GROUP EXERCISES THAT WORK WELL IN LARGE NON-LAB BASIC EARTH SCIENCE CLASSES

Basic Earth Science is an introductory course (with no laboratory) offered at Clarion University, with enrollments ranging from 45 to 90 students in each class. The students are incredibly diverse in background and experience, and therefore each class has its own particular 'personality'. This presents a particularly challenging environment in which to teach. I have developed many hands-on small group activities that work well even in large sections, helping to keep lecturing to a minimum. Following an introduction to the most common minerals and rocks, I pass around labeled samples, so they can get a hands-on experience for the differences their physical properties. I have the class separate into small groups, each of which receives an unknown specimen to describe and identify. I then ask each group for their results, which I list on the blackboard. This turns out to be a particularly fun and enlightening learning experience. After presenting basic groundwater principles, I again have them work in small groups on two different handout exercises. In the first, students must decide on the locations and depths for several new wells based on a realistic geologic setting which they would encounter locally in both unconfined surficial aquifers and deeper confined aquifers. They must also employ realistic economic considerations in their decisions. The second groundwater exercise deals with characteristics and problems associated with karst geology. Another excellent group exercise is presented just after the introduction to oceans and coastal processes. Here student groups must evaluate conflicting land use on a barrier island of the North Carolina Outer Banks. The debate generated by this class exercise is lively and entertaining - plus students put their understanding of geologic processes to practical use in their decision making.