INTEGRATING GEOPHOTOGRAPHY WITH UNDERGRADUATE GEOLOGY CLASSES

We offer a one credit optional seminar in geologic photography to students enrolled in Geology of National Parks, an introductory level course with 75-125 students. We also offer it to geology majors in Structural Geology. Typically, 7-10 students take the seminar, each of who receives a digital SLR camera for the duration of the course. Our primary goal is to encourage students to connect with their course material in an artistic, right-brain way in addition to the analytic, left-brain approach that we require in the traditional lecture/lab format. Secondary goals include providing a small class experience in an otherwise large enrollment course, increasing student expertise with digital photography, and producing a series of framed prints with edited labels. We hang the prints at the course end in a public gallery at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

The seminar’s format consists mostly of a mix of technical instruction in photography, sharing and discussion of images, and selection and preparation of the images and labels for display. We also take several short local field trips. Besides field trips, most of the geology integration occurs during photo sharing when the instructor can point features out in individual photographs and steer the discussion towards geology. The geology discussion ranges widely, from course topics to more advanced concepts that would otherwise never surface during the main lecture. Image preparation consists mostly of writing and editing an interpretive museum label, a process that requires the student to articulate the geological significance of their work for a broad audience.

Based on evaluations, students greatly enjoy the seminar, its increased interaction with their instructor, and their improved facility with the digital camera. However, only a handful of the introductory students reported that it actually taught them much about geology specifically, although nearly all of them reported that it made them significantly more aware of geology in their surroundings. The geology majors from the structure class were especially enthusiastic with their reviews, commenting that the photography aspect gave them more of a “mission” while on field trips.