PROBLEM-BASED MINI-EXERCISES FOR GEOSCIENCE FIELD TRIPS

I teach an intensive, month-long, field-based Geoscience course for undergraduate non-science majors. The course satisfies a general education science requirement, involving utilization of scientific methods within a context familiar to the students. I use the context of two National Parks, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon. The parks are explored, first in the classroom and then in the field.

In order to provide the students with the opportunity to experience the joy of discovery in addition to developing their observational and interpretive skills I have developed a collection of field trip mini-exercises. At each field stop I give a brief lecture introducing a problem. After this introduction the students are given a sheet with some guiding questions to tape into their field notebooks and asked to propose hypotheses for solutions to the problem. Most of the exercises are done in small groups. After completing the exercises each group presents and defends their hypothesis. The class as a whole critically evaluates the alternative hypotheses. Though most of the exercises are done in groups, the grading is based on the entries made in the individual students’ field notebooks.

I developed this student-centered technique in order to break away from the "outcrop lecture" format of traditional introductory geology field trips. With the stimulus of dramatic outcrops and a list of guiding questions, students actively participate in the construction of their own knowledge and we build a community of learners. Student feedback for this pedagogical approach is very positive.