INTEGRATING AUTHENTIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES INTO THE INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY COURSE AT CARLETON COLLEGE

Carleton College is a small liberal arts college (~2000 students) situated at the edge of the prairie in Northfield, Minnesota and sits atop Middle Ordovician sedimentary rocks and Pleistocene glacial deposits. Our typical Introduction to Geology course consists of two lab sections with 18 students and two TA's in each section. Labs meet once a week for four hours. In a ten-week term, seven of the eight labs are conducted outside taking advantage of the local geology. One of the goals of the introductory course is for students to discover and describe the local stratigraphy through mapping, making stratigraphic sections, and writing short interpretive narratives at various locations around Northfield. During these exercises, the instructor and TA's point out potential research projects the students can choose to work on as part of their independent research project completed by the end of the term. These research projects make up 20% of a students grade and include a one page, GSA-style abstract (individually written) and group research presentation. The last two class periods in the term (70 minutes each) are dedicated to these group presentations (10 minutes with 2 minutes questions). Students work in groups of 3 and 4 and are assigned research topics based on preference. I spend part of one lecture describing potential research questions and invite the students to propose their own questions. Once groups are assigned, we spend 2-3 weeks working on the projects, including two full lab periods where the students focus on collecting data. Typical projects include “Stream profile and knick point migration at the Cannon River Wilderness Park (CRWP)”, “Water chemistry, spring formation, and Fe-oxidizing bacteria in the CRWP”, and “Precipitation and discharge in the Cannon River.” Most students find these projects frustrating and confusing, but ultimately satisfying because it gives them a better feeling for how science works and perhaps the confidence to take additional science courses.