All of My Faults Are Stress Related
Archives for April, 2009
Good examples of hurricanes, volcanoes, landslides…?
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 30, 2009 I should have finished designing the new version of my disasters class. I’ve been thinking about it forever. But then I was trying to get a paper written, and then I went to a conference, and then there were senior thesis presentations and end-of-semester grading and a six-year-old’s birthday, and, well… Yes, I am frantically…
The stress and the joy of undergraduate research
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 25, 2009 It’s that time of year again. The plotter is out of paper and the students have new haircuts and clothes I’ve never seen. It must be time for senior thesis presentations. In about an hour and a half, the senior geology students will be giving 15-minute talks (the same length as at professional geology meetings)…
Links: in which Earth is gorgeous and cool
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 23, 2009 I got back from a conference Tuesday night, and came home to the craziness of the semester’s end. Part of me wants to blog about how cool undergraduate research is, after we had our big school-wide undergraduate research symposium, but I really should be grading the proposals for next year’s senior thesis projects. (Which will…
Anniversary of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 18, 2009 I’ve been awakened by an earthquake, but it was only M 4. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be in San Francisco 103 years ago this morning, when a M 8-ish earthquake struck at 5:12 am. Shaking ten times stronger than the Loma Prieta earthquake – I couldn’t stand up in…
What’s your favorite science (or other) conspiracy theory?
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 16, 2009 I’m brainstorming for my summer class, and I’m thinking about creating an exercise or assignment in which students try to figure out whether a web site (or blog post, or whatever) is reliable. (I’m going to be teaching in a computer classroom, so I’ve got a choice of having students do a homework assignment or…
Signs of spring (?)
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 16, 2009 Last night, we were having another one of those incredible dust storms that have been blowing in this spring (and which may be decimating the spring snowpack). This morning, I woke up to this: I was happy to see it – it will melt by the end of the day, and will keep the soil…
Hot rocks, thermal insulation, and the giant imaginary comforter in the lower crust
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 15, 2009 The cores of mountain belts formed by continental collisions often contain metamorphic rocks, formed when sediments were buried in the collision and transformed by heat and pressure. But the heat and pressure don’t happen simultaneously – rocks can be buried (and increase in pressure) much faster than they can heat up. When the rocks are…
Chocolate chip cookie tectonics, take two
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 13, 2009 My reviewers commenters on yesterday’s post on chocolate chip cookie deformation had some great points. (Some of them also seem to have been very hungry. For those who want me to experiment more, and to get to analyze the results: looks like I’ve got something that I can promise once the Donors Choose challenge rolls…
Structural analysis of a chocolate chip cookie
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 12, 2009 I probably shouldn’t have baked chocolate chip cookies yesterday, what with today being one of the two biggest chocolate-buzz holidays on the American calendar. But I did. I’ve had a lot of trouble figuring out the best recipe adjustments for high elevation. My cookies have a tendency to puff up big, and then collapse into…
What’s the point of general education requirements?
Posted by Kim Hannula on April 11, 2009 Advising and registration for summer and fall semesters has just finished, so I’ve been spending a lot of time talking and thinking about general education requirements. In particular, I’ve been thinking about one question: why? What’s the point of general education requirements? What are they good for? What should students get out of them? In…