TRADITIONAL FIELD CAMPS: AN IMPORTANT INTEGRAL COMPONENT IN GEOSCIENCES EDUCATION

Most field camps are traditional mapping-based geology field camps, but an increasing number are being substituted by environmental science, hydrology, and geophysics. As a result the number of traditional geology field camps is declining, although a majority of the Bachelors of Science degrees in geology/earth science still require some type of field experiences as part of the core curriculum. Many departments are allowing for field experiences other than formal field camps to be used to fulfill this requirement. Instead of the summer course an increasing number of schools offer semester field courses and/or a wide range of field trips and short weekend field experiences to introduce students to field techniques. Additionally fewer graduate programs are requiring field camp as a prerequisite for acceptance to graduate school. The combination of changing undergraduate requirements, decreased demand from graduate programs and the high costs of summer field courses, has led many students in departments to pass up the opportunity to gain valued field training. Most professionals from industry and many from academia agree that field experience is an important and unique component of geoscience education, that it provides a hands-on approach to education and that it should be encouraged as an integral part of professional training. Students who attend the traditional geology field camps offered by Black Hills Natural Sciences Field Station in the US and Turkey express their experience in following testimonial “ I learned more about geology in five weeks than I did in four years”