THE OCEAN DRILLING PROGRAM ONLINE DATABASE AS A RESOURCE FOR INTRODUCTORY GEOSCIENCE CLASSES: HELPING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS NAVIGATE AN OCEAN OF DATA

During two decades of scientific ocean drilling, participants aboard the JOIDES Resolution and shorebased investigators have collected massive amounts of data regarding the nature and history of the ocean basins. Now available via Internet through the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) website, the JANUS database (http://www-odp.tamu.edu/database) and online Proceedings volumes (http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications) constitute a geoscience educational resource unequaled in both scope and accessibility.

We present an approach through which undergraduate faculty can incorporate the cutting edge research conducted through ODP into their introductory courses. We designed an assignment for our freshman-level Historical Geology classes based on research cruises to the Kerguelen Plateau (legs 120 and 183). These cruises were ideally suited to our purpose because they addressed a spectrum of geological principles and concepts, from tectonics and crustal evolution to reconstruction of depositional environments and late Cenozoic climate change.

The month-long assignment involved in-class activities and assignments conducted online and submitted through the Web-CT classroom management utility and the web-based Calibrated Peer Review (CPR^TM) software (http://cpr.molsci.ucla.edu). It began with an introduction to the operational and organizational nature of ODP. This was accomplished through viewing the ODP video, A Planet in Motion. Readings and assignments of scientific literature available online allowed discussion and identification of the geological problems involved in the legs. At this point in the assignment, students were given lab problems involving examination of core photos and interpretation of stratigraphic sections and paleontological data. The lab exercises were developed to complement and enrich the basic geological concepts covered in lecture.

The culminating phase of the assignment was a CPR^TM critical thinking/technical writing assignment in which students wrote and evaluated essays discussing the geologic history of the Kerguelen Plateau. Follow-up questions on both lecture and laboratory exams indicated that not only were learning goals accomplished but also that students had gained new insights, appreciation and interest regarding how science is done.