Professor’s Welcome Message
Welcome to San Diego Mesa's College GEOL101 – Physical
Geology Laboratory Course
Hello Everyone! My
name is Ray Rector, your geology lab instructor for this course here at San
Diego Mesa College
Congratulations for signing up for my physical geology lab course
here at San Diego Mesa College this summer – you picked a great
program! This is a 1-unit, college-level, physical science
laboratory, 8-week course held on campus in room MS110 every Wednesday
from 2:20pm to 5:20pm.
Here’s
how this lab course generally works:
1)
The instructor (that’s me!) is primarily a geology
lab content/activity facilitator, lab activity leader, and learning outcome
assessor – I’m here to make sure that you are able to access all
the course content, that you understand how to successfully complete all the
lab activities, and finally, grade your lab assignments and tests.
You and I primarily communicate during lab class, but you can also communicate
with me outside of lab via discussion board and email me using the
“Inbox” link found on the main Dashboard Canvas page. You can
also reach me at my personal website email address at geoprof@geoscirocks.com
2)
The student (that’s you!) takes part in weekly
lab activities with your fellow student to learn hands-on introductory geology
and successfully get college credit for doing it. To successfully
complete this course you must successfully complete a
set of geology laboratory activities and take two lab exams, and possibly go on
virtual geology fieldtrips.
3)
The information (course content and materials) you need to learn in this lab
course is found in several places: a) your free lab manual (both a in-lab hardcopy and an e-text online lab manual); b)
mineral and rock collection sets; c) instructor’s lab slide
presentations; d) instructor’s website and video links: e) numerous
website and online article and video links that may be included in the
assignment instructions; and f) direct personal communication with
me.
4)
This lab comes with a Canvas shell where you will be required to download lab
worksheets each week, check for announcements, and access a
number of useful sources of information, including the course syllabus
and schedule, and an assortment of supporting material for the weekly lab
activities. Navigating through our Canvas course site is somewhat simple.
When you log into our Canvas course, you’ll
notice that there is a menu on the left side of the course page, where all
components of the course are listed. This menu has several linked
categories that include the following: “Home”;
"Announcements”; "Lab Worksheets”; and
“Grades”.
Here
are some details for each menu item:
a) The
“Home” link is where you will find all the various course
components listed/expanded to view.
The “Home” page also has important logistical documents and
information, such as my instructor welcome message and video links, and the
course syllabus and schedule. Other
useful items are also there and include assignment and test-taking tips,
plagiarism info, a link to my personal educational website, and Canvas help
links.
b)
The “Announcement” is where you find my weekly update message
concerning current course activities and due dates.
c) Means of communication
between course participants is done from the "Discussion" link. Note that "Email" messaging is
done outside the course page, but within the general Canvas Dashboard site
under the “Inbox” Icon.
d) Assessment components (graded
class activities) of this course are found under the "Assignments",
and “Quizzes” sections.
e) Much of the course geology
science curriculum is also found at my personal student website at www.geoscirocks.com , and
includes textbook support, professor’s lecture materials (lecture notes
and PowerPoints), Geology streaming learning videos, and Internet geosciences
education links.
f) Required weekly lab activity
worksheets are found at the Home Page within the lab schedule
table. Each weekly laboratory covers a specific geologic topic and
includes a set of lab activities and a post-lab writing reflection.
g) Practice quizzes and exams are
found in the “Quizzes” link.
h) You have access to your grades in
the course through the “Grades” link.
i) The “Discussion” link
includes several different forums.
This where students can hold public or private discussions concerning
course work – primarily students helping students – and for raising
any sorts of questions, comments and concerns about this course or anything in
general.
5)
Your typical work agenda for each week will include: a) downloading and
printing a hard copy of the lab worksheet for the current week; b) reading a
chapter in your laboratory manual that pertains to the current week lab topic;
c) viewing the professor's PowerPoint lab presentations and other supportive
lab materials; d) completing the laboratory activities in lab; and e) compose a
written lab reflection.
Important Resources and Must-Read
Documents:
Lab
Syllabus: You will need to download a
PDF file of the lab syllabus and bring with you for the first day of lab. Click here to download the syllabus
NO TEXTBOOK purchase FOR THIS LAB There is a hardcopy
lab manual that we will be using for this laboratory course, however, you are
NOT required to buy it. important Note: a free, in-lab, loaner copy of the
laboratory manual will be available for use for every student during lab time,
but cannot be taken out of the lab room. You can purchase a copy of this
lab manual if you want your own copy to use at home. This lab manual is not sold in the
campus bookstore. However, you can
purchase this lab manual used online from a vendor such as Amazon.com.
