INTEGRATING APPLICATIONS OF STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY IN OTHER DISCIPLINES INTO STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY COURSES

Only a very small percentage of students in most structural geology courses will become structural geologists. Many, however, will someday use structural concepts and techniques to solve problems in other fields. We can help students see the relevance of structural geology to geological problem-solving, as well as better prepare them for future work in geology and geological engineering, by integrating problems that apply structural geology, but that come from other disciplines, into structural geology courses.

Structural geology has a large number of straightforward applications to solving problems in disciplines such as mineral exploration and exploitation, petroleum geology, engineering geology, environmental geology, hydrogeology, surficial geology, geomorphology, petrology, geoarchaeology, climate studies, planetary geology, sedimentary geology, tectonics, glaciology, biogeology, and other areas. Some specific examples are listed at: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure04/groups/appsquestions.html.

At the recent Cutting Edge workshop Teaching Structural Geology in the 21^st Century, we began an effort to seek out and stimulate the development of resources for teaching structural geology that illustrate how the techniques and perspectives of structural geology can be used in solving problems in other disciplines, especially ones that are not traditionally linked to structural geology. We are developing an on-line collection of resources that illustrate outstanding examples of the applications of structural geology to other disciplines. These on-line collections will include 1) short descriptions of ideas that could be incorporated into lectures or developed into activities in a structural geology course, 2) references to articles that illustrate good examples of applications of structural geology to other disciplines, and 3) specific activities and assignments that illustrate applications of structural geology to other disciplines. We seek submissions to these collections at: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure04/submit_resource.html. Submitted items can be accessed on line in the Teaching Structural Geology Resource Collections at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure04/resources.html.