What's here? In this submission, NAGT participants will see the network of assessment behind meeting a general-education learning outcome for a science course. You'll see a fun class exercise, an essay quiz for the exercise along with a brief scoring rubric. You'll be able to look at an online version of the knowledge survey as a tool used to map content coverage involved in this exercise. You'll see examples of initial submissions and final products. This is a high-level thinking exercise that is tough on both students and the professor. From my viewpoint, one of these in a semester-long course is all one should attempt with introductory students. This class has about 75 students.
LEARNING OUTCOME for CORE Goal 5 Sciences: "Pick a single theory from the science represented by this course and explain its historical development."
COURSE: Geology 100, General Geology
CLASS EXERCISE: A Séance! (see
PRODUCT: Take-Home QUIZ
Briefly, explain the development of plate tectonics theory through use of at least 15 of the most relevant characters in the séance. Limit 500 words.
PRODUCT ASSESSMENT: brief rubric:
Rubric -- Grading of Quiz 3
About 500 words. 10 pts
Factual detail 70 pts.
Conveys awareness of relationships 20 pts
Submissions with writing errors or in excess of 500 words will be returned for revisions.
RELATED KNOWLEDGE SURVEY ITEMS Content learning related to learning outcome (see and log on as Blackcat in both rectangles). Go to Knowledge survey under EDGEOL100, Survey of Geology (Fall 2004). It will appear on left side under course menu. To see an online knowledge survey and the items 2, 7, 10, 11, 37, 38, 39, 45, 46, apply in this exercise. Click on "begin quiz" button and scroll down.
Bloom Level Challenge: 5 to 6
SAMPLE STUDENT PRODUCTS
Examples of student products submitted in February, worked on through the semester and resubmitted in April follow. These papers are submitted electronically. Marking egregious writing errors in red without correcting them leads students to find and correct the errors. When writing errors are numerous, a note on the papers sends a student to the Writing Center for a session with a writing tutor. The marked paper helps with tutoring. A rubric should also accompany the paper when it's taken to such a center. The content errors I mark in blue, but students must actually find the error by themselves or through consultation. If I make comments, they are in red, bold, underlined font.
The later submissions are not perfect, but there are now major differences in students' moving from writing lists and getting into trouble with the 500-word limit. The limits force one to deduce relationships and prioritize what they'll include by eliminating less necessary information. By grappling with the content, they learn enough about the process of science to respectably meet the learning outcome of Goal 5. The class definition of geology as a science of materials, processes and change through time provided one way to group contributors.
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FEBRUARY VERSION STUDENT A
Your ideas are good and your writing is clear and sparkly too. We have a couple glaring errors that will be to your advantage to correct before I grade this. I suspect you can do these on your own, but if you want to make an appointment. I'd like to meet everyone once in this class. This is a good a chance as any.
The Magnificent Theory of Plate Tectonics
The theory of plate tectonics can be traced back through a number of people whose thoughts and ideas in one way or another led to this significant theory. We start with Thales, who is considered the Father of Science. Without him, we would not have started the belief that the events of nature could be explained by reason. Next was Aristotle, who revealed that earth’s surface was in part land and in part water. Following him was Steno, who discovered that the oldest layers of the earth were on the bottom. This information provided by these two scientists was needed to determine the location of the plates years ago as compared to now. Next we have Smith and Cuvier, both of whom did some work with fossils that made a contribution to locating plates throughout time. They were followed by Hutton, Lyell, and Darwin who all did important work showing the change and evolution of the earth and its landforms, yet they still lacked an explanation. Kelvin then comes along and used radioactive cooling to determine the age of the earth to 100 million years old. Joly countered that with his experiments involving oceanic salinity and came up with 80-90 million years old. These estimates were crucial in following up the theories on the age of moving plates beneath us.That needs an explanation.Chamberlin came along next with his historical method of testing, of which we still use today in determining the motion in the ocean.Scientists had long used the historical method, but Chamberlin understood the process as different from lab science and understood why each was best depending upon the kind of problem at hand. Madame Curie then discovered radium and radioactive decay. Her discoveries disproved Kelvin’s theory of cooling. Using the information of his predecessors, Boltwood then came along and found a way to date ore and came up