MAKING FIELD EXPERIENCES MEANINGFUL

Practicing geology in the field has the potential to help students become much better scientists and there is widespread agreement that field experiences are valuable. Field experiences provide students with a great opportunity to do geology (i.e. observe, measure, interpret). However, faculty should guard against running ‘show and tell’ field trips. As faculty we have become ‘experts’ at doing geology in the field and have the tendency to forget that students need to start with simple questions/exercises and make progress from there. It is paramount to make the distinctions between observation, interpretation, and regional significance very clear in the field. Many things can be learned from rocks and structures in the field, but there are many others that require more study and research to discern. A major goal for some of field trips involves developing student proficiency at skills (e.g. measuring the orientation of geologic structures). Acquiring skills requires repetition and more repetition. Measuring the orientation of foliation at one outcrop is unlikely to produce a lasting memory of how that is done, but done repeatedly in different settings students become adept at these skills. Developing skills is particularly important for students who will conduct research, as faculty collaborators need to be confident that the data collected by students are robust.