USING A FIELD PROJECT IN THE ARBUCKLE MOUNTAINS TO PROMOTE HYPOTHESIS-BASED LEARNING IN A STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY COURSE

The geology program at Sam Houston State University views field experience as vital in enabling students to grasp 3-D geologic relationships and in preparing students to solve real-world problems that involve analysis and interpretation of field data. The undergraduate structural geology course at SHSU includes a field-based research project in the Arbuckle mountains, southern Oklahoma. The Arbuckles are ideally suited for student projects because of accessible, high-quality exposures, a variety of geologic structures, and thorough treatment in the literature. The half-semester long project is designed to coach students through all phases of an integrated geologic study: literature review, data collection and analysis, and 3-D problem-solving in the context of existing questions or controversies.

In the first phase of the project, students review selected references and write a brief paper on the geologic history of the Arbuckles and associated controversies. The Arbuckle mountains consist of a thick Paleozoic succession of mostly carbonate strata, deformed at low temperatures during the Late Paleozoic. The main controversies focus on the Late Precambrian origin of the depositional basin (aulacogen vs. transtensional transform) and the style of deformation during the Late Paleozoic (pure contraction, transpression, or strike-slip) (for review, see Tapp, 1988). There is also evidence for Late Paleozoic structural inversion along faults in the area (Tapp, 1995). Using the literature, students are asked to adopt or form a hypothesis about the deformation in the region. This step is followed by one to two weekend field trips in which pairs of students gather data on bedding, faults, striations, veins, stylolites, and folds exposed in large roadcuts along I-35 north of Ardmore, OK. Students are coached in using their hypothesis to guide the gathering of field data, and in selecting appropriate methods of data analysis (ex. stereonets, Rose diagrams). Students must then write a paper that supports or refutes their hypothesis, interpreting their own field observations and data in the context of the views presented in the literature. This project fosters the realization that students' field-based data analysis can contribute to solving real geologic problems.