SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES OF A TWO-YEAR COLLEGE EXTENDED FIELD COURSE: A MODEL FOR CO-INSTRUCTORS

Most geoscientists participate in an extended field course during their education and many cite this experience as a pivotal experience in their professional training. Extended field opportunities are rare for students at two-year colleges (2yc), compared to students at four-year institutions. Recognizing this disparity and considering current trends demonstrating that 2yc are an important pipeline for students into four-year programs and the workforce, we designed a two-week, four-credit field course for community college students from our two schools to explore the diverse geology of the Northern Rocky Mountains.

We use Montana State University, in Bozeman, MT, as a home base for four days while our students acclimate and are introduced to the regional stratigraphy exposed in the Gallatin and Bridger Ranges. For the remaining 10 days, students explore the geology of Yellowstone National Park (NP); Grand Teton NP; Hebgen Lake; Butte, MT; Sun River Canyon; and Glacier NP. While in the field, students create traditional bedrock and surficial geology maps, learn to take cogent field notes, indentify and interpret rocks and fossils, develop and unravel simple to complex sequences of geologic events and become proficient with map reading and other basic field skills. Pre- and post-field trip assignments require students to become experts in a chosen topic encountered during the course and articulate their research with multi-media and web-based formats.

Our extended field course helps address student retention, draws positive attention to our respective programs, leaves students with a better understanding of career pathways within the geosciences, and provides students with valuable real-world application of course content. The success of this course is partly attributed to a strong partnership between co-instructors, which we have found essential for planning logistics, providing immediate feedback to students while in the field, and addressing safety concerns.