CHALLENGING STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF THE GEOSCIENCES THROUGH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: RAISING THE BAR FOR MAJORS AND NON-MAJORS AT THE INTRODUCTORY LEVEL

Introductory geosciences courses often present an array of unique and interesting issues that are challenging, and the solutions of how to best address these issues are seldomly agreed upon. These introductory courses are often composed of a wide range of majors, and a majority of these are non-geoscience / non-science related. It is this diversity that generates many of the issues often faced by instructors when planning for these courses, the largest being how to structure introductory geoscience courses to meet the educational needs of those within the major while simultaneously reaching the non-science majors in such a way as to encourage an appreciation for the geosciences. As introductory courses are also used as recruiting tools for the department, planning for this wide variety of backgrounds can become even more challenging for the instructor. In an attempt to balance these issues, an independent project-based activity, designed specifically with a field component, was introduced within the last month of the Spring 2014 semester in the Physical Geology courses at Auburn University. Recent successes with these project-based exercises suggest that hands on field-based activities for introductory level students not only worked well to reinforce the learning objectives, but also provided a unique perspective on types of fieldwork currently being conducted in the geosciences. This project-based activity was intended to replicate the experiences of a field geologist; with minor alterations, it could replicate any desired field within the geosciences. In this particular project, requirements were established in order to evaluate the performance of geoscience (geology) majors against non-geoscience /non-science majors. The results demonstrated that the non-geosciences /non-science majors performed equivalent to the geoscience majors. By raising the course standards and using hands-on fieldwork activities as a method for evaluation, it proved successful in narrowing the interest gap created by the diversities of majors, as well as served as an excellent tool for recruiting new students into the department.