Foundations of Earth Science, 8th edition

Published by Pearson (February 19, 2016) © 2017

  • Frederick K. Lutgens
  • Edward J. Tarbuck (Emeritus) Illinois Central College
  • Dennis G. Tasa Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc.
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About the book

Bringing the textbook to life

  • NEW! Using augmented reality, Pearson’s BouncePages app launches engaging, interactive video and animations that bring the pages of Foundations of Earth Science to life.
    • Students use their mobile device to scan a pre-tagged Pearson textbook figure, and an animation, video, or interactive tutorial illustrating the figure’s concept launches immediately. No slow Web sites or hard-to-remember logins required.
    • By scanning figures associated with the BouncePages icon, students are immediately connected to the digital world and can deepen their learning experience with the printed text.
    • Many of the pages also include hands-on practice opportunities for students to directly apply what they just learned.
    • There are also short URLs in the caption of each SmartFigure, ensuring that students who may not own a mobile device can access the digital learning objects.

  • NEW! BouncePage SmartFigure links throughout the text include:
    • SmartFigure Condor Videos use a quadcopter with a GoPro camera mounted to film 10 key geologic locations and processes. These process-oriented videos are designed to bring the field to the classroom or dorm room and improve the learning experience.
    • Mobile Field Trips, which accompany geologist-pilot-photographer Michael Collier in the air and on the ground, enable students to see and learn about iconic landscapes that relate to discussions in the chapter.
    • Brief SmartFigure Animations, created by text illustrator Dennis Tasa, animate a process or concept depicted in the textbook’s figures. This technology allows students to view moving figures rather than static art to depict how a geologic process truly moves throughout time.
    • SmartFigure Tutorials are sophisticated, annotated illustrations that are also narrated videos.

Modular approach driven by Learning Objectives

  • Four-part learning path facilitates active learning, allowing students to focus on important ideas and pause to assess their progress at frequent intervals:  
The chapter-opening Focus on Concepts lists the learning objectives for each chapter. Each section of the chapter is tied to a specific learning objective, providing students with a clear learning path to the chapter content. Each chapter section also concludes with Concept Checks, a feature that lists questions tied to the section’s learning objective, allowing students to monitor their grasp of significant facts and ideas. Give It Some Thought questions ask students to analyze, synthesize, and think critically about geology.
  • Concepts in Review, a fresh approach to the typical end of-chapter material, provides students with a structured and highly visual review of the chapter. Consistent with the Focus on Concepts and Concept Checks, the Concepts in Review is structured around the section title and the corresponding learning objective for each section.

Compelling, hallmark features

  • Bold magazine-like design supporting the learning path is visually appealing and provides an effective showcase for the program’s highly respected artwork by Dennis Tasa.
  • Smaller, more manageable content modules that focus on core geologic principles are included in each chapter and make key concepts more accessible than ever.
  • Art that teaches and motivates includes high-quality photographs and line art that were carefully selected to
About the book

Bringing the textbook to life

  •  Using augmented reality, Pearson’s BouncePages app launches engaging, interactive video and animations that bring the pages of Foundations of Earth Science to life.
    • Students use their mobile device to scan a pre-tagged Pearson textbook figure, and an animation, video, or interactive illustrating the figure’s concept launches immediately. No slow Web sites or hard-to-remember logins required.
    • By scanning figures associated with the BouncePages icon, students are immediately connected to the digital world and can deepen their learning experience with the printed text.
    • Many of the pages also include hands-on practice opportunities for students to directly apply what they just learned.
    • There are also short URLs in the caption of each SmartFigure, ensuring that students who may not own or have a mobile device can access the digital learning objects.
BouncePage SmartFigure links throughout the text include:
  • SmartFigure Condor Videos use a quadcopter with a GoPro camera mounted to film 10 key geologic locations and processes. These process-oriented videos are designed to bring the field to the classroom or dorm room and improve the learning experience.
  • Mobile Field Trips, which accompany geologist-pilot-photographer Michael Collier in the air and on the ground, enable students to see and learn about iconic landscapes that relate to discussions in the chapter.
  • Brief SmartFigure Animations, created by text illustrator Dennis Tasa, animate a process or concept depicted in the textbook’s figures. This technology allows students to view moving figures rather than static art to depict how a geologic process truly moves throughout time.
  • SmartFigure Tutorials are sophisticated, annotated illustrations that are also narrated videos.

