EARLY AND OFTEN: FIELD COURSE OPPORTUNITIES ENHANCE EXPERIENCES FOR STUDENTS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Field experiences have the power to be transformative for students and serve as powerful tools for recruiting students into the geosciences. Thus, it is often in the best interest of both faculty and students to get into the field early and often, despite the significant barriers that can restrict access to these types of opportunities. Field courses and field camps are commonly aimed at upper-level students who have already taken substantial geological coursework. However, here we present our experience facilitating a coupled seminar and field-based course that has only a single semester of introductory geology as a prerequisite. The seminar and field course are both centered on the geology of Arizona, and on how humans interact with, and are impacted by, the natural environment. We target three main themes: 1) create opportunity for students to explore and learn about the geology of Arizona (Basin and Range, Grand Canyon stratigraphy, mineral resources, etc.), 2) expose them to basic field skills (e.g. observation, description, note taking, and synthesizing content), 3) build awareness of DEAI and ethical issues related to geoscience (inequities of field work in terms of race and ability, relevancy of geosciences to society, etc.). Through this model, we combine students with a broad range of previous knowledge into a peer-learning cohort that fosters and enhances our departmental community. We seek to mitigate the financial barriers to this type of program by covering all expenses for all students. Additionally, with the field course run over winter break, this class serves as a low-stakes, low-barrier way for students to explore the geosciences while gaining diverse exposure to the geology content, methods, and societal implications of the discipline. We have found this to be a powerful tool for bringing students into the department who might never have previously considered geosciences as an area of interest.