FIELD GEOLOGY I AND II AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE 6-WEEK FIELD CAMP

Field camp is an important and unique experience in the geology curriculum that provides immersive, hands-on, experiential learning in geologically significant settings. However, it can be logistically and financially difficult for non-traditional students to attend and for small departments to run. Balancing the educational value of the 6-week field camp against the resources it takes to run and/or attend has led us to develop an innovative alternative. We offer two separate 3-credit courses, Field Geology I and Field Geology II. Field Geology I is a sophomore-level spring semester course that serves as our gateway to the major. Students meet twice weekly to complete a series of related exercises focused on one field area in central Arkansas. The goal of the course is to introduce basic field and office skills that will continue to be used in upper-level geology courses. Students are evaluated on a research paper, stratigraphic column, geologic map, cross-section, and GSA-style poster. Field Methods II is a senior-level, 3-week camp taught during the summer in Colorado. Students complete one introductory project on surficial processes and three progressively more complex bedrock mapping projects that are all within the same stratigraphy. The goal of each project is to build and/or reinforce the fundamental skills of field observation and interpretation through a combination of geological mapping, structural analysis, and written synthesis of findings. Our teaching philosophy emphasizes a high degree of instructor interaction and feedback, and we encourage collaboration among the students. We believe that our approach accomplishes many of the objectives of a traditional field camp experience but better serves our students’ needs.