Geology 255 -- Geohydrology
4 credits -- 1999
Paul Bierman
203 Perkins Hall
656-4411
pbierman@zoo.uvm.edu
Water is an important driving force in many geologic processes, particularly those occurring at and near Earth's surface. During this semester, we will study water and the geologic implications of its movement from several different perspectives including: lakes and ponds, the flow of water through porous media, water and its movement over and into the ground, the importance and behavior of snow, and the effect of water on the development and stability of hillslopes.
The course will be structured differently from many that you have taken at UVM. Emphasis will be placed on learning by doing rather than learning by lecture. Each week there will be a one and a half hour lecture/discussion/activity session on Monday followed by a four-hour laboratory on Wednesday. The laboratory exercises will vary and will include spread-sheet modeling of hydrologic phenomena, use of experimental apparati, reduction of field data, and the use of Macintosh computers. We will be using the computer facilities in room 300 Perkins and the equipment in the Lake Lab (Perkins 101).
Three Saturdays we will go into the field as a class and gather geologic and hydrologic data. These data, difficult to acquire and uncertain as they will likely be, will become the basis of several short reports. These reports will involve the presentation of field data, calculations reducing these data, and a summary giving your conclusions. The reports will be limited to a maximum of five double-spaced pages of text with the typical 1" margins and typical type size (no less than 12 point). We take the length limit seriously, don't fool with the margins, type size or line spacing. Any pages of text above the 5 page limit will be returned to you, unread.
Each report should contain an abstract, an introduction, a methods section, data and discussion. Your figures, tables, references and calculations must be included but do not count in the five page limit. For each project you will gather data in groups; however, the written reports must be your own work. For the last project, you will work in pairs and prepare a poster presentation describing your findings. We understand that many of you will work together reducing data and will discuss the reports among yourselves; however, the writing, calculations, and figures in your reports must be yours, only.
EXPECTATIONS
This is a senior level/ graduate course and I expect each of you to take the initiative in both learning and project completion. It is expected that you will have done the reading prior to the class for which it was assigned. It is expected that you will come to every class. It is expected that you will arrive on time so as not to disturb the learning of others. Attendance and participation will weigh heavily in your grade. The will be no tests or exams in the course.
Projects are due at the beginning of class on specified days and labs are due at the start of class the Wednesday following the lab session. Projects and labs will lose a letter grade for each day that they are late, no expectations and no extensions will be considered the day an assignment is due. This includes computer and printing failures. You must plan ahead and you must back up your work!
If you know in advance that there will be a conflict or difficulty with completing an assignment in a timely manner, see me before the assignment is late and we'll try to work something out. Your grade in the class will reflect the following:
1. Attendance and participation in discussion. lecture and laboratory.
2. Quality, completeness, and timeliness of laboratory assignments.
2. Quality, completeness, and timeliness of project reports.
3. Quality and completeness of poster presentation
4. Participation on mandatory Saturday field trips.
Please be on time for class, lab and field trips. Note that on some days we will meet upstairs and on some days we will meet downstairs. Class locations are indicated on the syllabus.
I have no formal office hours but can usually be found in my office between 9 am and 6 p.m. each day. If you want to be sure and catch me, make an appointment by phone or even better by email. Kyle Nichols is the TA for the class and can also answer many of your questions. You may schedule appointments with him, too.
On that note...I require that each of you obtain an email account and check it regularly. It's the best way for us all to communicate. Here's how to do it if you missed our first session.
Sit down at a University computer which is hooked to the network; try one upstairs or at the computer center in Waterman where there's someone on duty to help. Go to the UVM website and find the academic computing page. Follow the instructions for setting up an account. Make sure to choose a word you won't forget! Immediately test your account by sending me a message (pbierman@moose.uvm.edu).
There are three required texts and one optional text for the course. The required texts are: Water in Environmental Planning by Dunne and Leopold, a classic, well-written and predominately qualitative overview of hydrology and geology, Snow Sense, a short, illustrated and humorous handbook detailing how not to die in the back country, and A Manual of Field Hydrogeology, a book that you will find quite useful for groundwater. The optional text is Groundwater and Wells. It is the bible of many groundwater hydrologists in the consulting realm. If you imagine yourself working in a consulting firm over the next few years, I strongly recommend that you purchase this book. All books are very much "how to" texts with many examples and recipes for problem solving.