with an age of 2.2 billion years old. Again, this influenced the way scientists looked at the age of the plates that seemed to be constantly in motion. Wegener was next with his assembly of evidence to show how the earth fit together and show how and when the movement of the continents occurred. This began the deeper and intimate examination of the theory of plate tectonics. Hess followed in Wegener’s footsteps with his interest in the movement of the continents and discovered the young age of the ocean floor. He then devised a conveyer belt model that and proposed this as the reason for the movement. Wilson was next with his discovery that the magnetic poles have changed over time. Paired with Hess’s discoveries, they could give a detailed history of the earth through all the time periods. Vine was next with his expanded theory on combination of rigid plates and mobile belts. This was a deeper look at the movement that could have occurred. John Dewey then came along and actually took the work of all these fabulous people and wrote the theory of plate tectonics. Thank you John
APRIL VERSION STUDENT A
The Motion in the Ocean
The theory of plate tectonics resulted from the discoveries, thoughts, and ideas of many important people. We will start with the work of Steno. Steno’s saw that the oldest layers of rock were laid down first, which places them at the bottom. This statement was a key for maps to be made and for rock layers to be matched up in the future. The work of Steno helped Smith out in making the first geologic map. These maps would become important later in the future. The next great thinker was Cuvier. He discovered that fossils found in these rock layers being mapped could show where things have taken place. For example, if a plant that only survives in a tropical climate is found in a rock layer, then that rock layer must have been located at one time or another in a tropical area. Darwin’s study of finches also backed this idea up. He learned that organisms of the same kind that live together and then are distributed to different areas are forced to adapt to survive. Therefore, if fossils of the same kind are found, they must have lived together. The work of Kelvin and Joly was in great need at this time. With all these ideas to work with, one thing was missing: a time frame. Through different methods, they both came out with different estimates. Kelvin’s estimated age of the earth was 100 million years old, while Joly’s was between 80-90 million years old. However, Chamberlain understood that they earth had to be older. He knew this by going out in the field and looking at rock layers. He didn’t have a way to prove the age or his theory, but that would come along soon. Madame Curie’s discovery of radium led to radiometric dating and a way to prove Chamberlain’s theory. It also provided the answer to the source of heat soon to be discovered by Holmes. Using radiometric dating, Boltwood dated uranium lead ore and dated the rock to be 2.2 billion years old! The earth had to at least be that old. Using all the evidence made possible by the discoveries of these scientists, Wegener had enough to show how the earth fit together. He knew which rocks fit what climates, which rock layers fit together where, and proved that continents, which were now miles apart, were once joined together. Hess found this intriguing and questioned how the continents could move apart. Hess discovered a heat driven power at the ocean floor. The “conveyer belt” on the ocean floor spit out new ocean floor in opposite directions, pushing continents apart. Vine and Wilson added to this by discovering magnetic stripes in the new floor and how the magnetic poles have changed over time. They could now give a detailed history of the earth through all time periods. John Dewey pieced the work of all these scientists and wrote the theory of plate tectonics. Who knew it would take so many men before him to produce one theory?
FEBRUARY VERSION STUDENT B
This is, in general, a bit of a basket case. You have facts jumbled and people jumbled. Your writing is killing you--probably in more classes than this. Let's make a plan to dig out of this situation. Start by going to the Writing Center, and set up an appointment with a writing tutor to go over this. Next, see if you can figure why the areas marked in blue contain some awful content errors. Clean those up. Then bring your next draft to an appointment with me.
The historical development of Plate Tectonics started at a very early age. The actual theory needed a variety of different discoveries to take place in order for it to prove this recent discovery. We will discuss some of the various people that helped contribute to the findings and how it helped pave the way.
William Smith from an early age took an interest in exploring and collecting fossils. He began surveying canal routes and required detailed knowledge of the rocks through which the canal was to be dug. This led Smith to examine the local rocks very carefully. While Smith observed that the fossils found in a section of sedimentary rock were always in a certain order from the bottom to the top of the section. This order of appearance could also be seen in other rock sections, even those on the other side of England.
