A TRISECTED ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY COURSE

During spring 2011, the Environmental Geology course at Southern Utah University, a required upper level course for geology majors, was redesigned to provide differential learning opportunities and to connect classroom content to current political and social issues. Instead of maintaining a strict lecture format, this course was trisected into a lecture section, a lab section, and a seminar section. The lecture section focused on environmental geomechanics topics that geoscientists entering the environmental science industry likely would encounter, such as debris flow mechanics and prediction, subsidence related to water withdrawal and fossil fuel extraction, and deterioration of earth materials. The lab section was treated as a mock environmental consulting project in which students conducted research and presented reports regarding a hypothetical hydrocarbon exploration and development proposal located approximately 10 miles from campus. The seminar section engaged students in discussion of various texts addressing opposing perspectives on current environmental issues, such as global warming, offshore drilling, water issues in the West, and alternative energies. In each of the three sections, students exhibited a high level of engagement, and their responses to evaluation questions indicated that the design of the course helped them link environmental science content to the real world.