Earth Optics Info Sheet

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1	Developing and incorporating instructional videos and quizzes as an online learning component in an undergraduate optical microscopy curriculum.
2	Manuscript in prep; project funding provided by the Blended and Online Learnign Development (BOLD) fellowship though the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University
3	Samantha Tramontano1,2, Guilherme A. R. Gualda1, Lily Claiborne1, Cynthia Brame1
4	1 Vanderbilt University, Earth and Environmental Sciences, PMB 351805, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
5	2 City University of New York - The Graduate Center, Queens College, Earth and Environmental Sciences, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
6	Please forward any questions to the first author at stramontano@qc.cuny.edu
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8	For videos + exercises click here
9	For videos only, please click here
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11	Topic	Skills Covered	Learning Goals
12	1) Plane-Polarized Light	Determination of color, pleochroism, relief, transparency	Under plane-polarized light, students will be able to describe the grain’s color and transparency and the extent of (or absence of) changing color (pleochroism). Students will understand a material’s index of refraction by comparing relief between materials in thin section.
13	2) Cross-Polarized Light	Determination of interference colors, extinction angles, birefringence; isotropic vs. anisotropic optic behavior	Under cross-polarized light, students will be able to determine whether a grain is isotropic or anisotropic, recognize extinction angles and use the Michel-Levy chart to determine the retardation and birefringence of a section of a grain.
14	3) Fast and Slow Ray (located under cross-polarized light category on website)	Use of the accessory plate	Under cross-polarized light, students will be able to determine the direction of the fast and slow rays for an anisotropic grain with the aid of an accessory plate.
15	4) Uniaxial Minerals	Observation of interference figures; determination of optic sign for uniaxial materials with the accessory plate	Students will be able to determine if a grain is uniaxial by interpreting interference figures. Students will be able to use an accessory plate to determine the optic sign of a uniaxial mineral.
16	5) Uniaxial Flash Figure (located under uniaxial minerals category on website)	Observation of the flash figure for uniaxial minerals; characterization of color, relief, transparency along principal axes of the uniaxial ellipsoid	Students will be able to estimate the orientation of a uniaxial grain with respect to the principal axes (using interference figures and flash figures) and be able to describe plane-polarized light properties (color, pleochroism, transparency) along the two independent principal directions (epsilon and omega), as well as cross-polarized light properties (birefringence, optic sign) of the uniaxial ellipsoid.
17	6) Biaxial Minerals	Interference figures, optic sign, 2V angle for the biaxial ellipsoid	Students will be able to determine if a grain is biaxial by interpreting interference figures. Students will be able to use an accessory plate to determine the optic sign and associated 2V angle of a biaxial mineral.
18	7) Biaxial Flash Figure (located under biaxial minerals category on website)	Observation of the Flash figure for biaxial materials; characterization of color, relief, transparency along principal axes of the biaxial ellipsoid	Students will be able to determine the orientation of a biaxial grain with respect to the principal axes (using interference figures) and they will be able to describe plane-polarized light (color, pleochroism, transparency) along the three independent directions (alpha, beta, gamma), as well as cross-polarized light properties (birefringence, optic sign, 2V) of the biaxial ellipsoid.
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20	Notes: The quizzes were developed before the advent of google classroom, so the format is a bit clunky (as is). They are currently formatted more like a survey - the answers are revealed to the user upon pressing submit. These quizzes were initially developed with the goal that students would be able to identify more readily what to look for in their microscopes in lab (e.g. a becke line, interference figures, etc.). They are short - typically, we assign them as a pre-lab and students would receive points for completion. If you wind up implementing these tools in any form, it would be really helpful to hear your feedback. Currently, the quizzes cannot be used as a type of summative assessment where you can grade or view students' answers. I have not had the time to return to this work since I am nearing the end of my PhD, but I would like to work on re-formatting and developing the project further. I should have time in the next couple of weeks to make some adjustments, but it depends on what you're looking for.
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