Describes an assignment in a paleontology course built around constructional morphology and the role of adaptation and exaptation in evolution. Students investigate the constructional morphology of a group of fossils that interests them. Findings are presented in an oral presentation and in a term paper. Students translated regulations of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection into plain English. Students wrote their opinions in a concise manner and appeared at a board meeting to influence its decision.
Author asserts that the writing process enhanced earth- science learning.
Writing Assignments as a Continuum in Geoscience. This paper reviews attempts to introduce writing skills to undergraduate geoscience students, reports on the status of technical writing in geoscience curriculum, and describes a fully integrated approach to writing across the geosciences curriculum, based on a required sophomore-level technical writing course. The technical writing course leads into a continuum of writing assignments in all subsequent geoscience-content courses. 95 May 1991. Describes an approach to introductory geology that requires students to go into the field to make observations, collect and analyze data, synthesize those data, and hypothesize about inferred geologic relationships.