Wrap Up

Overview of the main topics and ideas that you encountered in Unit 1.

Unit 1: Science!

• is a human activity—it isn’t Truth, but it works;
• is the best way we have to answer many questions (How does something work? How can we use that information to cure disease or find clean water or otherwise help us?);
• cannot answer many questions (What should we do? Why are we here?).

Scientific Method:

• Get a new idea (hypothesis) from somewhere (genius?).
• See if new idea beats old idea in predicting what will happen (experiment).
• If yes (after many tests), use the new idea; if no, still use old one.
• Repeat—there’s always more to learn.
• Ideas that work better may be True, Close, or Lucky, so science never sure.
• Science can prove ideas wrong, but cannot prove them correct.
• But, if we act as if science finds truth, we succeed in doing many things...
• IF we follow the scientific method.

Why National Parks?

• US idea, Yellowstone first (1870).
• Take a quick visit to Yellowstone, and imagine it as a power plant or cola ad.
• Problem: parks for “conservation unimpaired for future generations” but “enjoyment” for this generation.
• Doing both is not easy.

Why Geology?

• Find valuable things (oil, water, gems).
• Avoid hazards (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides).
• Learn how Earth works to keep it and us happy and healthy.
• Have fun (Why are the parks so pretty? What were dinosaurs like?).

Some Geological Background

• We WILL cover evidence during the semester, but we have to start somewhere.
• Earth 4.6 billion years old, pieces from space fell together under gravity.
• Heated as it formed (natural radioactivity, and the heat from stopping those falling pieces—think of hot-brake smell after stopping a truck on a steep hill).
• Heating melted Earth and allowed it to separate into layers (think of car-bottom clump on a snowy day—ice and rocks and dead-squirrel parts all lumped together, but separate when they melt in the garage).
• Layers are: iron-rich core, iron-silica mantle, more-silica/less-iron crust (refer to Chemistry Sidebar in the text if this seems unfamiliar).