OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FRONT LINES OF A SUMMER FIELD COURSE: “WE CAN'T DO EVERYTHING IN A SIX CREDIT COURSE”

Long-term and recent interactions with students from programs across the country enrolled in the Miami University summer field courses in the Rocky Mountain region have led to observations that have implications for the future of field programs. Two questions are posed. First, are “traditional” field courses essential experiences? Second, does the background of the modern geoscience student prepare them for a capstone field course? We strongly believe that the “traditional” mapping oriented field course must retain a prominent role in a geoscience curriculum. Because maps are the basic interpretive tool used by all field based geoscientists, regardless of discipline, we think it is imperative that students learn how they are constructed. This is not because we expect all students to go on to be career mappers, but because it is important for students to learn that maps are interpretations based on the data at hand. Moreover, geologic mapping is an excellent vehicle to engage students in the processes of hypothesis testing, cooperative learning, and critical thinking. In this context, field courses should be focused on skills and activities that develop outcrop- to regional-scale multi-dimensional visualization of geological features and processes.

However, before deciding what is offered in field school curricula, the community first must decide what is expected and required of geoscience majors. What should we teach and where/when should it be taught? For example, new technologies can aid in the construction of geologic maps in the field but they do not replace basic field geology skills. Our experience with GPS/GIS-based projects is that the technology does not improve the quality of the geological interpretations made by the students. Furthermore, we have noticed that students over the past 10 years increasingly arrive unfamiliar with basic tools and skills of the field geologist including an understanding of topographic maps, air photos, geologic maps and cross sections, forcing us to cover these basic concepts in remedial “classroom” lectures. If we can no longer count on these basic competencies as prerequisites for a junior/senior level summer field course, then is such a course truly a “capstone” experience for students or does it better serve as an earlier core geoscience requirement?