EVOLUTION OF THE GEORGIA-SOUTH CAROLINA GEOLOGY FIELD SCHOOL

The University Of Georgia Geology Field School was created in the mid-1980s by Professor Hatten Howard and emphasized classical field mapping techniques using topographic or aerial photographs as base maps. Over the past twenty years we have involved faculty from several institutions (UNLV, Kansas), created a dual program with a sister institution, University of South Carolina (USC), developed environmental geochemistry and sequence stratigraphy exercises during extended field trips to the Book Cliffs, UT, and the San Juan Mountains, CO, and integrated GPS and GIS approaches with field mapping projects. Our collaboration with USC allows both institutions to continue a summer field school under economically favorable circumstances: the net cost to each institution of running a collaborative field school is less than the cost of running two independent field schools. The school begins with each student creating a stratigraphic column for Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks in the Canon City, CO, area. An initial mapping project involves no computer-based technology. These initial exercises are followed by a short course on GPS and GIS technology which includes classroom and field exercises. For the remainder of the course the students produce maps using commercial software on laptop computers. The students work through projects of increasing structural complexity using the same stratigraphic column. The routine of project-oriented work is broken up by two extended field trips where the students study sequence stratigraphy, volcanology and environmental geochemistry. A key aspect of these two field trips is that they are led by faculty with expertise in the subject area as well as the field areas. Looking forward we plan to develop more faculty-centered projects which will draw on the expertise of faculty.