Teaching Plate Tectonics and Marine Geophysics to Introductory Students with a Microcomputer
Peter Lorentz Guth · Journal of Geoscience Education · 1997
The Marine Geophysics Trainer program allows students to manipulate and visualize bathymetric, gravity-anomaly, and magnetic-anomaly grids. Labs using data sets cover key plate-tectonic features and key topics like the appearance of the sea floor at regional scales, the age-depth relationship for ocean crust, the pattern of marine magnetic anomalies, and the patterns of gravity anomalies and the geoid. This interactive lab for an introductory oceanography or geology class serves four functions: it teaches or reinforces key concepts from lecture; it shows some of the variability in nature; it encourages students to practice critical thinking/problem solving; and it reinforces computer skills. Advanced options of the program would be suitable for other courses.