• NEW - Climate Change Lab incorporates the latest climate change data and science with input from key expert contributors in the geoscience community. The lab is designed to help students critically analyze and evaluate what they hear about climate change for an understanding of its potential causes as well as how it affects their lives, the economy, and other life on the planet.  
• Activity-based exercises correlate to learning objectives to build skills (e.g., observing, investigating, measuring, recording data, charting, graphing, and mapping) that students apply when analyzing and evaluating samples, data, maps, models, and images. These skills are also applied when recording data/results and making inferences. 

Provide an enhanced learning experience

• NEW - Cardboard Models and Geo Tools tie into key course content and are located in the middle of the lab manual.
• An inquiry-based pedagogical approach in each lab begins with students reading the lab’s Big Idea. Students then turn their attention to Focus Your Inquiry in the chapter opener, where they are presented with the activities they will complete, and the Think About It question, which is the Big Idea that the activity will answer. Each activity within a lab builds upon skills learned from the previous activities, and students are always asked to Reflect and Discuss their findings in order to complete the activities.
• Convenient lab activity tear-out sheets provide lab activity information and offer a corresponding exercise, which students complete and turn in for grading. Grading students’ work is easier for instructors, because students submit their work in similar formats.
• Outstanding visual clarity engages students throughout the lab manual in high-quality photographs, images, stereograms, maps, and charts by illustrator Dennis Tasa. They support activity-based exercises and add more clarity to the text. 

Ensure both students and teaching assistants are prepared for labs

• NEW - Pre-Lab videos can now be accessed through links embedded in the eText. Pre-Lab videos introduce students to the content, lab materials, and techniques they will be using to complete each lab, saving both students and  instructors time during each lab. Students can also access the videos in the Study Area of Mastering Geology. 
• Teaching videos give teaching assistants successful teaching tips for each lab activity and provide help for lab set-up.

Now available with Modified Mastering Geology 

Mastering™ is the teaching and learning platform that empowers you to reach every student. By combining trusted author content with digital tools developed to engage students and emulate the office-hour experience, Mastering personalizes learning and improves results for each student. Mastering Geology extends learning and provides students with a platform to practice, learn, and apply knowledge outside of the classroom. Learn more about Mastering Geology.

Teach your course your way: Your course is unique. So whether you’d like to build your own auto-graded assignments, foster student engagement during class, or give students anytime, anywhere access, Mastering gives you the flexibility to easily create your course to fit your needs.

• With Learning Catalytics, you’ll hear from every student when it matters most. You pose a variety of questions that help students recall ideas, apply concepts, and develop critical-thinking skills. Your students respond using their own smartphones, tablets, or laptops.  You can monitor responses with real-time analytics and find out what your students do – and don’t – understand. Then, you can adjust your teaching accordingly, and even facilitate peer-to-peer learning, helping students stay motivated and engaged. 
• Pre-Lab Activities are a set of assessments built around the Pre-Lab videos that provide students and instructors the opportunity to come to lab better prepared and ready to participate in the inquiry learning process. Activities are assignable, and students can access the activities in the Mastering Study Area.
• The videos Post-Lab Activities are transitional assessments that test students’ comprehension of the lab content. Activities are assignable, and students can access the activities in the Mastering Study Area.

Empower each learner: Each student learns at a different pace. Personalized learning, including adaptive tools and wrong-answer feedback, pinpoints the precise areas where each student needs practice and gives all students the support they need – when and where they need it – to be successful.

• NEW - 3D models allow students to get “virtually hands on” with rocks, minerals, and outcrops by manipulating the models on x,y,z axes and clicking hot spots for guided exploration. These 3D tools transport students to locations around the world and provide hands-on interactions with specimens they otherwise may never see or handle in person. 3D models are embedded in the eText, available in the Mastering Study Area, and assignable with assessment in Mastering Geology.
• NEW - MapMaster 2.0 Interactive Map Activities. Inspired by GIS, these activities allow students to layer various thematic maps to analyze spatial patterns and data at regional and global scales. Now fully mobile and with enhanced analysis tools, MapMaster 2.0 gives students the ability to geolocate themselves in the data and to upload their own data for advanced map making. This tool includes zoom and annotation functionality with hundreds of map layers leveraging recent data from sources such as the PRB, the World Bank, NOAA, NASA, USGS, United Nations, the CIA, and more. 
• • NEW - Assessment is built around MapMaster 2.0 in Mastering and available to assign.
• NEW - Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience available within Mastering. It allows students to easily highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place–even when offline. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it.
• GeoTutor Activities challenge learners by involving them in activities that require higher-order thinking skills such as synthesis, analysis, and application of the most challenging topics in geology. 

Deliver trusted content: We partner with highly respected authors to develop interactive content and course-specific resources that keep students on track and engaged. 

• Encounter Activities provide rich, interactive explorations of geology and earth science concepts using the dynamic features of Google Earth™ to visualize and explore the Earth’s physical landscape.
• 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.
• SmartFigure Project Condor Videos bring Earth Science to life for students and bring the field to the classroom. Three geologists, using a quadcopter-mounted GoPro camera, ventured into the field to film 10 key geologic locations and processes. These process-oriented videos are available in Mastering Geology where they include assessments to test students’ understanding.
• Brief animations created by text illustrator Dennis Tasa animate a process or concept depicted in the textbook’s figures. Students get a view of moving figures rather than static art to depict how geologic processes move throughout time.

Improve student results: When you teach with Mastering, student performance often improves. That’s why instructors have chosen Mastering for over 15 years, touching the lives of over 20 million students.

Check out the preface for a complete list of features and what's new in this edition.

Use activity-based exercises to build students’ lab skills

• Climate Change Lab incorporates the latest climate change data and science with input from key expert contributors in the geoscience community. The lab is designed to help students critically analyze and evaluate what they hear about climate change for an understanding of its potential causes as well as how it affects their lives, the economy, and other life on the planet.   

Provide an enhanced learning experience

• Cardboard Models and Geo Tools tie into key course content and are located in the middle of the lab manual.

Ensure both students and teaching assistants are prepared for labs

• Pre-Lab videos can now be accessed through links embedded in the eText. Pre-Lab videos introduce students to the content, lab materials, and techniques they will be using to complete each lab, saving both students and  instructors time during each lab. Students can also access the videos in the Study Area of Mastering Geology. 

Now available with Modified Mastering Geology 

 Reach every student with Mastering 

• 3D models allow students to get “virtually hands on” with rocks, minerals, and outcrops by manipulating the models on x,y,z axes and clicking hot spots for guided exploration. These 3D tools transport students to locations around the world and provide hands-on interactions with specimens they otherwise may never see or handle in person. 3D models are embedded in the eText, available in the Mastering Study Area, and assignable with assessment in Mastering Geology.
• MapMaster 2.0 Interactive Map Activities. Inspired by GIS, these activities allow students to layer various thematic maps to analyze spatial patterns and data at regional and global scales. Now fully mobile and with enhanced analysis tools, MapMaster 2.0 gives students the ability to geolocate themselves in the data and to upload their own data for advanced map making. This tool includes zoom and annotation functionality with hundreds of map layers leveraging recent data from sources such as the PRB, the World Bank, NOAA, NASA, USGS, United Nations, the CIA, and more. 
• • Assessment is built around MapMaster 2.0 in Mastering and available to assign.
• Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience available within Mastering. It allows students to easily highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place—even when offline. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it.