Modular approach driven by Learning Objectives

  • Four-part learning path facilitates active learning, allowing students to focus on important ideas and pause to assess their progress at frequent intervals:  
The chapter-opening Focus on Concepts lists the learning objectives for each chapter. Each section of the chapter is tied to a specific learning objective, providing students with a clear learning path to the chapter content. Each chapter section also concludes with Concept Checks, a feature that lists questions tied to the section’s learning objective, allowing students to monitor their grasp of significant facts and ideas. Give It Some Thought questions ask students to analyze, synthesize, and think critically about geology.
Also Available with MasteringGeology™MasteringGeology is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to work with this text to engage students and improve results. Interactive, self-paced tutorials provide individualized coaching to help students stay on track. With a wide range of activities available, students can actively learn, understand, and retain even the most difficult concepts. 

Specific digital features include:

  • Mobile Field Trips take students to iconic geologic locations as they accompany geologist—pilot—photographer—author Michael Collier in the air and on the ground to see and learn about iconic locations that relate to concepts in the chapter. In Mastering, these videos are accompanied by auto-gradable assessments that track what students have learned.
  • Project Condor Videos capture stunning footage of the Mountain West region with a quadcopter and a GoPro camera. A series of videos has been created with annotation, sketching, and narration to improve the way students learn about monoclines, streams, terraces, and so much more. In Mastering, these videos are accompanied by assessment to test what students take away.
  • GigaPan Activities allow students to take advantage of a virtual field experience with high-resolution picture technology that has been developed by Carnegie Mellon University in conjunction with NASA.
  • MapMaster interactive maps now include layers specific to geology in addition to exciting place name and GIS-inspired layered thematic interactive maps at world and regional scales, created to enhance students’ geographic literacy and spatial reasoning skills. All maps are complete with hints and wrong-answer feedback, providing more compelling interactive mapping media and assessments across the chapters.
  • eText 2.0 for © 2017 titles
    • Now available on smartphones and tablets.
    • Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media.
    • Accessible (screen-reader ready).
    • Configurable reading settings, including resizable type and night reading mode.
    • Instructor and student note taking, highlighting, bookmarking, and search.

Introduction to Earth Science

Unit I EARTH MATERIALS

 1. Matter and Minerals

 2. Rocks: Materials of the Solid Earth

Unit II SCULPTURING EARTH’S SURFACE

 3. Landscapes Fashioned by Water

 4. Glacial and Arid Landscapes

Unit III FORCES WITHIN

 5. Plate Tectonics: A Scientific Revolution Unfolds

 6. Restless Earth: Earthquakes and Mountain Building

 7. Volcanoes and Other Igneous Activity

Unit IV DECIPHERING EARTH’S HISTORY

 8. Geologic Time

Unit V THE GLOBAL OCEAN

 9. Oceans: The Last Frontier

 10. The Restless Ocean

Unit VI EARTH’S DYNAMIC ATMOSPHERE

 11. Heating the Atmosphere

 12. Moisture, Clouds, and Precipitation

 13. The Atmosphere in Motion

 14. Weather Patterns and Severe Weather

Unit VII EARTH’S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

 15. The Nature of the Solar System

 16. Beyond the Solar System

 

 

Fred Lutgens and Ed Tarbuck have been good friends and colleagues since 1970. Between them, they have more than 57 years of experience teaching geology to undergraduates, and both have been recognized with awards as excellent and inspiring professors. They share a special interest in introducing geology to beginning students and a belief in the value of field experiences for students of all levels.

Lutgens and Tarbuck published their first college text, Earth Science, in 1976. That book, winner of the McGuffy Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association, is now in its fourteenth edition. In 1983, as the first edition of Earth was being prepared, gifted geology illustrator Dennis Tasa joined the author team. Since then the three have collaborated on more than twenty projects. Not only do Tarbuck, Lutgens, and Tasa work well together creatively; they also enjoy spending time in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Tasa’s New Mexico studio.

Tarbuck enjoys downhill skiing in Colorado, fly fishing near his childhood home in Northern Minnesota, and spending time in the Cascades. Lutgens is an avid runner, and when he can make the time, truly enjoys hiking the canyons of the Colorado Plateau. Although Lutgens and Tarbuck think alike on many issues, they don’t agree on everything. Lutgens is devoted to jazz and classical music, whereas Tarbuck prefers pop artists or a good country station.

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