AN INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD PROGRAM AT WESTMINSTER COLLEGE

The next step in the growth of the revitalized Environmental Science Program at Westminster College will be deepening the field experience through the development of group-run, hypothesis-based field labs in introductory courses for majors and cross-campus general education students. More advanced courses for majors will elaborate upon these lab exercises.

The field work will be performed on the stream that runs through campus on its approximately 25-mile course and 300-foot elevation drop from its headwaters to its confluence with Auxvasse Creek, a tributary of the Missouri River. As a stressed stream Stinson Creek is a natural laboratory to focus the interpretation of environmental impacts.

The dichotomous field analyses will begin in the introductory Earth Systems and Environmental Science courses, where small groups of students will evaluate the presence of a significant differences in the stream’s chemical, physical, or biological properties between various sections of the stream. These data will be used to examine various land uses or stream sections. Comparisons of stream chemistry with precipitation chemistry will also be tested. Subsequent courses for majors in soils, hydrogeology, and GIS will do more advanced analyses in soil moisture, soil chemistry, presence of organic compounds, groundwater-surface water relationships, and mapping. The Program’s capstone course will not only integrate and interpret the various studies (preliminary interpretations will be done in the introductory courses), but will evaluate what-if situations in which major environmental actions, such as the construction of shopping centers, housing developments, highways, and the like within the Stinson Creek watershed.