For the past eight years we have been working to engage the students in physical geology and environmental science courses. Through workshops sponsored by NAGT and PKAL, we have had the opportunity to hear great ideas for interactive learning and have restructured our courses to involve our students more actively in their learning.

It is very difficult to get the students active in lectures. We have a policy that the students must be involved, or else. Every lecture, we have a think-pair-share. A question or problem is presented and the students must answer it, either independently or in small groups. The answers to the "question of the day" are turned in and reviewed to gauge understanding of the lecture and check attendance.

Several dynamic exercises are used which usually result in a chaotic auditorium. The mineral lecture includes actively working with the properties of minerals. The rock lecture is an active learning/teaching exercise. We turn the students into the crust of the earth and pass earthquake waves through them. During these exercises, we are working with the students to help them make discoveries for themselves and teach what they have learned to their team.

Laboratories are field-based and interactive whenever possible. We learned physical geology from rocks in a box and map interpretation, which neither excites students nor draws them in. We teach rock ID by taking the students to the field with rock hammers. For fluvial processes, small groups have their own stream tables for creating meanders, deltas, dams, and floods. Structures are witnessed first-hand by compressing layers of colored clay and creating complex folds. For groundwater studies we work with real data from a site near campus. Each exercise is designed to get students moving, thinking, doing, and experiencing science.

Exam questions are designed to test the students’ thinking ability, not their memory. Essay problems present a situation that involves multiple concepts, such as development of a barrier island resort, an area in the city to be built as a shopping mall, a geologic map to interpret, a description of a rock unit to interpreted… We want them to apply what they have learned.

We have found these techniques to be effective. Our course enrollments are strong, student morale is good, and students and faculty alike have fun while learning new things.