WALK→CRAWL→RUN: LIFE SKILLS FOR NAVIGATING A CHAOTIC WORLD

From satellites to submersibles, science and technology advance at a mind-numbing pace. As geoscience educators, we employ a Crawl→Walk→Run method to prepare students for the technical rigors of geoscience careers. Course curricula introduce geoscience topics (Crawl). The course sequences build on previous concepts to give the students a solid foundation (Walk). Finally, the students engage a capstone research or field camp experience, with the intent of putting everything together (Run). The problem? Life skills are missing from geoscience curricula.

Selected by the National Academies to serve as a Jefferson Science Fellow, I was placed with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security for a one-year immersion in the culture, training, and operations of foreign service agents who operate in some of the most lawless places on Earth. I used the lessons-learned from my tour of duty to develop a Walk→Crawl→Run concept that directly addresses the life skills missing from the customary geoscience curriculum. This is not a simple reshuffling of the words Walk and Crawl, but a sequence of fieldcraft training culminating with a Field Training Exercise (FTX) in the South Dakota Badlands. This training includes: Personal Responsibility and Mental Toughness; Situational Awareness; and Mitigating Threats and Medical Trauma. Students practice how to walk head up, scanning for potential threats. Crawling through a mud obstacle, they progress to a mental toughness exercise by dismantling the comfort mindset and embracing the discomfort of wet and dirty conditions. They are then confronted with a simulated medical situation and evaluated on proficiency to mitigate the threat and stop the bleed with a tourniquet.

While the Crawl→Walk→Run method is useful for getting students hired or demonstrating accreditation proficiency, it fails to deliver meaningful life skills differentiating between getting a job (a common institutional metric of success) versus embarking on a lifelong journey in a geoscience career, with its rich tapestry of experiences, challenges, and opportunities. The latter requires Walk→Crawl→Run life skills to navigate chaotic physical and social environments as geoscientists. With these life skills, geoscientists can figuratively Run to achieve the scientific goals of the FTX and beyond.