Water, Earth, Geology, and Cycles: Faculty Source Packet
A faculty-reviewed reader for ASHA-202 introducing water, earth, geology, and cycles through transparent methods and evidence boundaries.
Orientation
Water moves through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and storage, while human systems alter every part of this cycle.
Core concept
Soils form through weathering, organic matter, climate, organisms, topography, and time. Soil is living infrastructure, not inert dirt.
Evidence and method
Geology studies rocks, minerals, plate movement, erosion, and deep time. Scientific dating uses methods with assumptions and error ranges.
Application and limits
Pollution crosses boundaries: contamination in soil may enter groundwater, plants, animals, and human bodies.
What the evidence establishes
Soils form through weathering, organic matter, climate, organisms, topography, and time. Soil is living infrastructure, not inert dirt.
What remains interpretive
The course requires students to distinguish disciplinary evidence from theological or philosophical interpretation and to state uncertainty where evidence is incomplete.
Seminar questions
- Which claim is most strongly established?
- What alternative explanation deserves consideration?
- How would stronger evidence change the conclusion?