PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF GEOLOGY FIELD CAMP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON

The University of Akron has offered a geology field camp course since 1970, which began as a traditional 6-week capstone course operating out of Casper, Wyoming. The location and format changed in 1991 to a moving camp based in three different locations (Black Hills, SD, Bighorn Basin, WY, and Seminoe Mountains, WY). Since 1996, the camp has been offered as two courses (GFCI and GFCII). This format continues today and offers students the opportunity to take GFCI as early as the end of the sophomore or junior year. GFCII is usually taken at the end of the junior or senior year of the undergraduate program. A majority of the students elect to take all six credits at or near the end of their undergraduate program. The Summer 2007 distribution was: 67% GFCI & II, 28% GFCI and 5% GFC II. Illustrative of the change in program requirements at several Universities, a majority of the GFCI-only group in 2007 came from universities that do not require a full 6-8 week geology field camp experience. The University of Akron field camp has undergone technological changes over the last 10 years. We added GPS, GIS and computers (2004) for exercises in areas of low relief and/or dense forest cover where mapping on a traditional topographic base is difficult. The utilization of new technologies enhances the educational experience of field camp and enriches the goals set for our capstone course. We continue to use the first half (GFCI) for instruction in the basic field techniques of mapping, through a series of one or two day group exercises (stratigraphic sections, mapping, cross sections and structure). GFCII involves more in-depth analysis requiring a broader geology education and culminates in a five day individual mapping project.