NATIONAL PARK STRATIGRAPHY ON THE WEB: A STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

As part of the undergraduate stratigraphy class at Eastern Illinois University, students write a report on the lithostratigraphy of a national park ot their choosing. Reports are subjected to review by other class members as an introduction to the peer review process. Under close faculty supervision, the report is then revised in HTML and placed on a university web server and linked to the National Park Stratigraphy Page at http://oldsci.eiu.edu/geology/parks/parkstrat.htm After placement on the web students orally present the page contents to other class members.

The project also gives the students the experience of translating information from a geologic map into a stratigraphic column. Students benefit from this project by being able to visualize and understand the stratigraphy of another area without having to visit the location. The students also gain experience writing and giving professional type reports; which are important professional skills. An example is the page on Dinosaur National Monument at http://oldsci.eiu.edu/geology/parks/dino/dino.html