ROCKS
AKA EARTH SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
“I LOVE TUNNELS.”
- Every upper year ever.
Image is so not accurate but it’s pretty cool
OVERVIEW
Rocks rocks rocks… it’s one of Queen’s most precious and coolest classes. Notice how very few other engineering programs have get to take rocks… a clear indicator as to why they’ll never be as cool as you!
To me, this course is all about getting to know the Earth —basically, everything from the beginning of the world and the solid ground we walk on to the atmosphere, oceans, and all living things—and how we interact with it. There’s a heavy emphasis on engineering geology, sustainability, and the materials we use from the Earth to make our current reality/society possible. My favourite parts of the course were topics like population growth, geopolitics, resource use, and how to deal with uncertainty and risks, which were heavily explored in the labs/team settings… but the dinosaurs were pretty cool too.
I found this course to be a bit different to navigate than others, as there is less math and much more memorization. It’s important to keep up with the week’s content and perform well on the labs, as I found this to be a big contributor to my final grade. Going over previous exams, reviewing weekly quiz questions, and asking your TA lots of questions/tips during the labs were my best ways of succeeding.
“Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.”
— WILL DURANT
FAVOURITE TIPS FROM LAST YEaR
This course is CONTENT HEAVY. Using flashcards and course notes to stay up to date is super important for the long run and will help you perform better in the midterms and the final exam.
STAY UP TO DATE
When I took this class, the labs were a significant portion of our grade. Being vigilant and paying attention during the labs can have a big impact on how well you succeed.
DON’T MESS AROUND IN THE LABS
Just knowing how to identify rocks is helpful in labs, the end of week quiz, and tests. Get good at recognizing different types of rocks and what their properties are.
KNOW YOUR ROCKS
People always underestimate how much time it takes to study for this class (in my opinion). Make sure you’re spending more time than you expect to study for this class. Because it’s so memorization-heavy, you can’t “just understand” the content like a more math-heavy class, you really have to put the time in to get the information right.
BUDGET TIME TO STUDY
also not an accurate image but still cool
MIDTERM/FINAL
MIDTERM/FINAL
I felt this class was a bit more difficult to navigate when I had to plan out my study schedule, mostly because there is so much to memorize. That being said, I would also say there is a decent bit of math in the course, and these questions will likely show up on your midterm/exam.
For the theory (memorization-heavy content), a successful tool last year was consulting previous exams/midterms and utilizing those questions as flashcards. The weekly quiz questions also helped in this regard. You can look on ExamBank or Quizlet to find old questions, but beware: in the past, I’ve heard stories of students who only studied from these question banks and were unprepared for the final exam because the styles of questions were entirely different. I would not recommend purely relying on these questions to prepare for the final; make sure you’re still referring to the course content and your notes to succeed.
For the math questions, asking my TAs for help and going over the labs were extremely helpful. I also found useful YouTube videos that would help me solve the more difficult problems. AI can be helpful for explaining a step-by-step process, but is rarely going to be good enough to solve the problem for you with an accurate answer, so I wouldn’t rely on it too much. I found the math questions were weighted more heavily on the final than the theory, so make sure you understand every equation you’ve encountered in the course.
QUIZLETS
While, in my experience, Quizlets can be helpful with this class, they in no way are a reliable method to study for this class and will not be enough to prepare you for assessments. Please always consult your course instructor/resources to understand the best study materials for this class. Here are some of the Quizlets that have helped me study in the past: