Geology Courses Taught
Dynamic Earth [GEOL 1504]
	I often teach this class on the processes of the solid Earth.  I focus on the mechanisms of these processes, their importance to the science of geology and to society.  I try avoid the overly abundant terminology that pollutes most introductory geology texts.    I make connections between the arcane workings of the Earth and with every life as an animal (yes, that's us) living on Earth.
-Physical Geology [GEOL 1505]
	This course is similar to 1504, but is much more in-depth.  This course has a lab with it and so the course can be based on the crucial data of geology which is rocks and minerals.  You WILL know the several major minerals of the Earth by the time we are done and how these minerals formed.
-Glacial Geology [GEOL 3702]
	Fun.  Glaciers covered northern Ohio only a eyeblink in time ago to a geologist.  They were in my opinion the most exciting things to geologically affect this area since the Grenville Orgogeny (about a billion years ago).  Learn how glacier work, what they do and create.  For a final project will interpret the glaciation of Canada based on the geomorphology of Canada.
-Structural Geology [GEOL 3704]
	How and why do rocks break and change shape. How can you take a strong rock and bend it in half.  What goes on at micro-, meso- and macroscopic scales during deformation. This course also examines field data of deformed rocks to get at the question of what happened to them and why.  The Spring 2006 class took a field trip to examine structures and distributed deformation in a thrust window in central Pennsylvania  Field trip photos
-Geology of Economic Mineral Deposits [GEOL 3706]
	Since the beginning of the stone age human civilization has always depended on resources mined from the Earth.  This course looks at the major types of mineral deposits of economic use and the geologic processes to create, concentrate, refine them. These processes fit into a simple system of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic processes, although often multiple events are required to get the resulting economic mineral deposit.
-Tectonics [GEOL 4824]
	This course is everything you could ask for. This is it.  This is what runs our world and creates the shapes and locations of everything.  Unfortunately as this course is written it has lots of prereqs., but see me and we could maybe make a deal. We will look at plate tectonics in detail and try to figure out what drives it and how hotspots figure in this system.  The course finishes with a look at the history of Earth and thinking about how tectonics could have changed from or is different from the current system we call plate tectonics.  We can then compare our world with the solid bodies in our Solar System.
-Upper Peninsula Geology Field Course [GEOL ????]
	I have assisted Dr. Jeff Dick with his summer field course based in the Munising area of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  We examine the rich geologic history here with daily field trips to geology from the Archean to the today.  Exciting sites include pillow basalts, 2.5 billion year old fossils, many flavors of igneous and metamorphic rocks (Dr. Dick probably prefers the sedimentary rocks or even the Holocene sediment deposits), and spectacular banded iron formation. We usually stay at great cabins with their own crisp lake.  A perfect day involves waking up early, going for a swim with everything quiet, drinking coffee and sunny days on the beach of Lake Superior or hiking up a monadonock.