Students will write a 4 page essay (12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, double-spaced) 1) describing good information literacy practices and 2) contrasting the errors made by the amateur geologists in the Dan Olson documentary Mantracks (2025) with the research practices described in the excerpts from Armin Schmitt’s The Lost World of the Dinosaurs (2024).
Papers must quote and cite Mantracks, The Lost World of the Dinosaurs, and lecture material from this course.
Important note: Mantracks touches on sensitive religious beliefs and cultural ideas about the origin of life and the universe, but this assignment is more narrowly focused on the research practices of geology and paleontology. Fundamentally, this is an essay about epistemology–the philosophy of what knowledge is and how one acquires it. The goal is not to attack, defend, or debate religion; instead, the goal is to understand how scientific knowledge is developed through the collection, verification, and contextualization of evidence. This is the central episteme (framework for knowledge) of academia, so it is important to understand it even if your personal philosophy leaves room for other, perhaps complementary, epistemes.