Teaching Co. Geology courses: What is the difference between the two?

[unsinkable]

How the Earth Works

 

and

 

Nature of Earth: An Introduction to Geology

 

 

Which would be better for a high schooler with a weaker science apptitude?

 

Thanks!

[Faithr]

We are watching How the Earth Works right now. It is more than Geology. It also gets into Geo-physics, hydrology and climatology. So it really is all of Earth Science, not just Geology. I have not seen the Introduction to Geology lecture series, but I had the impression it was a bit narrower in its scope. How the Earth Works does not get into how to identify rocks, for instance. If your student wants to be a rock hound and learn to identify and collect rocks, I don't think How the Earth Works will be a good fit. If your student is more into learning about the bigger picture and how many systems work together then How the Earth Works would be great. There is some stuff in How the Earth Works that is over our heads but for the most part it is really fascinating!

[AmeliaBinMO]

Hi, unsinkable! I've not yet viewed these TTC courses, but wanted to add a couple of thoughts. I recently looked at both of these TTC courses to supplement an Earth Science course that my dd wanted to take for next school year. In addition to reading TTC's course descriptions, I'd recommend closely studying the "Course Lecture Titles" (in the left margin) and compare them for both courses. Also, if you haven't already, read through all the reviews for both courses -- the reviewers sometimes give some insight as to the depth of information covered.

 

After researching both courses, I purchased, "The Nature of Earth: An Introduction to Geology." I got the impression that it was probably more on the level of a beginning earth science course, and that "How the Earth Works" might be a bit more in depth. What also made my decision easier was to compare the "Course Lecture Titles" from TTC's lectures to the table of contents of the earth science text that we had chosen (PH's text by Tarbuck and Lutgens) to see which videos would match up best as a supplement.

 

"How the Earth Works" sounds very interesting, but for us, I am hoping that the Intro course will be a better match. Obviously, since we've not used either video series, I am not a huge help here, but I thought that I'd contribute what I did to attempt to make the same decision.

 

All the best to you!

AmeliaBinMO

[TravelingChris]

We are doing How the Earth Works because that is the one the library happened to have on display, and I was looking for a earth science course. For one of my girls, it is her first higher level science course. FOr the other one, it is her third after chemistry and after starting biology. I watch this with them and we normally take about 45 minutes for each 30 minute show what with discussions and looking at globes and atlases. The other sciences in this show are mostly physical science level stuff- not full blown chemistry and physics. My older understands more usually but in some cases, particularly with the motions of the earth, the younger gets it easier. Neither of the two have had physics yet but the younger has a better grasp of physics naturally,

 

I would suggest going on the website and checking the titles of the lectures. Then you will get a better feel for what each teaches.

[unsinkable]

Thanks, everyone!

 

The info helped. :D