Sample Resources
The following are examples of the high-quality, exciting resources that are a part of Seminars on Science. Most of them, from essays to videos, have been written and produced specifically for this course. All students receive a copy of their course resources on CD-ROM for use not only during the course itself, but also as a classroom resource.
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Sample Essay - Week 3: How Has the Earth Evolved: Evolution of the Atmosphere
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Realizing that the environment must have had a profound impact on the evolution of life on Earth seems easy to understand. But in turn, the evolution of life had a huge impact on the formation of the planet and the atmosphere. This essay looks at the symbiotic relationship between the Earth, the atmosphere, and the newly formed microorganisms that lived over a billion years ago.
Read the essay... |
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Sample Video - Week 3: Banded Iron Formation (1:39)
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Authoring scientist Dr. Ed Mathez shows how the presence of banded iron layers in the bedrock of the oceans proves that at once point in time there must have been a good deal of iron dissolved in Earth's oceans. The iron began reacting with the oxygen released by organisms engaged in photosynthesis, forming crystals of iron oxide that became the reddish layers of banded iron seen in the rock in this video.
Watch the video... |
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Sample Interactive - Week 5: Model of Mantle Convection (7:12)
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Scientists from the Los Alamos National Laboratory have designed a computer model that allows them to see what happens to the Earth's crust when they vary the velocity, pressure, temperature, and viscosity of the Earth's mantle. By realizing that there is an important connection between plate tectonics and the movement of rocks within the Earth's mantle, they have been able to better understand the movement of continents over the last 5 billion years.
Explore the interactive... |
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