“GEOSCIENCE INFORMATION ACQUISITION AND MANAGEMENT” - AN INFORMATION/TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY COURSE FOR GEOSCIENCE MAJORS

Information and technological literacy (IL & TL) are expected of students in upper level courses and are necessary to succeed in a scientific vocation. In most cases, though, the skills for this literacy are learned adjunctively rather than consciously, while students make their way through their academic careers. This erratic preparation leads to frustration on the part of both faculty and students. In an effort to assure that students leaving our programs are well prepared for further studies and for the work world, a 2-credit course called Geoscience Information Acquisition and Management was developed. The course is designed for Junior through graduate level students, and involves brief lectures, demonstrations, and a series of practical exercises. Student success is judged solely on exercises and participation.

Within the course IL is considered in the broadest sense (including field based issues), and TL is developed by the execution of the various projects. Material covered is arranged in a logical order for the actual conduct of research: acquisition, evaluation, management, interpretation, and then communicating information. Specific topics include information and work philosophies, cultural issues, traditional and non-traditional information sources, search strategies (library, web, etc.), evaluation of data quality, field collection of data, ethics, bibliographic and information management, spreadsheet storage and analysis of data, standard electronic data formats and conversions, graphic design strategies, creation of raster and vector based illustrations, GIS, 3-d visualization, publication (including web-based), and operating a geoscience business.

One challenge is the expense of software and hardware. We minimize software expenses by having students download demonstration copies of some software. This presents difficulties with the expiration and hobbled features, though. Additional challenges are variability in student preparation and tradeoff of enrollment with “core” geoscience courses. Although IL & TL are not primary goals of a geoscience curriculum, they play an important role is student success. By emphasizing development of useful skills, students feel empowered to conduct their own research. Response to the course has been strongly positive.