PLACE-BASED APPROACHES TO GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION – THE THREE LEGGED STOOL

Introductory students in a geology lab course at a selective liberal arts college were asked to develop geologic understanding using 3 different place-based approaches. The St. Peter Project forms a 4-week lab unit in which students use the local USGS 15’ map to develop map reading and analysis skills in conjunction with 2 carefully crafted field trips. The field trips introduce the students to locations containing outcrops and landforms needed to develop a geologic map sufficient to assess the geologic history, evolution and resource potential of the local environment around the college. Studying the common local environment in individual projects gave students the ability to read the environment they are directly able to access in real time. The students applied skills related to rocks, coastal depositional environments, riverine processes, glaciation and the landforms they create to tell the story of their locale, forming the first leg of the stool.

The second leg involves study of a specific “class place” chosen by the instructor to serve as a model for individual student case studies. The instructor used photographs, maps and text in response to topic based prompts to explore the class place using the concepts from various units to tease out the story the rocks reveal about a place that the students have never seen. The students were given carefully selected images in the form of quizzes timed to apply the content students are learning to the case, first as individuals, and then via group discussion. This collective exploration of the class place generated hypotheses for its formation and evaluation of evidence leading to the individual student gaining insight from their work with their peers over the semester.

The final leg of the stool was provided by applying the Special Place approach to a case selected by the individual student. The students applied their geoscience knowledge for interpretation individually and remotely drawing from lessons gained from the first 2 legs of the stool to demonstrate their geoscience learning on a unique proving ground. This combination of place-based approaches offers students the opportunity to build understanding of geologic principles observable on the land surface with the ability of instructors to assess individual student learning in isolation and in comparison with their peers.