A CARIBBEAN SUMMER FIELD COURSE: COASTAL GEOMORPHOLOGY ON DOMINICA'S BEACHES AND CORAL REEFS

At Baylor University a Caribbean summer field course was developed around the coastal geomorphology of Dominica's beaches and coral reefs. This course provides an international cultural geography experience, as well as geoscience field methods, data collection, and research opportunities for the students. The activities of this course include coastal process and beach profile, GPS and digital photography data collection, field notebook/journal use, SCUBA diving on coral reefs, and general exploration of a tropical island developing nation. Geoscience concepts covered include: local climatology and air circulation (elevation and dry/wet side vegetation differences, sea/land breeze, and cooling with elevation), island arc formation and island volcanic processes (Caribbean Windward island formation and local volcanic features), coastal geomorphology (regional and local currents, waves, coastal processes and landforms, beach profiles and sea level), coastal management (sea walls, rip-rap, fisheries, cruise-ship tourism, road construction adn hurricane mitigation), global positioning systems (GPS) (data collection, error, data entry), coral reef geology and biology (reef formation, growth, structure, ecology, common organisms, health and management issues), topographic map use and a plethora of other local cultural and physical geography concepts.