DESIGNING A GLACIAL GEOLOGY FIELD AND LAB COURSE-BASED UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPERIENCE IN THE SAWATCH RANGE, CO

Beginning with the class that entered fall 2019, all undergraduate students at Vanderbilt University must complete an experiential learning project called an Immersion Experience and Project in order to graduate. We designed a course-based undergraduate research experience for our Glacial Geology class that includes research methods training, a five-day field trip to Colorado, a month of lab work on campus, and a final journal-style paper. This course satisfies the Immersion Experience portion of the graduation requirement, and as a research methods course, it prepares students for independent research projects in which they could complete their Immersion Project.

In fall 2021 and 2022, we took 12 undergraduate students on a 5-day field trip to the Sawatch Range with the goals of: learning to identify glacial landforms in the field, developing an understanding of the differences between glacial sediments and other sedimentary units, and building field research method skills such as field observations, note-taking, and sampling methods. On the field trip, we collect samples from 3-4 different glaciated valleys in the Sawatch Range. We target sites that have glacial deposits of two different ages (Pinedale, Bull Lake, and/or Pre-Bull Lake). We also visit at least one site that has been dated by other authors with cosmogenic nuclides. Students are split into groups of 3-4, and at each site they collect two types of samples: 20-25 pebbles and a sample of till from the A soil horizon.

On campus, students sieve their till samples to < 2mm and collect the following data: grain size distribution on a Malvern Mastersizer, organic carbon content through mass lost on ignition, and bulk geochemistry on a portable XRF. They also conduct a clast shape analysis on the pebbles they collected. Students analyze their data by looking for trends that they can correlate with the cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages or the ages presented on the maps. Students present their results in a group presentation and an individual journal-style paper. The data the students collect will be aggregated and will hopefully form a preliminary data set to explore if these methods can be correlated with the cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages and helpful in refining existing maps of the area.