TEACHING GEOHAZARDS IN OUR BACKYARD: USING CASE STUDIES IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA AND COASTAL VIRGINIA TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN GEOSCIENCE

As geoscience educators, we invariably do ourselves a disservice on the first day of classes. Even though we hope to engage students and inspire their interest, the customary first day is often focused on course requirements, syllabi, and other administrative nauseas. As part of this ritualized tradition, we slap students with a costly textbook, and lay out a road map for what we expect: exams, quizzes, lab reports, discussions, field trips, reading assignments, etc.. Talk about an excitement killer. Although a roadmap is necessary, we need to take advantage of the tinge of curiosity they possess at the outset of a semester and culture their interests. Here in Pennsylvania, we are blessed with a myriad of geologic treasures. We are minutes away from exposures demonstrating nearly every geologic phenomenon. We have dozens of case studies for how geosciences impact and benefit society. Whether they include sink holes, issues of acid mine drainage, river/coastal flooding, landslides, mine hazards, earthquakes, oil and gas, etc. it is easy to find issues that impact each student directly. Having lived in this region, most students are familiar with it, but many are not visually cued to discern the fact that rocks aren’t normally folded, fractured or faulted. Nor do some consider the fact that coal seams aren’t normally on fire, or that streams shouldn’t be rusty orange, or that recreational beaches are costly to preserve from year to year. Therefore as educators, despite budgetary constraints, we need to be reminded that students need, more than ever, to be offered opportunities to explore their local region as they learn so they better value the learning experience. They need opportunities to retrain their eyes to interpret the visual cues they are accustomed to overlooking. This session will focus on pedagogical approaches used to inspire and cultivate interest and curiosity in the geosciences at both the undergraduate and graduate level. By implementing required field trips, digital map-based exercises, online discussions, and other written assignments, in addition to traditional readings and lecture from a supporting text, students are able to reflect more deeply about the geosciences and how they are impacted daily.