Physical Geography at Black Hawk College is an introductory course in geography. The course is a traditional lecture-style class, with a two hour lab. Through the use of lectures, textbook, and lab exercises, students explore and study earth materials and landforms. This course examines the materials that make up the landforms found on the surface of the Earth and the processes that build and shape the landforms. Rocks and minerals, Plate Tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, weathering processes, river systems, desert processes, glaciers and the origin of the Earth are but some of the subjects examined. We'll even examine landforms on the other planets in the Solar System and ask the question could life have existed elsewhere in the Solar System?- the answer may surprise you!

The laboratory section of this course gives students a hands-on approach to learning about rocks and minerals, map reading, volcanic eruption assessment, and surface processes. Students will also participate in a field trip which examines geomorphic processes, human influenced terrain and local biodiversity.

Students will also complete a term project for this course. There are a variety of term projects that are available. Research papers are typically 7 to 10 pages. Oral presentations of 7 to 10 minutes have also been used in this course. Each semester a list of topics are selected. One of these topics is chosen by the student, researched and submitted in a written paper or oral presentation. Topics are usually ones that are not covered in detail by the course materials or are topics of recent interest.

For those students needing a lab science course, this course meets the Lab Elective requirements.

Instructor

Richard Harwood

Student Comments

Interested in seeing what students think after completing the course? This link will take you to a web page with recent student comments for the Physical Geography 102 course.

 

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