Do you like volcanoes, or earthquakes, or fossils, or glaciers, or weather? Do you worry about the climate? Have you ever seen a cool rock and wondered what it was? Do you want to understand why the world around you looks the way it does and how we shape the Earth and it shapes us?

If you have answered “Yes” to any of those questions (and even if you haven’t) you are already on your way to being an Earth Scientist! Come learn more about the world around you and why Earth Science Rocks!

Class Structure:

I use a “Flipped Classroom” approach, which means that our time together in the classroom is focused on doing activities and applying the information that students have encountered in their readings and at-home assignments.

The first few weeks will be an introduction to some basic concepts in Earth Science that will provide a foundation for the following weeks where students will help decide the topics we study with a capstone presentation project at the end.

Assignments:

Students are expected to complete 1-2 hours of reading/assignment per week between classes. This may include research on a topic, independent lab/project work, or other activities. 

Prerequisite skills:

In order to participate in this class, students should have the following skills/abilities. If a student has some but not all of these skills, please contact me ahead of time, so that I can determine what modifications I might be able to make in order to include the student in the class. 

• Ability to follow instructions, including safety instructions
• Ability to work constructively with teacher and classmates on a collaborative project such as a lab
• Reading, at roughly a middle-school level 
• Writing legibly by hand (please contact me if the student needs to use a computer for writing - this can be easily accommodated with advance planning)
• Math skills including working with decimals, fractions, percentages, and ratios 
• Access to a laptop/computer at home with internet and access to an email account, as we will be using Google Drive and Classrooms to organize our materials and communicate.

Weekly Materials: Each week, each student is responsible for bringing: 

• Their notebook (a notebook or binder with paper - same one every week)
• Writing supplies (a pencil & sturdy eraser, a pen, etc)
• A scientific calculator
• A laptop with Word and Excel.
• If students do not have access to a laptop, please let me know and I will do my best to find a way to arrange for them to use a borrowed laptop in class.

Things to Note:

• Textbooks/readings will either be supplied for free by me, or links to open source documents will be posted in out online classroom.
• I will be supplying much of the extra materials needed, but depending on the topics, we decide to study, students may need to bring other supplies from home or use supplies at home to complete assignments. In either case, I will do my best to make sure the supplies can be found for free or cheaply.
• Depending on the topics we decide to study in class, we may take field trips to look at local geology and do some earth science in the field. If this is the case, parents/guardians will be informed at least a week before so appropriate arrangements can be made.
• Food/ Allergies:  Depending on what topics we study, some of the activities may do involve food or other materials. Please let me know ASAP if your child has any allergies to food or anything else (including medication allergies, environmental allergies, etc). Please let me know the severity of the allergy and if the child can be in the same room as the substance or not. 

Age range: 12+

Fee: $52.50 

(This will cover group materials and science-specific supplies that I will provide.)

Instructor:

Rebekah Fitchett has been at Northeastern Illinois University for over 13 years as the Lab Manager for Earth Science and Environmental Science. For 10 of those years she was also a full time instructor of Earth Science and Environmental Science and taught a wide range of classes from Introduction to Earth Science, to Maps and Structures, to Aqueous Geochemistry. She is a total science nerd/rock hound and loves to share her excitement and passion with others.