CREATING ENGAGING OUTDOOR GEOLOGY LABS IN A NON-GEOLOGIC SETTING

Missouri Western State University is an open enrollment university in Saint Joseph, Missouri, located north of Kansas City. Missouri Western lacks a geosciences department, so the introductory physical geology course is offered as a general education class through the Biology Department. Standard laboratory activities which are designed for undergraduate majors within a geoscience department are not engaging for the average Missouri Western student enrolled in the physical geology course. Several outdoor lab activities are being designed that both engage students in inquiry-based learning and expose them to local geologic features and processes.

The geologic setting of Saint Joseph consists of Paleozoic carbonate bedrock mantled by extensive loess deposits dating to the last glacial maximum. There are very few bedrock exposures in the area, mostly concentrated along major highways. However, the campus at Missouri Western does offer excellent opportunities for small, field-based lab activities. Several outdoor lab activities that require little specialized equipment have been designed for the 24-person lab classes and the restricted time allowed by a lab period (<2 hours). Locations at which these lab activities may take place can be found within walking distance of the lab building. Taking advantage of the hilly loess landscape, students participate in a soils lab where they take soil cores along a hillslope, describe the soil profile and reconstruct the soil catena. There are also several streams and ponds on campus, providing an opportunity for the students to participate in outdoor lab activities which examine flow velocity and stream morphology.