Spring 2027

Three Billion Years Beneath Your Feet: Geology of the National Parks

Explores the geologic story of US National Parks through physiography, tectonics, and time, highlighting parks from Hawaii to Alaska to the conterminous US to show Earth's geological evolution.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Lucas Zoet

Quiz and exam questions were taken directly from the lecture slides, which were provided to students, making the assessments straightforward for those who attended class.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify basic geologic concepts, including mineral and rock groups, geologic time, the geologic record of life, geologic structures, and plate tectonics.

  • Identify the physiographic provinces of the US and how these are related to broad geologic and climatic factors.

  • Compare the variety of tectonic processes that produce different mountain belts of the US, such as the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Rockies, and Appalachians and how this affects the landscapes of the National Parks in these regions.

  • Contrast the effects of recent and long-term climate change on the landscapes of the US, using specific National Parks as examples.

  • Describe the interactions between humans and the environment in several physiographic provinces that host national parks and evaluate the current and future environmental challenges faced by organisms living in these regions.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
GEOSCI 109 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANN BAUER is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CLARK M JOHNSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LUCAS ZOET is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Lucas Zoet

Past students described Dr. Zoet as a clear instructor who delivered well-organized lectures full of real-world examples. One student noted that attending class made the exams fairly easy.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.34 GPA, 69.7% A/AB (n=89 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.57 GPA, 79.1% A/AB (n=67 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.51 GPA, 77.1% A/AB (n=48 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Lucas Zoet

Quiz and exam questions were taken directly from the lecture slides, which were provided to students, making the assessments straightforward for those who attended class.

Past student reviews · Clark Johnson, Annie Bauer

Some students found tests difficult to study for because it was not always clear what would be on the exams. Another student reported getting a low grade on a test despite studying the material and watching all lectures.

Topics

  • Geologic history recorded in US National Parks, from ancient mountains to active volcanoes.
  • US physiographic provinces and their relationship to geologic and climatic factors.
  • Tectonic processes forming US mountain belts like the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Rockies, and Appalachians.

Skills

  • Identify basic geologic concepts such as mineral/rock groups, geologic time, and plate tectonics.
  • Compare tectonic processes producing different US mountain belts and their landscape effects.
  • Contrast recent and long-term climate change effects on US landscapes using park examples.
  • Evaluate human-environment interactions and environmental challenges in park-hosting provinces.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "e066c6819ece37f1ad5f0fd4b4c956b875415c6257e71b0b33bfc7cb20fc7cfe",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}