WETLANDS, THE ULTIMATE OUTDOOR LABORATORY FOR GEOLOGY STUDENTS

Although more than half of the wetlands have been lost in the United States and in the state of Indiana, wetlands are still common enough to be used for academic instructions. Wetland environments are suitable for teaching undergraduates many hydro geology key concepts because the depth to groundwater is shallow in wetlands. At the Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) campus, we have the opportunity for students to relate ‘theory' to ‘real world condition' in a wetland outdoor lab.

Within the campus are several wetlands, all within a walking distance with one less than a ten-minute walk from the classroom. A well field is established at the fringe of the wetland for students to learn groundwater flow direction, study the relationship between surface water and groundwater, and conduct limited water chemistry. The wetland is also used in our introductory geology laboratory, environmental geology, environmental geology, environmental conservation, and wetland courses. In and around the wetland at IPFW are three wells at the fringe of a creek, a 3-meter deep well and a new well field consisting of thirteen monitoring wells.

We have being measuring water levels, pH, conductivity, and temperature around the wetland for the past thirteen months. A water level calculator was developed to determine the water levels in the three wells in the creek. Two wells located within 40 cm of each other have opposite water level trends; the deeper well has r2 value of 0.5028 and the shallower has an r2 value of 0.9004. The water level measurements show that the nearby creek is a groundwater discharge region. Also, from the topography and water level measurements, the wetland is considered to be a flow through system. We observed both up-welling and down-welling in the well field. This is an ongoing project and current results will be presented.