A NOVEL GEOLOGY OF NATIONAL PARKS COURSE FOR MAJORS

The majority of students in introductory geoscience courses are non-majors satisfying university science requirements. At the University of Southern Indiana, students must also satisfy a minimum number of lab hours in the sciences. With one goal of attracting new majors in mind, an effort was undertaken to design a new course that examined physical geology principles, had a lab component, would be attractive to freshman students, and most importantly, would serve as a gateway to the major for those students who chose to pursue geology as a result of the course. The outcome of that effort was the course, Geology of America's National Parks. The course appears to be novel as a Geology of National Parks course because it has a lab component and it serves as an alternative introductory majors course.

The Geology of America's National Parks course focuses on seven national parks and the local Hoosier National Forest, including a range of geology that permits comprehensive coverage of the fundamental internal and external Earth processes. The course progression, in lab and lecture, avoids the common tectonics-minerals-rocks-internal process-external process sequence. Map literacy, rocks, minerals, and plate tectonics are integrated throughout the semester-long course. Problems encountered include the need to present apparently isolated modules of background information (i.e. I still have to present some sort of a minerals lecture). Benefits include the opportunity to begin much work from maps, and to introduce geologic principles in an obviously applied manner. Examples include learning earthquake mechanics from the perspective of their role in maintaining the geyser plumbing system in Yellowstone NP, focusing on chemical and mechanical weathering within Mammoth Cave NP, and displaying stratigraphic and sedimentologic principles by examining Hoosier NF. Students have two options for weekend field excursions to Mammoth Cave NP and Hoosier Forest NF. The course has been offered twice to full enrollment, and anecdotal evidence suggests the course is successful in meeting all of its objectives.