STUDENT INITIATED ENRICHMENT FIELD TRIPS AT OKLAHOMA

Enrichment field trips provide a hands-on teaching forum for geoscience students to engage in and explore. Interested students in an undergraduate Sedimentology course utilized this educational method by proposing relevant trips to the Florida Keys to study modern carbonate environments and to the Mississippi River/Delta to observe river and deltaic processes. The trips served to enhance students’ knowledge and experience beyond that introduced in course field trips. After proposing the trips, the students helped with planning, aided by faculty input, and acquired most of the funding. The field trip to the Florida Keys consisted of an eight day excursion to study the reefs, beach processes, and formations of the area in order to apply the geologic fundamentals of modern carbonate environments to the rock record. The trip was organized as a two credit hour seminar in which the faculty advisor prepared a field guide and delivered an introductory lecture before departure. After the conclusion of the field experience, each student selected a topic of interest pertaining to the Key’s geology and delivered a presentation as well as a paper on the chosen topic. The success of this student based enrichment trip led to the proposal for a second trip to the Mississippi River/Delta in order to study efforts to control the river (Old River Control), deltaic environments, and the impact of the changing Louisiana coastline. This trip was organized on the same principles of student involvement and faculty guidance and will be conducted in a similar fashion although the students will research a topic and present a presentation prior to the field trip. This method of hands-on learning and student involvement in the form of enrichment field trips has proven to be an effective means of stimulating students’ interests in a variety of geologic topics.