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We will read from the logbooks of Cook, Darwin, Wallace, and Nansen. Their discoveries and expeditions inspired and were inspired by fiction that we will also read, including Moby Dick and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The daring successes and cannibalistic dooms of the Essex, Beagle, Terror, Challenger, and Fram inspired 19th century writers to imagine what lay far across and deep beneath the oceans. These retellings--fictional, narrative, and scientific--helped formulate and fund further research. Who risks their life for a bird, a map, a widow, or an eclipse? How would these scientists and their ideas do today? Enrollment limited to 20 first year students. First Year Seminar.

Class Meetings and Notes

Class meets Tuesday and Thursday 1-2:20 in Lincoln Field 105. All assignments due by classtime on day noted. Baylor's office hours are Mondays and Wednesdays 1:30-2:30 or by appointment (just check my availability and request a time). The calendar of lectures with slides and links is below. It is also available as a public subscription iCalendar called "GEOL 0160: Monsters of the Abyss" at http://tinyurl.com/mfw5be5.

Web Resources and Texts

1. Paper writing guidelines, the Science of Scientific Writing
, and Orwell's Politics and the English Language
2. Peer reviewing guidelines.
3. Reading assignment guidelines.
4. Journaling guidelines.
5. Library Guide
6. Science Center Advising
7. Writing Center

Main Texts

1. Cook, The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook Round the World, Vol. 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3.
2. Darwin, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, Vol. III, Journal and Remarks, 1832-1836 now known as The Voyage of the Beagle
3. Darwin, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
4. FitzRoy, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, Vol. II
5. FitzRoy, The Weather Book
6. Franzen, 'Farther Away: “Robinson Crusoe,” David Foster Wallace, and the island of solitude.'
7. Lyell, The Student's Lyell: A Manual of Elementary Geology
8. Melville, Moby Dick. Amazon.com version
9. Mitchell, Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals
10. Nansen, Farthest North, Vol 1 and Vol 2.
11. Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Amazon.com version
12. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-utan and the Bird of Paradise, A Narrative of Travel, with Studies of Man and Nature

Websites

1. Sydney Observatory: Cook's three voyages of exploration
2. UN Ocean Atlas
3. National Geographic
4. NASA Earth Observatory
5. NOAA Interactive Global Bathymmetry
6. Cleon Teunissen's Rotation Physics
7. IPCC Home Site
8. US National Climate Assessment
9. MBARI Seafood Watch

Additional Fun Reading

Nonfiction

1. Amundsen, The North West Passage
2. Bowditch, The American Practical Navigator
3. FitzRoy, Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, Vol. I
4. Maury, 1860: The Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology
5. Sverdrup, New Land: Four Years in the Arctic Region
6. M'Clintock, The Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas
7. Sides, 1,000 Days in the Ice, National Geographic

Fiction

1. Dana, Two Years Before the Mast
2. Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
3. Homer, The Odyssey
4. London, The Sea Wolf
5. Stevenson, Treasure Island

Brown Specific Guidelines

1. Disability Support Services
2. Academic & Student Conduct Codes, *Note* Prof. Fox-Kemper regards inappropriate cellphone and laptop use as disruptive behavior.
3. Academic Code