"WE WROTE EXPLORING GEOLOGY SO THAT STUDENTS could learn from the book on their own, freeing up instructors to teach the class in any way they want. I (Steve Reynolds) first identified the need for this book while I was a National Association of Geoscience Teachers' (NAGT) distinguished speaker. As part of my NAGT activities, I traveled around the country conducting workshops on how to infuse active learning and scientific inquiry into introductory college geology courses, including those with upwards of 200 students. In the first part of the workshop, I asked the faculty participants to list the main goals of an introductory geology college course, especially for nonmajors"--
Unlike any other textbook you have ever seen before. Figure based, entirely composed of two-page spreads that make it easy to flip the book open to any point and start learning. This is an incredible resource for both those new to geology, as well as those who have studied geology for years and want an additional resource. Highly recommended, and way more conducive to learning than traditional text based books that make you flip 5 pages to view a referenced figure, and haven't considered how students learn. 5/5!
Read this entire text via McGraw Hill Connect for a course. It was awful. Not formatted for any screen, couldn't look at the pictures they were describing and read or listen to the text at the same time. The text was clumsy and super hard to understand. Terrible book and program.
Geology--another subject I'm not cut out for. Maybe it would have been different if the class had been taught differently, but this book was essentially useless. To be fair: it's full of pictures and diagrams, which I suppose is helpful if you're an intensely visual learner with a strong interest in the subject. However, many of the pictures are so intricate that you don't know what to look at first. Many of the pages have a box that reads: "before leaving this page you should be able to..." Well, I usually was not able to [whatever]. I was successful in my class overall, but not because of the book. Seriously...I hate this book.
I am now done with this book, and I have loved every moment of working out of it. The diagrams are great, and though it sometimes repeats information, it does so for a good reason, as some things apply to others, and one never knows what a teacher is and is not going to teach. I highly recommend this for any teacher looking for a good geology book.