summer earth studies

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Summer Earth Studies is a non-profit educational company that offers an experiential, honors-level, elective science course for rising sophomore, junior, and senior high school students.  Students will study topics in geology, meteorology, astronomy, and ecology through actual experiences.  The teacher/student ratio will be less than 6 to 1.  The goals of the course are to give top science students a real-world hands-on experience in their education, to give them insight to the possibilities of the earth sciences as a vocation, and to develop a sense of environmental stewardship for the future.  Students will have 3 weekend field trips during the spring in Georgia. In Late May, SES will travel on a 19-day trip through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.  Students will travel in cars on weekend trips and Chevrolet Suburbans on the summer trip and stay in hotels or lodges.  We will do various activities including hiking, rafting, swimming, guided caving, and general sight-seeing.

 

COURSE COST

The actual cost of the course depends on our ability to find sponsors.  Course tuition covers ground transportation, lodging, some meals, most activities, and instruction. Depending on sponsorship and student enrollment, tuition will cost between $1800-$2200. Parents will supply meal money to their students and pay for round-trip airfare to Salt Lake City, UT. Parents of accepted students will make an initial down payment of $500 with 2 more payments due in April and May.  Course payments are only refundable in the event of serious student illness or serious family complications and ultimately decided by the Director. Initial down payment is due within one week of acceptance.

 

COURSE ACCEPTANCE

Acceptance into the course is solely at the discretion of the Director.  Criteria to be used will be two teacher recommendations, physical and academic student qualification, student essay, and a balance of gender, grade level, and schools.

 

COURSE EVALUATION AND CREDIT

This honors course exceeds 120 contact hours and earns 1 Carnegie Unit.  Student grades and weights will have 10-15 evaluated field problem solutions (50%), 2-3 notebook grades (10%), 3 oral tests (20%), a final field problem (10%), and an oral final exam (10%).

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COURSE CONTENT

SES meets the Georgia Dept. of Education standards for Earth Science and Geology courses. The content below is presented through a series of field problems that students solve cooperatively in small groups.

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1.  Astronomy

    Earth in Space

    Earth, Moon, Sun relationship

    Observation and measurement in Space

    Solar System

    Beyond the Solar System

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2.  Meteorology

    "Ingredients" of weather and their properties

    Wind

    Water in the atmosphere

    Air masses, fronts, pressure areas, weather maps

    Severe weather: thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes

    Climate

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3.  Cartography

    Orientation

    Types of maps

    Highway maps

    Latitude/longitude

    Compass

    Topographic maps

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4.  Physical Geology

    Earth composition

    Earth processes

    Depositional environments

    Earth stresses and structure

    Plate tectonics

    Fossil fuels

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5.  Historical Geology

    Geologic time scale

    Absolute and relative age dating

    Biological evolution / fossils

    North American events

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6.  Life Science

    Classification

    Ecology

    Field identification

    Human impact

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For more details, please see the Information packet in Handouts.

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