The course map.
Eight units — four per semester — the labs that anchor them, and the two-day rhythm that runs every week of the year. This is the planner’s view — the whole course on one page.
Two days a week, and the work between them.
Every unit runs on the same rhythm: Concept Day → [student works at home] → Field & Lab Day → [student synthesizes at home] → next Concept Day. One day forces a choice between depth and breadth; two days allow both. More than two crowds out the at-home work where integration actually happens.
Concept Day
- Arrival & warm-up — reconnect with the prior session
- Pre-lecture discussion — surface what the at-home reading raised
- Direct instruction — micro-lectures, worked problems, demonstrations
- Problem set / model work — apply the concept, solo or in pairs
- Misconception sweep & wrap-up — correct common errors, preview the lab
Guide's role: Socratic and diagnostic. Student's role: active participation; pre-reading required.
Field & Lab Day
- Pre-lab briefing — the question, the procedure, the safety
- Safety check — goggles, dust control, careful handling of specimens & the rock hammer; explicit, every time
- Setup — hand lenses, streak plates, Mohs kit, rock & mineral sets, partner assignment
- Execution — the lab itself; the guide circulates and coaches
- Debrief & lab notebook — completed before the student leaves
- Cleanup & specimen return — sets re-sorted and shelved to standard; non-negotiable
Guide's role: safety officer first, teacher second. Student's role: the lab notebook is THE artifact — predictions before results.
From the first mineral to deep time.
The sequence is deliberate: each unit assumes the one before it. Click any unit to open its mastery rubric — the standard a student demonstrates against to advance.
| Unit | Big ideas | Anchor lab(s) | Integrates with |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 · Minerals | Streak, Mohs hardness, cleavage vs. fracture, luster, crystal habit, the dilute-acid carbonate test | Mineral ID by streak, hardness & acid test, worked through a dichotomous key | Foundation unit; the naturalists who first classified minerals (history, reading); applied math: Mohs ordering & density |
| 02 · Igneous Rocks & Volcanism | Magma vs. lava, intrusive vs. extrusive, crystal size vs. cooling rate, Bowen's reaction series, felsic→mafic, volcano types & eruption style | Igneous rock & crystal-size analysis | Builds on 01 — the minerals that crystallize from a melt; famous eruptions (history, geography); applied math: cooling rate vs. crystal size |
| 03 · Sedimentary Rocks & Stratigraphy | Sediment → clastic, chemical & organic rocks, cementation, superposition, original horizontality, lateral continuity, cross-cutting, unconformities | Sedimentary layering & stratigraphy | Builds on 01 — the minerals that survive weathering; Steno's principles of layering (history, reading); applied math: bed thickness & sequence logic |
| 04 · Metamorphic Rocks & the Rock Cycle | Heat + pressure, foliated vs. non-foliated, protoliths (shale→slate→schist→gneiss; limestone→marble), the full rock cycle | Metamorphic rock & rock-cycle sorting | Builds on 02 + 03 — closes the rock cycle; Hutton's endlessly recycled Earth (history, reading); applied math: pressure–temperature grids |
| 05 · Plate Tectonics & Mountain Building | Divergent, convergent & transform boundaries, seafloor spreading, subduction, orogeny (folding, faulting, uplift) | Plate-boundary & seismic-map modeling | Builds on 04 — where rock is forged and destroyed; the mapping of the ocean floor (history, geography); applied math: plate-motion rates |
| 06 · Earthquakes & Earth's Interior | Elastic rebound, P, S & surface waves, locating epicenters by triangulation, seismic evidence for the crust, mantle, outer & inner core | Earthquake triangulation from seismograms | Builds on 05 — why and where the crust ruptures; the seismologists who read Earth's interior (history); applied math: travel-time curves & triangulation |
| 07 · Weathering, Erosion & Landforms | Mechanical vs. chemical weathering (incl. carbonate dissolution & karst), transport by water, wind & ice, deposition, the landforms each carves | Weathering, erosion & landform investigation | Builds on 01 + 03 — the front of the rock cycle; landscapes that shaped settlement (geography, history); applied math: rates of erosion & sediment yield |
| 08 · Geologic Time & Earth History | Relative dating from the stratigraphic principles, radiometric dating & half-lives, the geologic time scale, the sweep of Earth history | Radiometric-dating / half-life simulation | Builds on 03 — relative order before absolute age; Hutton → Lyell & the discovery of deep time (history, reading); applied math: half-life decay curves |
Every unit carries the core spokes — History, Reading, and Writing — anchored to the story in the integration guide. The column above names each unit’s distinctive spokes; geography and soft social studies run where they fit, and students pick from elective spokes (data, ethics, economics, technology, art). An applied-math lane runs through every unit too — math used in service of the science, never as a separate program.
Where mastery gets proven in person.
Three times across the year, the student steps up to a demonstration that cannot be faked, outsourced, or generated. These are the AI-proof core of the course — understanding, shown in real time, against a rubric, in front of a guide.
The rock & mineral ID defense
Identify unknown specimens by streak, hardness, cleavage, luster, and the dilute-acid test — then defend each call out loud, under questions.
Timed map & cross-section reading
Read a geologic map, cross-section, and seismogram under time — then justify the story the rocks tell.
Oral lab-notebook defense
Walk a guide through your own notebook: the question, the method, the data, the anomalies, the interpretation.