Customer Reviews

Laboratory Studies in Earth History

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've taught Historical Geology labs from this manual starting with the third edition. I believe that this is one of the better lab texts on the subject but I hear the same complaints from students using the seventh edition that I heard from those using the third - "How are we supposed to interpret the information contained in these poor quality black-and-white photographs that typically lack a scale and a complete verbal description?" and "Why do the questions in the manual seem so 'obtuse'? We can't understand what is being asked for." I've seen only a slight improvement in photographic illustrations over the years (very, very few new illustrations) and minimal improvement in the "clarity" of questions. The colour geologic map plates are typically so poorly printed that I long ago stopped having students do geologic cross sections because we couldn't see elevation contour lines, differentiate colour patterns for formations, or read the strike and dip symbols. There are still (after 20 years) no exercises dealing with evolution theory. Examples of "applied" geology (petroleum, mining, hydrology) are still few in number and simplistic.

I teach a college geology lab that uses this lab book; I didn't chose it. It is filled with inconsistencies, no wonder the students are confused! It will give the students a picture and in one question tell them something about it, then in the next question completely contradict what they said previously. This makes grading just wretched; I often don't catch all these incosistencies before lab, and when reading through the students answers I have to go back and see if their answer makes sense in the context of what they were told.

Additionally, there is often not enough detail given to answer the question. For example, they are given a sequence of strata and asked whether the strata make up different time-rock units; but they don't know the age of anything in the picture! So how are they supposed to know?

I would never use this book. It's better to use something more elementary that doesn't confuse the students. I understand this lab book is trying to be more indepth than other lab books out there, but if the students are getting confused by it they're not learning more.

I'll keep this short, as going back to my lab class brings back traumatic memories. Quite simply, this is one of the worst pieces of college material I have ever come in contact with. An STD information pamphlet is more informative, better illustrated, and more fun to read. My lab instructor informed my colleague and I that this was the "best" lab manual out of the several others she has seen. May God have mercy on anyone who must use those other issues. To the authors and editors of this work, I suggest you find another profession - as neither writing nor editing is your calling in life, (and I'm being kind). I noted numerous factual errors that were confirmed by a quick Google search and a raised hand to my professor. The illustrations were something I would expect from a Cold War military satellite photo showing bunker locations. And those at least had some explanations that made sense. If it helps anyone to better understand, the words "lab manual" were usually preceded by a favored expletive.

Do not get me wrong, I have a definite interest in geology. So my argument against this "book" is not biased. But quite simply, this book goes up there in the list of all-time worsts. I can only recommend this book the same way I would recommend open-heart surgery - Only if you must. This book was a requirement for my ONE credit lab, and I was very happy to sell the proverbial "cursed monkey paw" to some other poor unknowing student who has no idea what they are getting themselves into.

This is not what I wanted, but it seems like it's in a good condition. It wasn't the seller's fault. The school gave us the wrong ISBN.

Being Mr. Phelan's (His review below) colleague in our lab class the two of us shared this manual through many a grueling class period. I too enjoy geology and find it particularly useful in application as I spend a great deal of time in the outdoors. This manual however could have been made more useful as fuel for a fire. I am an English major and I found the amount of grammatical errors appalling for something that has been professionally published.

This was by far the worst piece of material that I have come across in my academic career. The only highlight that comes to mind is the geological time chart on the inside cover of the book. That was put to good use, however my finger was put to much more use scratching my head while attempting to read through and follow the exercises in this manual. In fact, my instructor actually ended up omitting about half of the exercises and questions from our assignments. She too found herself, a highly educated professional who spent a career working in geology and another career instructing, scratching her head at many of the passages and questions in the manual. I unfortunately can't say that I learned anything from this manual and that it did more to harm my education than it did to nourish it. I must give a lot of praise to my professor for her explanation and instruction or else I would have not learned a thing in my lab course last semester.

Students, I urge you to persuade your professors to omit this piece of material from their curriculum.

Editors, Writers, and Publisher, I am sure that you are knowledgeable on the subject--I do not doubt that. However I ask of you all to please, please do your names and your field justice by rewriting and redeveloping a manual that is usable to the masses and one that makes sense. I would even suggest some sort of interactive internet program. Just something though that students can learn from. Keep in mind that many of the students who will read and use this manual are in 100 level classes and are not majors in the field of geology.

So I needed this book for lab and didn't feel like I really needed it.
Mainly questions and answers without any experiments or labs even.
Pictures aren't colored which made identifying some rock layers difficult.
But it was a great great deal and it kept it's resell value.

This book is ok. It gives you definitions of things which is good but for some things I think it needs to get more explanation. I think the book just needs to be updated. Everything is in black and white and it would be better to look at rocks in color. Just get updated pictures mostly.

My college daughter ordered this book and then had a schedule change, not needing the book. The seller was wonderful, we returned the book for a full refund. I would recommend this seller to anyone.

There was a lot more writing in the book than expected. It did get to me in a timely manner and no pages were missing.