Instead of a final exam, you will be required to submit
a final project.I expect a significant effort of original research on a
geomorphic process or problem of your choice.This may (should) be tied
to research for your thesis or work or other project if possible.Your project
should be based upon original library, field or experimental research.
Your write up must be reviewed by two of your classmates
before turning it in. These persons should write comments, corrections,
and suggestions on a draft of your paper, and then sign the bottom and
include their ID#s.You should then incorporate their suggestions (at least
those that are valid) into your final paper and drawings. You will turn
in the reviewed draft with classmates reviews and the final draft. One
of the best ways to learn is to edit someone else's writing.
Your paper should include: Abstract, Introduction,
main body, conclusions, figures with figure captions. Length should be
short enough to keep it interesting and long enough to cover the subject.
In order to help you to make progress on this project, I have established the following milestones for you:
*Final project topic due: October 8
*General outline and sample text (~3 pages) and
illustration for final project due: November 7.
1) You may approach the study of a particular region using the method we have developed in class:
What are the landforms that you see?
What are the processes operating within this landscape?
What drives the surficial processes here?
What resists the surficial processes here?
How does energy flow in this landscape?
What can you say about the development of this landscape?
What would be a representative piece of this landscape?
How would you divide it up to get the most important processes and landforms?
2)You may write about a particular process or set
of processes and the landforms that are developed.
Try to make some original observations either in the
field or on maps or in an experiment that help you to understand the processes
and how they operate.Don?t just say that something happens, show me and
describe it.
Use this method (perhaps as an outline) to guide you:
1)Conceptualize the problem and choose something worth doing (know the why).
2)Choose appropriate methodology, tools, data, etc. that will help you to solve the problem or test the hypothesis (be efficient and select the most useful approach first).
3)Do something.
4)Tell us about it, using this method as an outline.
Approximate point breakdown:
Presentation and application of original data to substantiate inferences30%
Thorough consideration of geomorphic processes and related landforms30%
Clarity of writing20%
Clarity and usefulness of illustrations20%
See the links on our Geomorphology web page to the advice to speakers and writers from Jon Claerbout at Stanford University.