Active Field Experiences to Engage Undergraduate Majors and Non-Majors

LeeAnn Srogi & Tim Lutz, Dept. of Geology & Astronomy, West Chester University (esrogi@wcupa.edu)Introduction to Geology (for non-majors)At the introductory level, University and Department learning goals include students being able to: employ quantitative concepts and methods, think critically and analytically, comprehend and apply basic principles of earth science, understand the interactions among science, technology, and society, better understand the dynamic behavior of material and energy, and develop a lifelong interest in earth science. The (mostly) non-major students enrolled in a typical introductory geology course investigate the campus and regional geologic environment through multi-week lab modules. Field trips are conducted around campus each lab, and build from an early show-and-tell trip to pique student interest, to activities in which students make measurements, collect and analyze data, and make and test hypotheses. Students compile weekly handouts and a summary essay into a lab portfolio.

Presented here are materials from a two-week sequence within the Water module and examples of student portfolio essays in which they reflect on their learning.Learning Goals (from the handout for this two-week sequence)To understand the principle of contour lines on maps by constructing contour lines on the ground.To learn how contour lines convey information about topography (e.g., slope, slope direction) on maps.To examine how contour lines relate to runoff and how they can be used to understand and predict patterns of runoff, erosion, and deposition.To analyze contour lines around Sykes Union building to estimate the amount and fate of runoff.

Context of the field experienceStudents enroll in this course primarily to satisfy part of a laboratory science requirement within the general education program.Most students will not become majors in geology or other science fields.All students– whether or not residing in WCU dorms– live in an environment of paved surfaces, buildings, and grassy slopes, and likely will continue to do so after graduation.The “lecture” component of the course parallels the lab content and supports learning in the labs.

Description of the water module and outcomes

Prior to beginning this phase of the module students have:predicted what evidence hydrologic cycle processes might leave on the landscape and taken a field trip to look for evidence of them on WCU’s campus.

used a laboratory experiment to find out how the depth of rainfall and the area on which it falls determines the volume of water received

measured the area of a small watershed on campus and determined how much rain it receives in a storm and during an average year.

used a sequence of historical maps of campus to estimate how land use and runoff has changed.

At the beginning of this sequence, the students briefly study the “rules” of contour lines. Then they are assigned to 5-person teams: three people to construct a contour line (leveler, marker, line handler), one to help observe contour intervals to maintain accuracy, and one to sketch the contour lines on a base map. Five teams construct five contour lines at 1-foot intervals by using steps with 6-inch risers as starting points.

Interval checkers stand along the base of the hill, map makers at the top, while others lay out the contour lines. All groups report out on their work and discuss results. Human “raindrops” demonstrate the effect of topography on runoff.

Student-constructed contour lines (top) are compared with a contour map. Contour lines are used to predict runoff paths, the effect of topography on erosion, and to assess the locations of storm water inlets (bottom)

Students use a contour map of a parking lot near the student union building to determine runoff paths and to predict where storm water inlets will be needed. The students use the area of the parking lot subject to a heavy rainfall to compare the volume of runoff with the size of a detention basin near the parking lot.

Students take a field trip to the parking lot, generally finding that their predictions agree with the placement of storm water inlets.

Students constructing contour lines

Logistics and toolsAll field experiences occur on or near campus within a ten-minute walk of our lab room. It is feasible to combine indoor activities (experiments, calculation, discussion) and outdoor activities (observation, measurement, discussion) within a single 110-minute lab period.By building at least a brief outdoor component into every lab period students get used to going outside and come more prepared.All labs start in the lab room to discuss previous labs, to orient students to the day’s activities, and to secure student belongings they won’t be taking outside.Tools used in this module are inexpensive to buy and easy make. Plastic storage boxes of various sizes, rulers, and buckets are used to experiment with area, precipitation depth, and volume. Contour lines are constructed using leveling sticks made with four-foot lengths of wood, inexpensive bubble levels, and rubber bands. Craft (“popsicle”) sticks and skeins of yarn are used to make the contour lines.