That led to the next stage in the development when Georges Curvier “Why has not anyone seen that fossils alone gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth, that without them, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the globe.” It was Cuvier who firmly established the fact of the extinction of past life forms.
James Hutton studied the rock formations of his native Scotland and this helped him to formulate his most famous work, "Theory of the Earth". This work was interpreted and used by many as the basis for geological theory. Hutton made many observations about rock formations and how they were affected by erosion.
John Joly made his claim to fame by making an accurate estimate of the age of a geological period essential step in estimating the age of the Earth. Using the decay in radioactivity in minerals, he estimated that the beginning of the Devonian period was not less than 400 million years ago. This makes the Earth about 4,500 million years old.
Good grief! How did you come up with this?Curie & Boltwood both worked on the ways that would and could disprove the estimates of the age of the earth. Boltwood was able to measure the rate at which uranium breaks down (half life) and then was able to give his estimate of the earth. Boltwood came to the conclusion that the earth was in fact 2.2 billion years old. This paved the way for further development in scientific discoveries about the Earth.
Plate tectonic theory really hit its climax in 1915. (Hardly!) Alfred Wegener proposed his theory of "continental drift." Wegener proposed that the continents plowed through crust of ocean basins, which explained why many coastlines look like they fit together. He was one of the first to realize that the Earth's surface has changed through time, and that continents that are separated now may have been joined together at one point in the past.
Wilson redefined Wegner's theory pf plate tectonics by stating concepts about rigid plates and mobile belts. He also realized that oceans had opened and closed more than once. Then we have Vine who used the reversal of magnetic force to reconstruct the earth history related to plate tectonics. That leads us to Jay Gould who developed the concept of seeing events in time as punctuated changes.
APRIL VERSION STUDENT B
Plate tectonics theory has been developing for over 2500 years. By combining “materials” with “process" with "change through time,” we can begin to look at the development of this theory. Science and the verification of science began with Thales of Miletos in 600 BC. He noted that everything we see can be explained.
Nicolaus Steno discovered that in the layers of the Earth you could find the oldest layers on bottom. William Smith then explained that we could map rocks by looking at the layers of fossils,. Baron Georges Cuvier tried to find out why certain fossils were restricted to only certain layers. He asked, “Why has not anyone seen that fossils gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth?”
James Hutton said, “The present is the key to the past.” This is referring to the rock record. He believed that if we understood the present earth surface we could explain the fossils and rocks that were discovered. He is now considered the father of modern geology. With these materials people, we're now able to contribute to the “process and "time” parts of this theory.
William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) was the first to date the earth. He dated the earth to be about 100 million years old. Thomas Chamberlin developed the historical method of science and called it “the method of multiple working hypotheses”. Madame Currie discovered radium, and helped prove radioactive decay. This disproved the 100 million year old earth theory. Boltwood used radioactive decay of uranium and thorium to date rock. With this he put the age of the earth at about 2.2 billion years old.
Charles Lyell wrote the first text about geology and contributed to the education of geologists to help them with the formation of this theory. Alfred Wegner developed the first ideas of plate tectonics. His ideas were never taken seriously. Fred Vine looked at the magnetic patterns on the sea floor. He saw how the magnetic stripes in the earth near the poles reversed through time. He could determine the location of any rock & when it was there.
J. Tuzo Wilson, and later Harry Hess, proved that the rocks got younger the closer they got to the ocean ridges. Wilson developed a “conveyor belt” model that showed the continents were actually drifting apart. Hess then made an expanded theory to include a combination of rigid plates and mobile belts.
John Dewey published a theory called “plate tectonics.” He explained what happened when continental plates and oceanic plates collide.
You can see what had to take place over the last 2500 years for plate tectonics to come about. Thanks to the people and geologists before us, we can now see what they tried all those years to prove and eventually did. With the GPS now we can see this happening on a daily basis, if only we would have had them in 600 BC!