CREATING A NEW GEOLOGY FIELD EXPERIENCE DURING TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY: A COLLABORATIVE, STATE-WIDE APPROACH IN PENNSYLVANIA

In a time of declining enrollments, slashed budgets, and faculty reduction, opportunities to create dynamic undergraduate field experiences are slim. However, the transformation that students experience in a geology field camp requires faculty to provide these experiences, often through creative and collaborative thinking. Geologic field courses are expensive resulting in rising costs and decreased accessibility. After years of funding cuts and shrinking enrollment in the Pennsylvania (PA) State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), PA geology programs remain viable and active, but the nine independent Geoscience programs struggle to offer rigorous, immersive field camps due to limited resources. With NSF support, faculty from these nine programs have collaborated to establish a state-wide Geoscience Field Learning Ecosystem and associated field camp, with goals to enhance statewide collaborations among faculty, professional geologists, and state universities, to improve field-based instruction, and to adequately prepare students for the workforce. Additionally, this partnership is focused on introducing Geoscience career pathways to pre-college students, especially underrepresented minorities, through community outreach events.

In summer 2022 this group offered a 5-week summer field course taught by faculty from four universities, traveling to three PASSHE campuses, with student participants from six universities. This project has necessitated significant institutional transformation including an agreement among 9 PASSHE universities, a simple decentralized student-centered registration process, and regular communication among universities (faculty, registrars, provosts, etc.). Professional geologists from public and private sectors provided professional encounters. This novel approach utilized resources from throughout the state to provide a field course that immersed students into the varied geology across PA and introduced them to related careers. Assessment data indicate that students gained traditional and modern field skills, as well as heightened awareness of potential careers. Students also reported increased confidence in their ability to make scientific observations and interpretations, think critically, and effectively communicate their findings.