and natural resource challenges (MnTC Goal 10);
• Critically evaluate environmental issues from a scientifically informed perspective; distinguish good from bad environmental policy according to the theoretical underpinnings of the science in question (MnTC Goal 10);
• Propose informed solutions to environmental problems (MnTC Goal 10);
• Perform field based investigations using standard geoscience techniques;
• Write a formal field report and defend one's findings;
• Recognize the need for sustainable solutions to environmental problems;
• Critically evaluate contemporary climate theory in terms of a dynamical and ever-changing earth; and
  
• Apply an Earth systems approach to understanding Earth's concentric spheres.

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. Earth Materials
• Minerals
• Rocks
• Societies use of geologic materials
2. Surface Processes
• Water erosion
• Glaciers and ice ages
• Wind erosion and dryland environments
3. Interior Processes
• Plate tectonics
• Geologic structures
• Earthquakes
• Orogenic processes
• Igneous activity
4. Earth History
• Geologic time
• The principles of geologic dating
• Fossils, fossilization, and biological evolution
5. The Hydrosphere
• Waves and wave propagation
• The structure of the ocean water column
• The deep ocean floor
• Processes where ocean meets land
• The circulation of the ocean
• Tides
• The air-sea interface
6. The Atmosphere
• Heating the atmosphere
• Earth-Sun relationships
• Moisture, clouds, and precipitation
• Atmospheric pressure
• Atmospheric circulation
• Air masses
• Weather patterns and storms.
7. Earth’s Place in Space
• How the solar system formed: the nebular hypothesis
• Comparative planetology: A geoscientific tour of the solar system
• Stars and stellar evolution
• Galaxies and their classification
• The Universe

2. Laboratory/Studio Sessions

1. Mineral Identification
2. Rock Identification
3. Radioactive decay and nuclear waste
4. The Ogallala Aquifer
5. The Vostok Ice Cores and Milankovich Theory
6. Climate versus weather:  The American Dustbowl
7. Plate Tectonic Theory and Discovering Plate Boundaries
8. Can Humans Cause Earthquakes? – Geothermal processes in the Pacific Northwest
9. Land Development and Urgent Paleontology
10. Shoreline Development and Erosion
11. The Ocean as a CO₂ sink
12. Ocean Pollution – The Pacific Garbage Patch
13. Climate Change and the Global Coral Death Crisis
14. Overfishing and Coral Death
15. Climate Change and Atmospheric Heating – What do the data reveal?
16. Climate Change and Severe Storms – What do the data reveal?
17. Earth’s Use of Space: Tracking space junk
18. Near Earth Objects