OPPORTUNITIES FOR TEACHING AND RESEARCH ON URBAN NATURAL AREAS, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL

Geoscience instructors at schools in urban settings often find it challenging to make course material relevant and engaging for students that have spent most of their lives in urban areas. Opportunities for traditional geology field trips where students practice interpreting outcrops or mapping geologic features are also often not available in cities. However, local parks or urban preserves are often easily accessible and can provide opportunities for field trips, field methods instruction, and independent study projects. Although usually small and highly disturbed, such urban preserves also serve as an excellent example of the importance of the geosciences for ecosystem management and for understanding human/environmental interactions. Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL is located in one of the most densely populated urban corridors in the United States. The majority of Geoscience majors at FAU has grown up in this urban setting and therefore has had little opportunity to observe the variety of geologic settings and landforms in other parts of the country and world. Although FAU is located near Everglades National Park, class field trips to the Everglades are not practical because airboats or helicopters are required to access most of the park’s interior. However, Palm Beach County’s natural areas, which have been set aside to preserve native ecosystems and biological diversity, provide relevant and timely classroom examples of local geoscience issues as well as opportunities for field instruction and research projects. Pondhawk Natural Area is located with one mile of FAU’s main campus, and I have developed several teaching and research activities that focus on Pondhawk including 1) aerial photo interpretation, 2) water table monitoring, 3) water quality monitoring, 4) well installation, and 5) surveying. This paper discusses the general value of urban preserves for geoscience education and, as an example of this value, describes my ongoing teaching and research activities at Pondhawk Natural Area in detail.