INNOVATIVE OR LOW-HANGING FRUIT? PREPARING FRESNO STATE STUDENTS FOR THE GEOSCIENCE WORKFORCE IN CLASS AND EXTRACURRICULARS

Most baccalaureate geoscience graduates enter the workforce in applied fields like groundwater resource exploitation or protection, hazard mitigation, resource extraction, etc., both on the industry and regulatory side. Consequently, most students can benefit from experiences exposing them to the methods and content of such careers. Fresno State’s approach to this benefits from 2 faculty members with a combined total of >20 years in consulting geology. Our Engineering Geology curriculum and related extracurriculars help bridge the gap between geology core courses and most students’ eventual careers. We cover basic applied methods such as Unified Soil Classification System and Unified Rock Classification System with exposure to real drill cores donated by the Bureau of Reclamation, kinematic rock slope stability surveys at a real site, landslide mapping, groundwater elevation surveys for constructing flow nets, and salt dilution gauging of a stream. For the last two years, the culminating service-learning project was design and installation of a simple erosion control project at a collaborating land steward’s site. When learned adequately, all of these skills could appear on a resume. Also, in most years students witness at least one real borehole-drilling operation to understand some basics of subsurface investigations. The instructor is also an officer in the local Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologist chapter, helping bring students to monthly professional meetings consisting of networking in the context of a science talk or field trip. We do not consider these to be innovative, but are seemingly rare undergraduate experiences, which we believe enhance student success after graduation.