Historical Geology 102
General Description
Historical Geology at Black Hawk College is an introductory courses in geology. 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 the history of the Earth from a geologic and evolutionary perspective. The range of topics in this course is limited only by the events that have affected and shaped the Earth and life on it. Dinosaurs, continental collisions, the origin of life on Earth, mass extinctions, the origin of Humans, the development of the North American continent and the last Ice Age are but some of the subjects examined. You'll even look into the question, "What really killed off the dinosaurs?" - the answer may surprise you!
The laboratory section of this course gives students a hands-on approach to learning about the tools and techniques used by geologists in the reconstruction of the Earth's history. Students will examine and study rock identification, radiometric dating techniques, fossils and fossilization, evidence and patterns of evolution, biostratigraphic correlation, and fossil dinosaur trackways.
Students may 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. Recently students have been creating web pages for their term project. Each semester a list of topics are selected. One of these topics is chosen by the student, researched and submitted in a written paper, oral presentation or web page. 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.
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