TIMELESS BENEFITS OF FIELD GEOLOGY EDUCATION: PROFESSIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC SKILLS

The University of Wyoming has a strong history of providing rigorous field education in the geosciences for over 85 years. The first UWyo Field Camp was a 2-student geology class taught in 1923 by Dr. Samuel Knight (UWyo) and Dr. James Kemp (Columbia University), but the course quickly grew to 25 students by the following year. Despite obstacles such as the financial burden of the course, liability borne by instructors, and valid concern from the office of risk management, the UWyo Field Camp continues to thrive and is currently operating as a six-week travelling camp that covers topics such as igneous petrology, sedimentation and stratigraphy, structural geology, metamorphic petrology, paleontology, geomorphology, and geophysics.

Despite changes in faculty, students and technology, the unique pedagogic strengths of field camp remain the same throughout time. Dr. Knight believed that field work was essential for students to complete their undergraduate education in geology, and today’s field camp provides students an unparalleled opportunity to transition from memorization and following directions to application and initiative. Beyond the specifics of locating oneself on a topographic map and identifying parasequence boundaries, field camp teaches both professional skills and general scientific proficiency. The professional skills include independence, teamwork, project planning, and professional behavior. The scientific skills are applicable to any scientific field: observation (learning to see what is truly there, not what one expects to see), thorough and accurate data recording, data analysis, development and testing of hypotheses, 3-D visualization, and visualization through time. These skills can be taught well in field camp because it is a venue very different than the classroom, and the transformation of participants from students to geoscientists is clearly visible throughout the course. This successful model for teaching should not be dismissed as concern rises over budget reductions and liability issues.