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.
Logistics and tools
Students constructing contour lines
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 experience
Students 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.
All 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 experience
Students 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 learning
Students 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.
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.
ACTIVE FIELD EXPERIENCES TO ENGAGE UNDERGRADUATE MAJORS:
Fall 2004 Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology
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.
THE STUDENTS SPEAK (responses to survey questions)
Field Experience in Petrology Integrates Research and Education
How 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.
Acknowledgments:
We thank Anderson, Inc., Greg Barwis, and Troy
Butler for access to the Dyer Quarry and generously providing maps.
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.
Learning Goals (from the course syllabus):
What are the impacts on student learning?
These goals encompass geologic skills and “higher-order” thinking skills of analysis, synthesis,
and judgment. Students will be able to:
What aspects of our field trip interested you, or increased your learning about igneous rocks?
 carry out an investigation of igneous and metamorphic 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.”
 using modern methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and
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.
 propose a logical and reasonable explanation for their data
 based on a sound understanding of scientific principles and petrologic theories.
So far every aspect of the trip & research project have interested me. Changed my ideas about what I want to do after graduation.
Context of the field experience:
… it made me think about all processes involved in forming igneous rocks rather than just reading about it.
 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.
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.
Description of
the Field
Experience
and its
Outcomes
Students in Class:
Compiled collective set of
field notes
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
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
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