INTRODUCTORY ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY COURSE ORGANIZED AROUND THE LOCAL WATERSHED: A CASE STUDY FOR ALUM CREEK, CENTRAL OHIO

The Otterbein College campus in central Ohio abuts Alum Creek which serves as a laboratory for both environmental geology and biology courses completed by environmental science majors. Alum Creek is an ideal focus for both disciplines because the Creek provides the town drinking water (intake adjacent to campus), is the discharge point for the nearby wastewater plant (100m downstream from campus), and is the home for a diverse warm water stream community. Daily stream data (80+ years), nearby well logs, and biological criteria (ex. IBI scores) are available on line. Without substantially altering the outline of a standard environmental geology course, it has been possible to make most labs, and many in-class assignments specific to Alum Creek. Labs include soil profiles (collected with augers) of upland, slope, and floodplain soils; soil erosion intensity by comparing two active housing developments using the USEPA watershed protection guideline checklist; tributary flow including stream characteristics, calculation of impermeable surface, runoff coefficient, and suitability of road culverts; recurrence interval and floodplain delineation of Alum Creek and the limits this puts on future use of college owned land; groundwater modeling of a simulated toxic spill in the vicinity of the drinking water plant using well log data; and using GIS to site a landfill in the watershed. Other labs include inquiry based water quality analyses using Vernier probes and spectrophotometers, and an independent class research project. A successful synthetic “real world” application assignment is “Should I buy this house?” This assignment asks student to evaluate a new building lot adjacent to Alum Creek using radon data (a local concern), FEMA flood maps, county soil maps, and erosion potential as if they were potential home buyers. A second part of the assignment is the environmental impact of the house including its contribution to stormwater runoff and the application of “smart growth” criteria.