UNIVERSITY OF AKRON FIELD CAMP, THE CAPSTONE COURSE FOR OUR GEOSCIENCE MAJORS

Field camp has been a six credit capstone geology course since 1970 at the University of Akron. It began as a traditional six week course operating out of Casper College in Casper Wyoming. The format and base locations changed in 1991 to three different geographic locations. Field camp begins in the Black Hills, SD followed by Big Horn Mountains and Big Horn Basin and finishing in the Seminoe Mountains of south-central Wyoming. Multiple locations give the students a better opportunity to study variations in stratigraphy and structure in three different geographic areas.

We changed from a single six credit course to two, three credit courses (GFC I and GFC II) in 1996 because of the high number of non-traditional and working students in our undergraduate geology program at the University of Akron. The format allows the student the flexibility of taking both courses in one summer or spread it out over two summers. A majority of the students elect to take both courses in one summer at the end of either their junior or senior year. Students electing to take field camp over more than one summer can take GFC I as early as the end of their sophomore year and generally take GFC II at the end of their senior year. The split in the course also affords students from other universities, that do not require a full 6-8 week field camp experience, to take either GFC I or GFC II depending on their undergraduate preparation.

The format of the courses has remained consistent since 2004. We added GPS, and computer based GIS in the summer of 2004 for exercises in areas of low relief and/or dense forest cover where mapping on a traditional topographic base is difficult.GFC I is used for instruction in the basic field techniques of mapping structures and formations. The exercises are a series of one or two day group projects. GFC II involves more individual mapping and more in-depth interpretations of the geologic history based on the maps the students have created.

Projected enrollment for summer 2010 GFC I field camp of University of Akron Students are at the highest, since our transition to two three credit courses in1996. The number of off-campus applicants also has increased for 2010.