About this Course
G-103 is a survey course about the Earth, its processes, and materials. It is intended for non-science majors and has the goal of making the student more aware of the issues and threats to the Earth and our environment. Many issues will be examined both from a scientific point of view and from a public policy perspective. Citizens today should be more aware of the effects of economic and political trends on their environment. The Earth faces a number of threats not the least of which is "Global Warming", and we must be able to understand these threats to make intelligent choices.
G-103 is designed to be a blended learning course that utilizes a number of technological features to make learning simpler and more engaging. A course website can be found at:
The website includes a number of features including interactive multimedia exercises, virtual reality field trips, 3D photographs and object movies, object movies that allow you to see an object or terrain from all angles, animations, videos, and downloadable "Ipod" audio mini-lectures. These features will help you learn faster and get a clear idea of what parts of the course you fully understand and what parts need to be examined again. You should spend at least 30 minutes each week on the website going through the lecture notes and interactive exercises.
The instructor in this course recently won an International Excellence in Teaching, Learning , and Technology Award for the web features in this course, as described in the link below.