FIELD EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF A COASTAL PLAIN SETTING

Teaching geology through field experiences presents a major challenge to geoscience departments located in areas with little exposed geology. The Department of Geology and Geography at Georgia Southern University is such a department, as we are located in the Coastal Plain of southeastern Georgia, an area underlain by Tertiary and younger sediments. Although we take advantage of the teaching opportunities provided by the local geology, we must look elsewhere for geologic diversity. Nonetheless, geoscience students in our department have many opportunities to learn geology through field experiences. Students in our environmental geology labs complete two labs with field components. One is a campus field trip to investigate soils and examples of mass wasting processes. The second is a groundwater lab in which students collect water samples, perform simple chemical analyses, and measure water elevations in a series of monitoring wells on campus. Additionally, students (predominantly non-majors) in our introductory geology courses can participate in an optional one-day field trip to a nearby barrier island to learn about coastal processes and environmental issues. This trip is funded through student lab fees, and serves as a means to recruit majors as well as exposing students to geology in the field. Upper-level geology majors gain field experience through trips in courses such as petrology, economic geology, geomorphology, stratigraphy and sedimentation, structural geology, field methods, and paleontology. These classes typically have one or more weekend field trips to a variety of locations in the southeastern U.S. Locations of recent trips include the Georgia coast, the Okefenokee Swamp, exposures of igneous and metamorphic rocks in the Piedmont, and folded and thrust–faulted rocks of the Blue Ridge. In addition to course-related field trips, we endeavor to have at least one extended regional field trip each year. In recent years, we have taken students to Ecuador, the southern Rockies, the San Andreas fault, Death Valley, and Hawaii. Thus, though our institution’s location lacks geologic variety, our students still have ample opportunities to learn geology through field experiences.