Problems in Water, Land, and People
A self-guided course of study in physical geography
for sophomore-junior college review
by Russ Colson
(colson@mnstate.edu)
Course Description: This independent study self-learning module provides a guided opportunity to practice applying concepts from an introduction to Physical Geography through applied reasoning challenges, real-world problems in physical geography, and self-guided labs and field work. Problems include exercises in landscapes and landscape formation, soils and ecosystems, surface and groundwater processes, weather and climate, natural hazards, and natural resources. Online lectures provide a review and extension of concepts from an introductory physical geography course.
Each of the lessons below provides both a topical review (sometimes brief enough that you may need to supplement with outside reading), often with recorded asynchronous lectures, and a set of self-guided lab exercises that engage you in applying the topical concepts to science reasoning challenges or real-world problems. These are substantive online lessons and should be done slowly and carefully so as to figure out the concepts involved. A significant part of the lesson involves you figuring things out, with the exercise of figuring it out being more valuable than the ‘answer’ that comes at the end.
These materials are appropriate for a 2 semester credit college course, meaning that 90 hours is a reasonable time to complete the course.
Landscapes:
· Landscape Review- with Maps—lecture and interactive text
· Landscape Review: Human impacts (Dams) – interactive text
· Rivers and Base Level –lecture and interactive text -- other
· Badlands and Base Level—lecture and interactive text -- other
· Glacial, Shoreline, and Karst Processes and Features—lecture and interactive text
· Topographic Mapping Exercises—interactive text, review
· Unusual Landscapes—lecture and interactive text
Soils and Ecosystems
· Soils Review: Textures, Horizons, Orders (with processes and ecosystems) --lecture and interactive text
· Soil and humans: Soils in stratigraphy and construction engineering (with paleoclimate)-interactive text
· Agriculture and erosion (google search/discussion prompts)
· Problems in Wind Erosion—Interpreting Published Research – interactive text
· Soil Investigation (An independent research project, with report) -example report
This is an independent research investigation and will require substantial time and effort (probably at least a couple of days).
Surface and Ground Water
· Surface and Ground Water lecture
· Surface Water Hydrology- interactive text
· Red River Discharge Field Trip (independent study field trip with interactive text)
· Ground Water Hydrology—interactive text
· Porosity and Permeability Lab—interactive text with data recording
· Problems in Pollutant Migration-interactive text
· Water Quality Criteria part 2: Application of water quality criteria to a real-world problem in Clay County MN -- interactive text
· Water Rights: Online Readings and Discussion Prompts, Ogallala, Colorado R, Native American perspectives
Weather and Climate
· Patterns and Predictability: Seasons (interactive text with imbedded lecture)
· How to Make a Cloud (lesson 1 lecture, interactive text) (lesson 2 lecture, interactive text)
· Cloud extras (1, 2, 3-cool stuff)
· How the Wind Goes Around (lesson 1 lecture, interactive text) (lesson 2 lecture, interactive text)
· Wind extras (1, 2, 3-mapping and wind puzzles)
· The energy balance of worlds (lecture and interactive text)
· Greenhouse Warming (interactive text)
· How to Build Climate Zones for a World (with brief intro to global atmospheric circulation) (lecture, interactive text)
· Follow the Carbon and Climate change in the past (interactive text)
· People and Climate: Modeling and Impacts (with discussion prompts) (interactive text)
· Readings in Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change (interactive text)
Mapping, Graphing, Natural Hazards and Resources
· Navigation: The Search for Longitude (interactive text)
· Mapping Weather (isobar construction exercise, with ocean circulation and climate zones) (interactive text)
· Natural Hazards—in Maps (interactive text)
· Surface Water Hydrology: Recurrence Interval Graphing Lab (interactive text with spreadsheet activity)
· People and Resources: Ore Formation and Distribution, Economics and Intangibles, with Discussion Prompts interactive text
· Remote Sensing: An Examination of Research Reports in Economic and Environmental Geology (GIS Mapping problems) (interactive text)
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last updated 7/20/2023