Teaching Assistant: Alejandro Gallego
Office Location: 224B Williamson Hall
Office Hours: T 8-9 am, or by appointment  

Lab Section (Not Mandatory): you can choose one of the following three sections
(T, periods 4-5) (M, periods 6-7) (Th, periods 4-5)
Course Credit: 1

Required Textbook: Understanding Earth, 5th edition, 2007, by Grotzinger, Jordan, Press and Siever (Freeman and Company)
Students can purchase either paper copy or e-Book. In order to purchase e-Book, it is required to register and login at http://ebooks.bfwpub.com/earth.php.

Course Description:
ESC 1000 is an introductory course that focuses on basic concepts and various aspects of Earth sciences. In this class, we will try to answer following fundamental questions:
*How has the Earth evolved since its formation?
*How well do we understand the current status of the Earth?
*What kinds of evidence and tools can be used to answer the above two questions?
A broad range of relevant examples will be provided in the class to improve your understanding of our Planet!

Grading: 1st Midterm (100 pts) + 2nd Midterm (100 pts) + Final (100 pts) + Attendance (30 pts) = 330 pts. It will be curved to the normal distribution. Normalized scores and corresponding grades are 90-100 (A), 85-90 (B+), 80-85 (B), 75-80 (C+), 70-75 (C), 65-70 (D+), 60-65 (D) and below 60 (E).

Class attendance is not mandatory, but strongly recommended. There will be 6 pop-up checks during the semester (I’ll distribute note cards, ask to write your name on it, and collect those), and each missing card will cause -5 pts.  Therefore, the total credit for attendance will be 30 pts.

Class Web Address: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/kmin/ESC1000/ESC1000(2008).htm

Minerals and Rocks 1: Basics