TO MAP OR NOT TO MAP: WHY FIELD MAPPING AS A PRIMARY EMPHASIS FOR GEOLOGY FIELD COURSES IS IMPORTANT

Should the emphasis on traditional field bedrock and surficial mapping, conducted at Geology Field Courses, be reduced in order to include exercises on environmental assessment or on how to use recent technological advances? The author contends the answer to this question should be "No!"

Firstly, use of recent technological advances as tools to aid in field mapping, such as GPS, should be taught in labs of appropriate courses (e.g., field methods, structural geology, and/or geomorphology) before students attend a field course. Whilst time must be spent at field courses each summer reviewing how to use a Brunton Compass, most students have already been taught how to use a Brunton and assigned exercises using it before attending a Geology Field Course. The same case can be made for using GPS units as supplemental mapping tools at Geology Field Courses.

Secondly, we should not forget that the primary of goal of a sound Geology Field Course is to train students in field oriented problem solving and critical thinking that will prepare them for prefessional careers in the Geological Sciences. Hence, the skills a student learns from bedrock and surficial mapping will enable him/her to successfully conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment and to recognize geologic structures revealed from geophysical studies.

Thirdly, for better or worse, for many Geology students graduating in the "Late Holocene Epoch", the only "real" bedrock and surficial mapping experience that they are exposed to is acquired while attending a traditional Geology Field Course.