CroninProjects.org/ Vince/ Course/ PhysGeol/Geo1405-Intro-F20.html

Sign above a door at Texas A&M University that reminds folks of an essential virtue that makes education (and geoscience) possible. Photo by Vince Cronin.


Science and Geoscience



"The only ethical principle which has made science possible is that the truth shall be told all the time. If we do not penalize false statements made in error, we open up the way for false statements by intention. And, of course, a false statement of fact made deliberately is the most serious crime a scientist can commit."

--physicist and author C.P. Snow, as written in The Search (1934)

"Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty—some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely sure."

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."

"Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the preceding generation."

--Nobel-laureate physicist Richard Feynman, as written in The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1999)

"Truth is what stands the test of experience."

--Nobel-laureate physicist Albert Einstein, as written in The Laws of Science and the Laws of Ethics (1999)


Assignments For This Topic...

  1. View the "welcome" video on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-V7ELKGnBU. Please do not to make any rude comments about Dr. Cronin or his messy home office.
  2. If you have not already done so, register for Mastering Geology from within the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). To register for Mastering Geology, read and follow the directions provided on the PDF document https://croninprojects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/Student-Reg-Instruct-Fall2020.pdf and follow the links embedded in that document.
  3. Read the study questions for this section, listed at https://croninprojects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/Geo1405-Intro-QF20.html and keep them in mind as you read the following assignments. Most, if not all, of the answers will be in the reading assignments you will have over the first few days of the course.
  4. Read: Earth, chapter 1, section 1.3 The Nature of Scientific Inquiry
  5. Read: Earth, chapter 1, section 1.4 Earth as a System
  6. Scan: Earth, chapter 1, section 1.5 Origin and Early Evolution of Earth
  7. Read: Earth, chapter 1, section 1.6 Earth's Internal Structure
  8. Complete the lab assignment: https://croninprojects.org/Vince/PhysGeoLab/IntroLab-F20.html
  9. Complete the assigned work in Mastering Geology


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