Physical & Environmental Geology

Laboratory Investigations in Physical and Environmental Geology:

• encourages students to make careful observations and then use their observations to identify, classify and interpret earth materials.
• acquaints the student with important computer applications and websites such as Google Earth Pro and the US Geological Survey resources.
• requires students to view and interpret video footage of actual geological phenomena such as landslides.
• allows students to create and analyze faults in hands-on modelling of compressional, extensional and shear stress environments.
• utilizes actual published data for analysis of earthquakes and plate movements. provides experience in interpreting topographic maps in terms of determining an area’s climate, agents of landscape formation, type of surface material, potential hazards and observable mitigation strategies.
• requires students to state the observations they used to reach their conclusions.
• allows the instructor to select from several different lab options for most subjects.
• features a loose-leaf format, allowing students to remove pages from the lab manual and return them as needed.

This versatile lab manual provides a broad variety of labs for the teaching of introductory physical geology and environmental geology, allowing the instructor to choose labs that emphasize those topics that are most important for the course. The two authors of the manual have a combined teaching experience of over 50 years, and the labs have been continuously modified and tested to improve student comprehension of the material.