GEOLOGIC PHOTO FIELD TRIPS TO VIEW ROCKS, GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES, AND LANDFORMS IN INTRODUCTORY PHYSICAL GEOLOGY

Field photographs are used to enhance the instruction in teaching rocks, geologic structures, and landforms in Introductory Physical Geology lecture at East Carolina University. The field photographs are used to enhance the visual component of Physical Geology and are focused on rock outcrops (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic), geologic structures (faults and folds), and landforms (volcanic, weathering-erosion, mass wasting, fluvial, wind-desert, coastal, and karst). The photographs, used for the Geologic Photo Field Trips, have been selected primarily from photographs taken in New Mexico and Colorado while teaching the UNC System-wide Summer Geology Field Course.

Field photographs are used in Physical Geology lecture to encourage students to interpret the relationship between rock type and landforms and between geologic structures and landforms based on the student’s own observations. Descriptive notes in Physical Geology lecture provide a means of review of the important processes in each topical unit. Next, students are assigned homework questions and a virtual field photograph exercise following the discussion of each unit in the classroom. The homework questions and field photographs are posted on the Geology Department’s Physical Geology course website. In summary students participate in a series of virtual geology field trips by observing and describing rock outcrops, geologic structures, and landforms in field based photographs.