Value added by the field experienceStudents in this course are likely to experience geology in their lives via their roles as home owners, neighbors, businesspeople, teachers, and concerned citizens and voters. The field experience in this module encourages them learn how the principles of physical geology, and skills such as map reading, relate to urbanization and development, storm water management, erosion and sediment pollution, and flooding in the context of the urban/suburban landscapes in which they are likely to live and work.

Many students are concrete learners. The field experiences provide clear-cut examples of how concepts apply. For example, constructing a contour line with a leveling stick literally puts the concept of a contour line in their hands.

The field experiences encourage students to make the connections between theory, observation, prediction, and the testing of predictions. For example, the two-week sequence highlighted below asks students to apply concepts to construct contour lines, and to see in the field how contour lines and topography are related; they pour water on the ground to observe that the flow is perpendicular to contours; they form a line of human raindrops to demonstrate how runoff is concentrated in valleys and dispersed on hillsides; they transfer their knowledge of runoff on the ground to predicting runoff patterns and the locations of storm water inlets on contour maps; and they test their predictions by returning to the field.

Evaluation of student learningStudents write brief essays for each week’s lab; they assemble a portfolio of their work for each 5-week module, and they write an essay to reflect on their learning during the module. Excerpts from student essays:

In the next five to ten years I will probably remember how looking behind basic things in nature can be very beneficial. In the future when looking into buying a house or apartment I will be able to look at the land it sits on, where the nearest drainage system is, and how man has changed its natural setting.

I never realized what a problem urbanization was and the way it affected the earth. Studying evidence of erosion due to this problem greatly helped me [understand] what was happening. I couldn’t believe how badly the ground was decreasing in front of Ruby Jones [Hall]. I had never realized how the sidewalks were deteriorating due to runoff and deposition. These labs really opened my eyes to what was happening around me.

The most interesting part of lab is being physically out on the University’s campus. The involvement of the campus is extremely beneficial in learning because it almost forces you to think about the effect geology has on the world, even when you are not in lab. Walking in the same area a lab session took place makes me do a mental follow-up and curiously observe to see if anything has changed. I am reminded of the water drainage to Plum Run when I see [storm water] grates around campus.

Students in an upper-level petrology course are department majors; roughly half are in the B.S.Ed. program to become secondary teachers. The course learning goals are that students will be able to carry out an investigation of igneous and metamorphic rocks using modern methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and propose a logical and reasonable explanation for their data based on a sound understanding of scientific principles and petrologic theories. Field trips in which students make and test hypotheses, map and collect samples for further research support the learning goals and may be more meaningful to students with little intrinsic interest in petrology. We have sufficient exposures of rocks within easy driving distance, meaningful unanswered questions at the appropriate level for students, and analytical instruments including XRD and an SEM with EDS at West Chester. In fall 2004, field observations will guide the development of a proposal for research that students then conduct in class; and they will be the ground truth that students must explain along with petrographic and geochemical data in their final research report.

Acknowledgments: We thank Anderson, Inc., Greg Barwis, and Troy Butler for access to the Dyer Quarry and generously providing maps.

ACTIVE FIELD EXPERIENCES TO ENGAGE UNDERGRADUATE MAJORS:Fall 2004 Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology

Learning Goals (from the course syllabus):These goals encompass geologic skills and “higher-order” thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and judgment. Students will be able to:

carry out an investigation of igneous and metamorphic rocks

using modern methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and

propose a logical and reasonable explanation for their data

based on a sound understanding of scientific principles and petrologic theories.

