WVU FIRE AND ICE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM (RE-)ESTABLISHING A STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM TO INVIGORATE A GEOLOGY PROGRAM

College-level STEM classes often strive for a meaningful active learning component, but this effort is usually constrained by budget, time, and faculty-enthusiasm levels. Balancing these demands is challenging but necessary to have a successful program. After over a decade without any Study Abroad component, West Virginia University's Geology program developed an overseas active learning course to Iceland in the 2018 spring semester. Until then, the only field-based learning course offered was summer fieldcamp that most students only take at the end of their final year.

The new course consisted of weekly readings, one-hour weekly seminars, and a capstone one-week fieldtrip to Iceland at the end of the semester (May 2018). Each student in the class chose a topic of their interest (flood basalt volcanism, glacial geomorphology, subglacial volcanic features, etc.) and wrote a chapter of the fieldguide that was used during the fieldtrip. While in Iceland students gained hands-on field experience and learned how to conceptualize and problem solve in the field. Students surveyed at the end of the course felt that actively learning geology in the field gave them an advantage over other students who did not take the course. They were also more enthusiastic about their major, own abilities, and had an increased desire for travel. Seniors in the course said the field experience gained benefited them at fieldcamp as well. The trip was an enormous success.

The problems or challenges with this course were cost, which prevented high enrollment, and the faculty time spent in initial planning - especially navigation of WVU’s own policies and procedures. Short-term solutions were found in partial funding from endowments and expanding the pool of students by offering Continuing Education enrollment to professionals and alumni. By advertising the course a year in advance as a regular class, students will be better prepared: save money, apply for support, etc., and fund-raising efforts can be focused.