Grading Policy: Students are expected to attend class, do the reading, and consult the instructor throughout the term. These steps will help you to learn the material covered in class on the exams, and in your term project. Class participation is an important part of this class. If you do not attend class, arrive unprepared for class, or do not contribute to the class discussions, your grade will suffer. Class participation will allow you to gauge your progress. Late assignments will not be accepted. Grades will be based on the assigned work as follows:

Grading may be on a curved scale at the discretion of the instructor, but each student has the potential to succeed in this course. Assignments will be passed back to help students prepare for the cumulative final.

Midterm Exams: Written, in-class exams will test your knowledge of the material. These will include short answer and conceptual essay questions. Remember to write out your answers in a clear methodical fashion and to show all your work.

Make-up Exams: Students are expected to manage their academic and personal activities responsibly during the term. Students who miss an exam must provide a legitimate written excuse in a timely manner in order to receive a make-up exam. Legitimate excuses for missing an exam include written documentation for the following: conflict with another Kent State University academic activity (such as an off campus field trip), your own illness, a death in the family, and military or intercollegiate athletic commitments. If you are involved in military or official university athletic activities, review the exam schedule at the beginning of the term and consult with the instructor prior to the exam if you have a conflict.  If you have an illness, personal crisis, or family tragedy that results in missing an exam, you must contact the instructor by phone or email no later than 48 hours after the scheduled start time of the exam.  It is very important that you provide your name and a telephone number where you can be reached in your phone or email message.

Class Participation and Oral Presentations: During Weeks 7-12 of the class we will study interesting case histories of past worlds reconstructed through the use of a variety of paleoceanographic data (e.g. physical properties of sediments, microfossils, and geochemical tracers). We will select six of the following topics and explore each for a one-week period using the class text and readings from the literature as a guide:

Students will have the opportunity to vote on which of these topics they would like to study. Each week will consist of a setup lecture by the instructor followed by group discussion of the class based on material from the text and from published papers. For each topic, the instructor will select student teams who will have the responsibility of finding publications on the topic and presenting these to the class for discussion. Readings will be: Selected from the class text, handouts provided by the instructor, and provided by student group leaders selected for each topic. For the participation part of their grade, students will be graded on the basis of the research they conduct for their presentation, their preparation for their oral presentation, the quality of their presentation and their participation in all class discussions during the term.

Final Projects: All classes at Kent State must have a substantive final assessment as part of the grading processes. The final term paper (graduate students) and poster session (all students) will serve this purpose in Paleoceanography. Students who do not complete this assignment will not receive a passing grade in the class. Graduates students will work in pairs and undergraduates will work in groups of three to complete the final project. All students must contribute equally to the project. Groups should specify the contribution of each student to the project. If difficulties with group dynamics develop, it is the responsibility of the students to bring this to the attention of the instructor as soon as possible so that a solution can be found, including differential grading if necessary.

Student may select their oral presentation topic for the final term project or an additional topic after consultation with the instructor. The term project will usually constitute a literature study, but can with the permission of the instructor constitute a paleoclimate research project related to the student's area of interest. Students should begin working on this project by the third week of class and are expected to be prepared to discuss progress on their topic during class and to meet with the instructor during the term to seek guidance and provide progress reports.

Graduate students will be required to select and research a topic during the course of the term, and to write up their results in the form of a short manuscript (which synthesizes findings from the literature) and an accompanying submission cover page written in the format of a rapid response journal such as: Nature, Science, Nature Geoscience, or GEOLOGY. To assist you with this project, Dr. Ortiz and Edith Scarletto, the Geology Librarian have collaborated to develop an Earth Science writing webpage: http://libguides.library.kent.edu/EarthScienceWriting where you can fund useful resources. It will also be helpful to read papers published in this journal to become familiar with the writing style. The final term paper will be graded on the quality of the components of the project: outline, draft and completed final paper.

All students are required to make a poster discussing the primary findings of their term project. The final class paper and poster will be due by 5 pm on the last day before the beginning of exam week. We will present a student poster session during the scheduled final exam period for the class (see below).

How grades are calculated: Grades are based on a weighted average of your class scores using the following equation:

Class GPA  = 0.6*(Average Midterm GPA) + 0.10*(Class Participation) + 0.30*(Final Term Project)

Bridging the Conceptual Divide Between Theoretical and Applied Environmental Chemistry The Geology Department at Kent State University was recently awarded a significant grant from the National Science Foundation to study how and in what ways different classroom approaches influence student learning.  This course section has been selected as one of the classes to be studied for the Fall 2013 semester.  On 8/28/2013 Dr. David M. Dees from the Faculty Professional Development Center will be visiting our class to explain to you the research design of this project, how it may or may not influence your experiences in this class, and offer you a chance to participate in the study.  If you have any questions on this study beforehand, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. David M. Dees at 330-337-4285 or ddees@kent.edu.