Context of the field experience: senior-level course in Petrology for B.S. and B.S.Ed. majors B.S. Geoscience majors will primarily seek careers in the environment field; virtually none will become petrologists. B.S. Ed. Earth and Space Science majors will become high-school and middle-school teachers. None of these students have a high intrinsic interest in petrology as a discipline or future career. Both of these groups will benefit more from conducting real research in petrology than they would benefit from a survey course of igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Igneous research project: The Birdsboro Dike is the near-vertical edge of the Morgantown Sheet, one of the diabase intrusions in the Newark-Gettysburg Basin. The field trip was to the Dyer Quarry, which exposes the width of the dike in a section spanning > 300 vertical feet. Students make hypotheses, plan and carry out sample collection for thin sections. Students conduct petrographic analysis and mineral chemical analysis using SEM-EDS methods. Results will be used by students to constrain theories of crystallization of the dike.

Description of the Field Experience

and its Outcomes

Instructor:

visited Dyer Quarry and obtained permissions; obtained map and cross sections from quarry;

Previously obtained 10 samples and thin sections from consulting work

Students in Class:

Review of igneous mineral & rock identification and description

Review of igneous structures in 3-D and on maps

Review of theories of magma crystallization

Students in Class:

Worked with photos & map of quarry

Predicted what they would find in quarry: primarily variations in grain size with location in dike

Examined samples from quarry; revised predictions

Made hypotheses to test and planned sample collection to test hypotheses

Field Trip:

Students collected 16 rock samples; took pictures

Instructor needed to provide more preparation and direction on sample location and description

Students in Class:

Compiled collective set of field notes

Compiled all sample locations on map

Realized they didn’t have good enough notes and sample locations; wanted to re-visit quarry

Realized they did have information to test hypotheses

Revised hypotheses based on field observations

Instructional Strategies and Evaluation of Student Learning; What is the relation of field instruction to learning in the classroom? Integrate hypothesis-making and testing into field experience: ESSENTIAL

Instructor needs to prepare students for good sample description and collection practices; build on preparation from field course

Just-in-time teaching for content related to research; crystallization modeling (MELTS), phase diagrams, petrography instruction on-demand when and as needed

Students must have opportunities for structured discussion of ideas; students must WRITE about their ideas; research proposal after field trip; final research report at end of project.

Outcomes:

Students wrote research proposal based on field work & readings

Students read each others’ proposals and revised their own

Field notes and sample descriptions will be in final research report

THE STUDENTS SPEAK (responses to survey questions)

Field Experience in Petrology Integrates Research and EducationHow was your experience on the field trip different from other field trips you have taken as a geology major?

The major difference was in the pre-field trip preparation & tasks planning. In that we were posing questions about the igneous structure’s creation , we planned where we felt specimens should be taken by examining the quarry map. In most previous field trips, my experience was a look & see. This one was a “plan & execute” experience.

This field trip involved prior planning. It was relevant to class research. We needed to know what we wanted to look for, where to look for it, and where to take samples from. It helped us with the research process starting from the very beginning.

What is the value added by providing a field experience?How do you think our field trip fit into the overall research experience in the Petrology class?

It fit in well because it served as a good starting point for our project. Coming up with theories, going to the site, and re-evaluating those theories of what we would see was a good series of steps in the project.

It was an important foundation to the course work involved with the class. It gave us students a complete, 3-D visual idea of how the rocks being studied fit into their environment, with faults, contacts, and country rock also being visible.

I don’t think the research would have come along so well without the field trip. I learn much better being able to visually witness things. I would have been lost in the research process had I not visited the quarry. The field trip samples also allowed us to gain experience organizing sample data, preparing samples for thin sections, and using the SEM-EDS.

What are the impacts on student learning?What aspects of our field trip interested you, or increased your learning about igneous rocks?

The ability to look at the structure from the map and literature point of view and then to be able to go and see & explore the actual structure. … Something like “a picture is worth a thousand words,” but “a field experience is like a thousand pictures.”

It was interesting to see the true size of a typical igneous intrusion. Also, it was good to see how an igneous rock intrusion is different throughout its structure, with regards to grain size, color, and shape.

So far every aspect of the trip & research project have interested me. Changed my ideas about what I want to do after graduation.

… it made me think about all processes involved in forming igneous rocks rather than just reading about it.