While I am at sea for three weeks in September, you will continue to complete your weekly TED video responses and Octopus! book readings and responses. See this website for the questions, so you can look at them before you watch the TED video and read the book chapters. Log in to ANGEL to submit your responses in the appropriate folder for the week (either Week 2, Week 3, or Week 4). Confirm with the syllabus the deadlines – note that TED video responses are always due 11PM Mondays, Octopus! book responses are always due 11PM Wednesdays.
To make sure you receive the equivalent amount of content knowledge while I am away, you will also complete the following:
View/respond to online videos
I have linked to a series of online videos that cover the content I would lecture on during any regular face-to-face offering of The Sea Around Us. These videos are each a half-hour in length and address topics essential to Earth science, such as the theory of plate tectonics. I encourage you to take notes when you watch these videos – this information is so important and is a foundation for other topics we are covering later in the semester. To keep consistent with having all deadlines for the course be on Mondays and Wednesdays, note that I am assigning you the videos one week, and your responses are due in ANGEL the following week (so the Week 2 videos are assigned for you to watch during Week 2, but your responses are due in ANGEL the Monday of Week 3). Your responses to these videos will count under the Miscellaneous Online Assignments category of your final grade.
WEEK 2 (Sept. 1-5)
The Sea Floor (link to video, scroll down to #4 and click VOD box on right side of description, link to FAQs if you have problems viewing the video)
Questions for The Sea Floor (answer in ANGEL by 11PM Monday, Sept. 8)
1) Why can’t you walk on the deep ocean floor? What would happen to you if you tried?
2) Where does the salt come from in our oceans?
3) If you were to start walking from the Jersey shore out to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (OK, I know for question #1 you answered why you can’t walk along the ocean floor, but go with me on this…), what features would you walk across? Hint: continental ____, _____, _____, and abyssal _____. Define each of these features, such as what sediment type or biological life might be on them.
4) How do scientists study, map, and sample the ocean floor? (*I expect this to be a long answer – be sure to include information you learn throughout the entire video, including up to the very end)
5) Manganese nodules – what are they, and should we go after them or not? Support your response with examples from the video.
6) What is the most interesting fact you learned from this virtual lecture that you did not know prior to watching? Why?
WEEK 3 (Sept. 8-12)
The Birth of a Theory (link to video, scroll down to #5 and click VOD box on right side of description, link to FAQs if you have problems viewing the video)
Plate Dynamics (link to video, scroll down to #6 and click VOD box on right side of description, link to FAQs if you have problems viewing the video)
Questions for The Birth of a Theory (answer in ANGEL by 11PM Monday, Sept. 15)
1) Alfred Wegner (his last name is pronounced with a “V” sound) – what was his idea of continental drift? What were his lines of evidence?
2) Why did the Northern Hemisphere geologists have problems accepting the idea of continental drift?
3) What technological advancement(s) brought new life to the idea of landmass movement? What did these instruments find? (*note – the geologic feature they are describing in the video is spelled “guyot”)
4) What is the “stripe” pattern detected in ocean floor rocks? How does it form?
5) How important is the theory of plate tectonics to geology – and to oceanography?
6) What is the most interesting fact you learned from this virtual lecture that you did not know prior to watching? Why?
Questions for Plate Dynamics (answer in ANGEL by 11PM Monday, Sept. 15)
1) Geologically, what is Iceland? What tectonic activity is taking place there?
2) With seafloor spreading constantly creating new crust, why doesn’t the Earth’s crust just expand and get larger?
3) Where do we find andesitic volcanoes? Why are andesitic volcanic eruptions so violent?
4) How does convection move lithospheric plates? Where does the heat come from?
5) What generates hot spot volcanism and forms hot spot volcanic chains?
6) What is the most interesting fact you learned from this virtual lecture that you did not know prior to watching? Why?
WEEK 4 (Sept. 15-19)
Waves, Beaches and Coasts (link to video, scroll down to #24 and click VOD box on right side of description, link to FAQs if you have problems viewing the video)
Oceans (link to video, link to FAQs if you have problems viewing the video)
Questions for Waves, Beaches and Coasts (answer in ANGEL by 11PM Monday, Sept. 22)
1) Why is it important to understand waves?
2) Describe the formation and movement of waves.
3) How do waves impact the shore?
4) What triggers the tides, and how do tides impact shorelines?
5) How might the greenhouse effect impact sea level and coastal lands? Include examples from the video.
6) What is the most interesting fact you learned from this virtual lecture that you did not know prior to watching? Why?
Questions for Oceans (answer in ANGEL by 11PM Monday, Sept. 22)
1) What happens in the ocean and atmosphere during El Niño? Explain.
2) What are the global consequences during El Niño?
3) What are the roles of phytoplankton in the ocean?
4) If there were no phytoplankton, what would be the impact on CO2 and oxygen levels?
5) What effect do viruses have on phytoplankton and therefore oceanic CO2 levels?
6) What is the most interesting fact you learned from this virtual lecture that you did not know prior to watching? Why?
Dr. G at Sea blog posts – with questions to research/answer
The best way for me to teach you about the oceans is to do so while I am actually on the ocean! One of the challenges of being on a ship is that the internet connectivity is nothing like what we have on campus. The ship uses a satellite hookup a few times a day to do a batch download/upload of emails and other online materials. Of course, this is all dependent upon the technology working as it should! My goal is to have 3-4 blog posts per week for you to learn about what I’m doing, while I’m doing it, why I’m doing it, etc. I will have no way of emailing all of you when a blog post goes “live,” so be sure to keep checking my official NOAA at sea site: http://teacheratsea.wordpress.com/category/laura-guertin/. With each blog post, I will have questions for you to respond to in ANGEL. I can’t provide you the information or the questions on this website ahead of time, as the science and exploration will unfold each day in new and exciting directions. I am not going to set weekly deadlines for you to answer these questions, because again, the internet access may be spotty and difficult for me to get the information posted in a timely manner. Therefore, I’m asking that you complete all the questions that you find in each blog post and submit all of your responses in ANGEL in by 11PM Monday, September 22.
You will find in ANGEL a folder called Dr. G at Sea. In this folder are forms numbered by the blog post, which will match the Post # you find in each blog entry (so my first blog entry on August 22 has questions that you will respond to in the ANGEL form Post #1). Please keep checking the blog to see the latest of what’s happening on my hydrographic survey! If there is no post, please do not worry – it just means that we are having “technical difficulties,” and you should continue on with completing the other work assigned to you while I’m out to sea.
One final reminder – please note that I will not have access to ANGEL while I am out to sea, and therefore I will not be able to complete any grading. I will begin grading all assignments as soon as I return from sea, and I appreciate your patience.