GEOS 102 S - Intro to Earth Science

Minimum Credit(s) Awarded: 4
Maximum Credit(s) Awarded: 4

This course is a study of the major physical materials, processes and features of the earth, and how they are investigated. Such a study will provide students with a better understanding of how a growing human populations is increasingly affected by natural phenomena that are hazardous or influence economic development. Students will understand the nature of geologic change on the Earth, and how humanity is becoming a significant agent of such change. Students will come to appreciate how our understanding of the solid Earth has helped raise our standard of living by helping us locate the fuel and ores on which our modern society rests. It will also provide a background for appreciating geologic features of their surroundings. And finally it will suggest what types of questions to ask when matters of private concern or public policy, such as groundwater pollution or earthquake hazard mitigation, contain an important geologic component. The theory of plate tectonics, the current unifying theory of the geosciences, will be used as an illustration of how scientific hypothesis are constructed and tested using many lines of evidence.

Prerequisite(s): Math placement level 2 or completion of the M-tag