STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS IN MINERALOGY AND PETROLOGY: A MULTI SEMESTER APPROACH

The application of hands-on, inquiry based pedagogy is a growing trend in undergraduate geoscience education. Such an approach requires that students be assigned either short-term or long-term projects. In many cases, projects are illustrative and are recycled from year to year. In an effort to expand inquiry based pedagogy, multi-semester research projects were introduced to the mineralogy-petrology sequence at Southern Utah University (SUU). With these projects, students apply mineralogic and petrologic concepts, learned through course work, to real world problems. Since projects are centered around poorly understood areas, students know that they are making a real contribution to science and thus feel a sense of ownership to their work. At SUU, mineralogy is offered on an annual basis, while petrology is on a biannual schedule. Thus, two different mineralogy classes can start projects as a group, and the two projects are completed as parallel projects in petrology. Between 2003 and 2005, one group investigated metamorphism of 1.7 Ga rocks exposed in the Beaver Dam Mountain in southwest Utah, while a second group characterized contact metamorphism associated with copper mineralization in western Utah. Both projects started with fieldwork and sample collection. In mineralogy, students chose a specific lithology to concentrate on, prepared thin sections, and identify and described all minerals in their samples. In petrology, students compiled their data as a group, determined the conditions of metamorphism, and reported their findings. Each group then prepared research papers with all groups members as coauthors.