Editing Activity Template
Chapter credit: The Story of Earth: An Observational Guide by Daniel Hauptvogel & Virginia Sisson, licensed CC BY.
Overview
This handout will guide an editing activity by providing you with the following elements:
Part 1: Activity Instructions
Part 2: Style Sheet
Part 3: Example Chapter for you to edit
Part 4: Answer Key to the Original Chapter
Part 1: Activity Instructions
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Make a copy of this document for you to practise. To do so, go to File → Make a Copy.
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Read the style sheet in Part 2.
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Browse the example chapter in Part 3 to identify areas that need editing based on the style sheet in Part 2**.**
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Make edits following the style sheet prompts:
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Accessibility Focus: Do any of the following elements need editing?
1. Headings and sections
2. Images
3. Tables
4. Organization of content
- Representation: Do you see a need for improvements? If so, where and how?
- Licensing Information: Are all elements appropriately licensed?
- References: Are citations and references consistent with one style?
Part 2: Style Sheet
Accessibility
Authors are asked to ensure that their sections fulfill accessibility best practices. Building in certain key elements from the beginning will make a big difference in ensuring the text is accessible to all students.
Many students need clear cues to navigate content, so keeping the organisation and hierarchy consistent are important. Use heading styles from the style menu rather than bold, italic or different font sizes to indicate the start of a new section. This helps to structure the content in a logical way for all students, including those using screen readers.
Headings and sections
- When writing in Google Docs or Word, Heading Styles should be used.
- The title of the chapter should be in Heading 1.
- The other sections of the chapter should start with Heading 2, and follow in descending order (subsections of Heading 2 sections should be in Heading 3).
- Alternative Text: Include a text description for any functional images that communicate important information. This will likely be more in depth than an image caption, and should contain enough information that a student can understand the concept depicted without seeing the image. Note: this isn’t required for decorative images!
- Color: You should also avoid using color as the only means of communicating information (e.g. on a graph).
- Sequence: Number the images for better organization and tracking
Make sure you avoid inserting images of tables, and instead enter the content as an editable table. This ensures that it will be accessible for students using screen readers.
- Column labels should be cented.
- Tables should have column headers and row headers when possible (for accessibility): i.e., the top row should have headers for the columns, and the first column should be headers for the rows.
- Number the tables for better organization and tracking.
Do not use raw URLs — make sure that hyperlinked text offers some description of the site that readers will be redirected to.
If you’re including video or audio content, it should ideally have captions or a transcript available. If this is not available for a resource in your section, please flag this in your submission for the editing team to address.
Types of Content to Include
Consider what type of content your OER should include — and ask your authoring team to pay attention to what kinds of text, multimedia, and terminology they include. Use this section to specify what kinds of content will be most helpful to advance your learning outcomes, center the narrative your team has in mind for this course, and help students in your class relate to the material being taught. Take a look at these Guidelines from OpenStax, as well as these areas/elements, as you plan your OER’s structure:
- Illustrations and Graphics
- Example names
- Key figures in the field
- Application, examples, and exercises/problems
- Appropriate terminology
- Keywords/glossary items
- Balanced issues and discussions
- References
Part 3: Example Chapter
Note this is only an excerpt of the chapter for you to practise and edit.
Chapter 1: Plate Tectonics
Introduction
(No alternative Text Used)
Plate tectonics is the grand unifying theory in geology. It gets that title because many topics in geology can be explained, in some way, by the movement of tectonic plates. Tectonic plates are composed of Earth’s crust and the uppermost, rigid portion of the mantle. Together they are called the lithosphere. Earth’s crust comes in 2 “flavors”: oceanic and continental (Table below).
** Very hard to visualize, and the table should be better visualized
| Property |
Oceanic Crust |
Continental Crust |
| Thickness |
7-10 km |
25-80 km |
| Density |
3.0g/ cm3 |
2.7g/ cm3 |
| Silica (SiO2) Content |
50% |
60% |
| Composition |
Fe, Mg, and Ca silicates |
K, Na, and Al silicates |
| Color |
Dark |
Light |
Lithospheric plates move around the globe in different directions and come in many different shapes and sizes. Their movement rate is millimeters to a few centimeters per year, similar to the rate that your fingernails grow. Motion between tectonic plates can be divergent, convergent, or transform. In divergent boundaries, plates are moving away from each other; in convergent boundaries, plates are moving toward each other; and in transform boundaries, plates are sliding past each other. The type of crust on each plate determines the geologic behavior of the boundary (Figure below).
The foundations of plate tectonics began with a German scientist named Alfred Wegener, who proposed the idea of continental drift in 1915. Think about it, 1915. What kind of evidence could someone possibly have to propose such a big idea? It turns out that Wegener had 4 pieces of evidence that he claimed supported his idea: 1) The continents looked like they fit together like pieces of a puzzle; 2) There were matching fossils on continents that were separated by oceans; 3) There were matching mountain ranges on continents that were separated by oceans; 4) There was paleoclimate evidence that suggested that in the past some continents were closer to the polar regions and some were close to the equator. Wegener took his idea one step further and proposed that all of the continents were together in one giant supercontinent 200 million years ago called Pangea. Like many great ideas in science, Wegener’s idea of continental drift was not accepted by his peers, in part because he did not have a well-developed hypothesis to explain what was causing the continents to drift. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that his idea was expanded upon by scientists like Harry Hess
Reconstructing Positions of Continents Using Wegener’s Evidence
When Alfred Wegener came up with his continental drift hypothesis in the early 1900s, he used several lines of evidence to support his idea. He also proposed that 200 million years ago, all continents were together in a single supercontinent called Pangea. In this exercise, you will use the fit of the continents and matching fossil evidence to piece together Pangea. This exercise is adapted from “This Dynamic Planet” by the USGS.
