Undergraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2024-2025
Module GEOL1101: Understanding Earth Sciences
Department: Earth Sciences
GEOL1101: Understanding Earth Sciences
| Type | Open | Level | 1 | Credits | 20 | Availability | Available in 2024/2025 | Module Cap | Location | Durham |
|---|
Prerequisites
- None.
Corequisites
- None.
Excluded Combination of Modules
- None.
Aims
- Introduce the following fundamental subject areas within Earth Sciences: petrology, sedimentology, structural geology and palaeontology.
- Introduce a systems approach to thinking about Earth features.
- Show how Earth Sciences understanding for individuals, and a community, is derived from research processes.
Content
- A first term focusing on treating the Earth as a system, whole Earth composition and scientific reasoning.
- A second term focusing on Earth history and life.
- An introduction to scientific writing skills.
Learning Outcomes
Subject-specific Knowledge:
- Petrology: understand the principles of melt generation/magmatism and of metamorphic reactions and assemblages. Relationships to chemical cycling and crustal growth.
- Sedimentology: processes of erosion, sediment transport and deposition. Main sedimentary rock associations. Principles of sedimentology (logging, facies analysis, sequence stratigraphy etc). Relationships to climate, tectonics and evolution.
- Structural geology and tectonics: main structural features of the continents and oceans and techniques for their analysis. Relationships to plate tectonic cycles and global and regional climate.
- Palaeontology: understanding fossils and evolution. Relationships to tectonic and climatic drivers.
Subject-specific Skills:
- Understanding of research methodologies in Earth Sciences, and an appreciation of the specific research foci in Durham Earth Sciences.
Key Skills:
- Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data sets.
- Inter-relation of different branches of science.
- Writing skills.
- Identifying and avoiding plagiarism.
- Use and misuse of generative AI.
- Finding, accessing and citing scientific literature.
Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module
- Lectures. Practical classes to expand on concepts introduced in lectures.
Teaching Methods and Learning Hours
| Activity | Number | Frequency | Duration | Total/Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lectures | 20 | 1 per week | 1 hour | 20 | ■ |
| Practicals | 20 | 1 per week | 2 hours | 40 | ■ |
| Preparation and Reading | 140 | ||||
| Total | 200 |
Summative Assessment
| Component: Examination | Component Weighting: 50% | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Length / duration | Element Weighting | Resit Opportunity |
| Two-hour unseen written examination | 100% | ||
| Component: Practical Assessment | Component Weighting: 50% | ||
| Element | Length / duration | Element Weighting | Resit Opportunity |
| Two-hour unseen practical test | 100% | ||
Formative Assessment:
Discussion and feedback at every class meeting. Exercises similar to practical examination questions.
■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University