CURRENT AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS WITHIN THE GEOLOGY DEPARTMENT AT PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, CALIFORNIA

Pasadena City College (PCC) in southern California is the third-largest single-campus community college district in the United States with a population of about 30,000 students. PCC is also a Hispanic Serving Institution with a diverse student body. The Geology Department at PCC is fortunate enough to have four full-time faculty members as well as 4 to 6 adjunct faculty on the staff. The Geology Department is thus large enough to instruct about 1500 students each year in classes ranging in size from 15-40 students. As such the department operates much like one in a 4-year institution, actively recruiting majors, feeding them through our lower-division version of a “pipeline”, mentoring pre-service teachers, and of course trying to offer interesting and relevant courses to non-science majors. Presentation of a 30-minute earth science K-8 lesson is required in the pre-service teacher courses, which familiarizes students with the California State Standards for earth science and addresses the topic of science pedagogy. Students in these courses are also required to perform a month-long moon observation project that emphasizes observation skills and the concept of discovery learning. Our “Major’s pipeline” begins with physical geology where all instructors actively identify and encourage potential majors, followed by a rather untraditional historical geology course that involves field mapping in Rainbow Basin as well as four days of field mapping at Poleta Folds in the White-Inyo Mountains, locations that are often introduced by southern California universities at the upper division level. Mineralogy is offered every other year and typically consists of 10-15 students, most of who transfer as geology majors to complete their undergraduate degrees. A number of field courses actually form the backbone of many major as well as non-major courses in the Geology Department, ranging from local day trips to the see features such as along the San Andreas fault or Pacific coast, to two-week trips to places like Death Valley, Wyoming, and Hawaii. Future goals for the PCC geology department include strengthening our relationship with local 4-year colleges (our “feeder” schools), designing more interdisciplinary field courses, and considering funding options that could help provide research opportunities for our students.