Course Description and Objectives - Evolving Earth is a mini-course on the most important concepts in soft-rock geoscience as applied to important events in Earth's history. We learn how 1) tectonics has directed climatic change and the evolution of life, 2) climate has directed evolution, and 3) evolution has caused climatic change (!). To study this interaction of Earth, climate and life, we first learn the basics of stratigraphy, sedimentology, paleontology, geochemical cycling, and the geologic time scale, and then apply them to key times of change in Earth history. 

The course aims to broaden the graduate student experience for those who come from varied undergraduate programs and other science or engineering disciplines.

Instructor - Prof. Laurel Collins, collinsl@fiu.edu,  (305) 348-1732. Office hours (PC 435):  M & F 9-10:30 or by appointment.

Reading - Assigned from the books listed below, available as pdf's by links (above).

Chernicoff, S., et al., 2002, Earth, Geologic Principles and History, Houghton Mifflin Co.

Doyle, P., et al., 2001, The Key to Earth History, An Introduction to Stratigraphy, 2^nd ed., John Wiley.

Stanley, S.M., 2009, Earth System History, 3rd ed., W.H. Freeman and Co.

Policies - Read the assigned readings before coming to class. Silence and put away cell phones during class. The lecture slides can be downloaded from the links (above).

Grading - 20% from class participation, 30% from written assignments and 50% from the final exam. 

• Class participation includes attendance, contributions to discussions and questions or comments. Points will be lost by missing classes, being late, not reading assignments, and not contributing very much in general. Someone who has clearly read the assigned chapters and contributes well regularly will earn the full 20%.

• Assignments are answering review questions and are each worth 4.3% of your grade. Submit hard copies, no emails. Assignments are due a week after the lecture over the subject, except for the last 2 assignments. See due dates in course outline.  Assignments are due at the beginning of class.  Late assignments, i.e., those turned in after the first 10 minutes of the class, lose 1%/class of the assignment grade.

• The final exam has an essay format and covers all lectures and readings.

• Final grades are based on the scale: 93-100% = A, 90-92% = A-, 87-89% = B+, 83-86% = B, 80-82% = B-, 77-79% = C+, 73-76% = C, 70-72% = C-, 67-69% = D+, 63-66% = D, 60-62% = D-, <60% = F.