ATTEMPTING TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY BY TEACHING NON-SCIENCE ACADEMIC ADVISORS GEOLOGY IN GERMANY

In 1993 Murray State University started faculty seminars, Europe in Transition, in Germany. Participant objectives were to: improve the professional and educational experience of the dynamic changes occurring in Europe, provide a direct impact on the international experience for Murray students and provide a stronger interdisciplinary teaching and research interaction among faculty.

Regensburg University was chosen as the presentation site since Murray State had rented rooms that were unoccupied before the arrival of Murray students for a semester in Germany. The humanities, social sciences, arts and business have provided all but two of the seminar presenters. Most non-science faculty have little or no exposure to Geology yet advise students which science course to take to satisfy their general education requirements. Study and travel in Europe allows one to educate student academic advisors about Geology's part in the science vs. religion debate about the Earth. This debate resurfaces when creationism or intelligent design is taught as science. Science should answer the questions: what, when, where and how and religion or philosophy: who and why.

The seminar starts with a brief history of “The Bible” followed by the religious vs. science explanation of the earth's place in space. The meaning and origin of fossils, Steno, Hooke, and culminates with Beringer's book and his “lying stones” on display in the Marienberg Fortress in Wurzburg. The Eichstatt-Berger Museum in Eichstatt (Archaeopteryx) and the Hauff Museum in Holzmaden (Ichthyosaur) also offer one the ability to collect local fossils. Law of Crosscutting Relations, Law of Inclusions and Steno's Laws demonstrate how geologists can determine the relative ages of beds in a sequence of rocks. Smith and Cuvier used the orderly occurrence of fossils in rocks to make the first geologic maps. Hutton championed Plutonism and Uniformitarianism, Cuvier: Catastrophism and Werner: Neptunism. The University of Freiberg in Saxony has an excellent mineral exhibit. Lyell influenced the development of the Geologic Rock Column and the concept of deep geologic time. Holmes was to prove the latter by radiometric dating.