Syllabus

There's only one book on Susan Kidwell's syllabus for Principles of Stratigraphy: Sedimentary Geology (Freeman) by Donald R. R. Prothero and Fred Schwab. Much of the book won't be covered in class, but Kidwell has no choice; it's the only text on the market that covers stratigraphy. Prothero had an earlier stratigraphy textbook, but "no one taught it but me," says Kidwell. "Less than ten orders every two years couldn't keep the book in print." Luckily, most of that text has survived (and is updated) in the new volume.

Susan Kidwell

Not that Kidwell wants students to bury their noses in a book. A major priority is to get students reading primary sources. "One of my favorite campus activities is going shelf-trawling at Crerar," she tells the class—wandering down the science library's aisles of current journals and scanning coverlines until something jumps out at her. "I remember as an undergraduate that reading journal articles can feel—and is—like jumping into the deep end of a pool. Unlike textbooks, they don't start with 'matter is composed of atoms.' Some authors are nice, some are thoughtless. None of them write with the graduate or undergraduate student in mind. Consider this a safe place to test the waters. We're here to help."

"We" includes teaching assistant Tom Rothfus, a lanky, curly-haired guy. He leads the weekly two-hour lab sessions, where students learn bibliographic, field, and graphical methods—and get to play with actual rocks.

In addition to the lab work (20 percent of the grade) and two exams on the lectures (60 percent), there's a term paper due at quarter's end, along with an oral presentation (20 percent). "It's never too soon to start working on your oral skills," Kidwell says. "Besides, I hate it when students do all this great work and then no one sees it but me."

— S.A.S.