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Individually or as a group, piece together the supercontinent Pangea.
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Label the landmasses of each continent in Figure 1.2.
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Color the fossil areas to match the legend below.
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Cut out each of the continents along the edge of the continental shelf (the outermost dark line).
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Try to logically piece the continents together so that they form a giant supercontinent.
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When you are satisfied with the fit of the continents, discuss the evidence with your classmates and decide if the evidence is compelling or not. Explain your decision and reasoning on the evidence.
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Pangea began to break apart about 200 Ma resulting in the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Using the map in Figure 1.3, calculate the spreading rate of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in mm/yr. (Hint: measure the distance from the easternmost tip of South America to the inside curve of western Africa).
Symbol key to Figure 1.2
** Color can’t be the only accessibility element)
| Symbol |
Description |
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The continents are surrounded by the continental shelf (stippled pattern), which extends beyond the continent until there is a large change in slope. |
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By about 300 million years ago, a unique community of plants had evolved, known as the European ore. Fossils of these plants are found in Europe and other areas. Color the areas with these fossils yellow. |
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Fossils of the fern Glossopteris have been found in these locations. Color the areas with these fossils green. |
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Fossil remains of the half-meter-long fresh or brackish water (reptile) Mesosaurus. Mesosaurs flourished in the early Mesozoic Era, about 240 million years ago. Mosasaurs had limbs for swimming but could also walk on land. Other fossil evidence found in rocks along with Mesosaurs indicates that they lived in lakes and coastal bays or estuaries. Color the areas with these fossils blue. |
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Fossil remains of Cynognathus, a land reptile approximately 3 meters long that lived during the Early Mesozoic Era about 230 million years ago. It was a weak swimmer. Color the areas with these fossils orange. |
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Fossil evidence of the Early Mesozoic, land-dwelling reptile Lystrosaurus. They reproduced by laying eggs on land. Also, their anatomy suggests that these animals were probably very poor swimmers. Color the areas with these fossils brown. |
***Not Labeled)
Figure 1.2 – Continent cut-outs for Exercise 1.1. Image credit: From the USGS, Public Domain.
Figure 1.3 – Blank map of the South Atlantic Ocean for Exercise 1.1.
Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, and Volcanoes
Plate tectonic boundaries are often associated with earthquakes and volcanic activity. By looking at maps for the distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes worldwide (Figures 1.4-1.5), you can interpret the boundaries between the major tectonic plates. Generally, divergent plate boundaries are characterized by shallow earthquakes and some volcanism. Convergent boundaries have a range of earthquake depths from shallow to deep, and many have volcanoes as a result of subduction. Subduction occurs in convergent boundaries where the denser, oceanic plate descends into the mantle beneath the overriding plate. Convergent boundaries also tend to produce linear and curved mountain belts. Transform boundaries typically have shallow earthquakes and no volcanoes.
This map shows the location of volcanoes that have been active within the past 10,000 years (red triangles). Map scale reference is 30° latitude. Image credit: Daniel Hauptvogel, CC BY-NC-SA.
*** Nothing about Louisiana mentioned, or compared to Louisiana tectonic structure)
Exercise 1.2 – Modern Examples of Plate Tectonic Boundaries
Each type of plate boundary has distinct earthquake and volcanic patterns. Using observational and critical thinking skills, answer the following questions:
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Observe the patterns amongst the earthquake and volcano location maps (Figures 1.4-1.5). Hypothesize where you think the major plate boundaries exist and draw those boundaries on the blank map in Figure 1.6 using three different colors to identify the type of motion for each boundary (example: red for divergent boundaries, blue for convergent boundaries, and green for transform boundaries).
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Which type of boundary (divergent, convergent, or transform) is the most abundant? ______________________________________
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On the same map where you drew in plate boundaries (Figure 1.6), identify locations where each type of these boundaries are located:
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Continent-Continent Convergence (CCC)
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Ocean-Ocean Convergence (OOC)
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Continent-Ocean Convergence (COC)
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Continent-Continent Divergence (CCD)
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Ocean-Ocean Divergence (OOD)
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Continent-Continent Transform (CCT)
Space
- What type of plate boundary is associated with most of the deep earthquakes? ______________________
Space
- Describe the pattern in earthquake depth from the coast to inland at subduction zones.
Space
- Critical Thinking: The San Andreas Fault in California is a transform fault. Is there any evidence in the earthquake and volcanic activity that suggests this fault did not always have transform motion? Explain.
Figure 1.6 – This is a blank map of the world to be used in Exercise 1.2. Map scale reference is 30° latitude. Image credit: Daniel Hauptvogel, CC BY-NC-SA.
Additional Information
Learning Objectives
The goals of this chapter are to:
Identify types of plate boundaries and compare their characteristic earthquake and volcanic activities
Assess the basic lines of evidence supporting plate tectonics
Explain how ancient plate boundaries affect modern topography
Exercise Contributions
Daniel Hauptvogel, Virginia Sisson, Carlos Andrade, Melissa Hansen
References
Knott, T.R. et al. (2020). Discovery of two new super-eruptions from the Yellowstone hotspot track (USA) Is the Yellowstone hotspot waning? Geology, v. 48, p. 934-938. doi.org/10.1130/G47384.1
Martinod, J., Husson, L., Roperch, P., Guillaume, B., and Espurt, N., 2010, Horizontal subduction zones, convergence velocity and the building of the Andes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 299, pp. 299-309. DOI:10.1016/j.epsl.2010.09.010.
Google Earth Locations
Part 4: Answer Key
Access the original chapter here to compare your editing suggestions with the resource in print.
