Assignments

I. Participation Points: Download your checklist now.

Participation points are based on your attendance at meetings with your Peer Mentor and attendance at campus events and activities.

You must attend a minimum of 10 events; you can get extra credit by attending more. You must attend at least one event in each of the categories below; how you distribute the rest of your events is up to you. Just about any activity that is listed on the Campus Calendar counts, as does any activity sponsored by the Geology Department or Geology Club.

Arts: this category includes theatre, dance and music performances; art exhibits; and workshops or lectures in the fine or performing arts.
Athletics: this includes intercollegiate competitions (football games, regattas, and the like), intramural games and recreational sports activities (classes at the Aquatic Center, yoga classes, workshops, etc.). You can count participation as a spectator, a competitor, or a learner (in workshops and classes).
Career Center: anything sponsored by the Career Center, including movies.
Film Festival: our very own once-a-month Savage Earth Film Festival, with pizza and popcorn provided.
Other: everything else that happens on campus, such as astronomy viewings, public lectures, magic shows, movies, free concerts of popular music, and Club activities. I especially recommend the Geology Club's Rock Auction.

II. This Week on Earth: Check the presentation schedule to see when you're up

Once during the semester, you will make a 5-10 minute oral presentation using Power Point about the week's events on Earth. You will either report on the solid Earth (volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, etc.) or the atmospheric Earth (storms, floods, etc.) Your presentation will include:

a summary of any big events that occurred. You will quickly summarize the major events that occurred, and focus in a bit more detail on the most significant event
location maps to show where the events occurred
some photos of the events
mention of any other interesting Earth news (e.g., new fossils, new oil strikes, mining disasters if you are the solid Earth person; global warming, water supply, etc. if you are the atmospheric person)
one theme song to go with your disasters - genre of your choice. No obsenities.You must send the name of the song and the artist to me by Sunday night before your presentation, and I will have the song ready for your presentation.
Any images you use in your Power Point must include a citation of the source, including the name of the Web page where you found it, the organization that posts the page, and the URL. All of these must be put on the Power Point slide directly beneath the image.
Here is the rubric I will use to grade your presentation.

Here's where you find the information:

Earthweek.com has a summary of some of the week's events. You can ignore the biological events it lists unless they have a geologic cause (i.e., you would include discussion of the sea lion colonies wiped out in the tsunami from the 8/15/07 Peru earthquake)

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center has information about the week's quakes, including a map. We are only interested in destructive events, which are typically M6.0 and above (but sometimes smaller earthquakes do a lot of damage in less developed countries). Click on the UTC-DATE-TIME column to get a more complete description of the event, including maps.

Volcanoworld covers current volcanic eruptions with links to get more information about a specific volcano. Remember, you are just responsible for the volcanoes for your week, so check the eruption dates in the table.

CNN has natural disaster news sprinkled through all the other news. Check the home, World and the U.S. front pages for stories, as well as the Science page.

If there's a storm brewing, you find images and track it at the Intellicast Storm Center.

The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration tracks all kinds of hazards linked to weather, including floods.

The Office of Emergency Services handles disasters for California.