LEARNING TO BE A SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGIST BY BEING A SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGIST

Sedimentary geology courses are a particular challenge to teach in small departments, where frequently faculty can offer just one upper-level course in sedimentary geology that covers sedimentology, sedimentary petrology, and stratigraphy. As we (re)designed our sedimentary geology courses, the structure was strongly influenced by the “On the Cutting Edge” course design workshops and the notion that students should learn sedimentary geology by practicing the work of a sedimentary geologist—at a level appropriate to their abilities. We each structured our sedimentary geology courses around a series of projects that allow students to practice the technical and cognitive skills that practicing sedimentary geologists use routinely, within the context of authentic geological datasets.

Although the two courses differ in detail, the objectives are strikingly similar, and we share one project in common, which we present here: Students interpret a 64 m core acquired by the Minnesota Geological Survey, penetrating a local Cambrian succession. Over the course of 3-4 weeks, students log the core, create a digital core log, identify lithofacies, perform petrographic analyses, and interpret the core. Students receive logging sheets and other tools, guidance on proper core handling, and an assignment to log and interpret the core. No lecture on the details of core logging is provided; students must figure this out for themselves through directed questions, discussion, and the use of web-based resources. Faculty serve as a resource, but students are expected to investigate a question independently before asking for assistance. We have found that this approach allows individual students to construct their own cognitive framework, resulting in greater depth of learning. The project is scaffolded such that the instructor keeps students on task and on track, keys them into important observations, and directs them to appropriate resources to help them interpret the core. Each project proceeds in a similar loop – introduce data and observations first; query the observations; discuss; interpret. We find that we successfully “cover” the traditional disciplinary concepts and that students’ ability to do sedimentary geology is greater than if we taught the course in a traditional lab/lecture format.