FIELD GEOLOGY OF THE BRITISH ISLES: COMBINING FACULTY AND STUDENT RESEARCH WITH COURSE DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES TO CREATE AN INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGY FIELD COURSE

The geology program at Northwest Missouri State University has a long history of providing field experiences to enrich undergraduate education. Our field opportunities are designed to pique interest by going to cool places and seeing awesome geology. With this initial interest we are able to challenge students to apply concepts learned in the classroom to real-world settings. In addition, Northwest has adopted a commitment to student-centered international experiences. With this in mind, we developed a faculty-led, geologic field course to Scotland and Ireland. This course was open to any student who had completed at least one semester of study in geology. To maximize our time and resources, we linked research and instructional proposals to pursue funding from various internal sources. Grant proposals linked anticipated student learning outcomes to three segments of the Departmental planning process: 1) competence in a discipline; 2) multicultural competence; and, 3) cultural awareness. This multi-tiered approach allowed us to successfully combine funds from Applied Research, Improvement of Teaching and Learning, and Undergraduate Research sources with Departmental support to cover the costs of course development. With funds secured, the first step was to research and chart a reconnaissance trip to locations of geologic interest in Scotland and Ireland. This general area was chosen because of the rich geologic history not only in the rocks and structures but also in the development of the science. A team of three, including 2 faculty members and 1 undergraduate student, completed the second step by collecting GPS coordinates, driving directions, cultural significance, accessibility, rock types, tectonic structures, surficial processes, digital photos, video clips and samples, where appropriate, at 46 field locations. To understand better the complexity of the geologic setting, the team conducted additional research and constructed specific geologic maps using GIS software during the 2009-2010 academic year. Finally, the resulting field notes, samples, and digital information were analyzed and summarized to construct the field guide and associated assessment instruments for the course. Ten undergraduate students and 2 non-credit seeking attendees successfully completed the course in May 2010.