Teaching Geoscience in the Field

Field experiences are a critical part of a geoscience student's education and have long been one of the foundations of geoscience education. Field experiences aid students in applying knowledge they learn in class to the real world as well as help in developing skills in critical thinking, techniques, and instrument use. The role of field instruction in the geoscience curriculum must address new expectations for undergraduate students entering the job market while also overcoming contemporary logistical challenges.

Within this site you will find:

• Field Teaching Activities - field, lab, and classroom-ready exercises, problem sets and projects, complete with handouts, instructor notes and supporting materials, browseable by subject and activity type.
• Courses - a searchable database of field-based course descriptions, syllabi, and related materials, contributed by faculty members in the geosciences and beyond.
• Recommended Resources - a hand-picked list of references and resources related to teaching geoscience in the field.
  
• Internet Resources- a comprehensive collection of useful web-based learning materials, searchable by topic.
• Using Field Observations and Field Experiences to Teach Geoscience: An Illustrated Community Discussion - a searchable collection of posters from the 2004 GSA annual meeting that describe various field experiences.
• A place to contribute your own teaching materials, course information, articles and your favorite field-based teaching URL.

Field Trip Guides and Databases

• The Montana-Yellowstone Geologic Field Guide Database - The Montana-Yellowstone Geologic Field Guide Database is a pilot project for making the field guide literature more accessible and useful to geoscience educators, students, and researchers. While the database is not an exhaustive listing of every published field guide, nor does it provide direct links to the full text of each reference (except for a few unpublished field guides which are reproduced as pdf files), the database is a fully-searchable listing of 50 of the best references for exploring the geology of this fascinating region.
• NAGT's Pacific Northwest Section Field Trip Guidebooks
• NAGT's Far West Section Publications
• Field Guides - Illustrated field guides for sites near Bozeman and Big Sky, MT.
• Geologic Guidebooks of North America Database : This database from AGI and the Geoscience Information Society contains bibliographic references and location for published field guides.
• The University of Texas at Austin has compiled a substantial e-library of field trip guides (more info) on their Walter Geology Library website.

2010 Workshop

There was a workshop on Teaching Geoscience in the Field in August 2010. This workshop was held at Montana State University with an optional days on teaching in the field using rugged field computers and a field trip of regional field sites. The workshop was held in conjunction with another Cutting Edge workshop on Using GIS and Remote Sensing to Teach Geoscience in the 21st Century also held in Bozeman, MT from August 8-11, 2010.

Join the Discussion

Join the discussion on the Teaching Geoscience in the Field Email List or view the list archives.