Teaching Hydrogeology 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. Below, you will find links to presentations, posters, and teaching activities presented by participants at several workshops that speak to a variety of ways they have taught hydrology with and through field work.

Jump Down To: Field Trips | Service Learning Projects | Research Projects | Field Guides and Databases


Field Trips

Water Wars field trip experience: a comparison of real and virtual field trips
Laurie Cantwell, Montana State University (grad student)
Using Field Observations and Experiences to Teach Geoscience 2004

Relating water issues to students' lives and to local history and prehistory (PowerPoint 2MB Mar9 08)
Laura Serpa, University of Texas at El Paso
Urban Students, Urban Issues 2008

Service Learning Projects

Investigating Contaminant Transport and Environmental Justice Issues in a Local Watershed Through Service Learning Projects with Sierra Club (PowerPoint 1.3MB Feb3 10)
Jennifer Houghton, Rhodes College
Watch the Screencast (MP4 Video 109.9MB Jul31 17) / Teaching Service Learning in the Geosciences 2010

Monitoring The Poultney River: A Service-Learning Project with the Poultney Mettowee Watershed Partnership 
John G Van Hoesen, Green Mountain College
Using Field Observations and Experiences to Teach Geoscience 2004

Research Projects

Investigating groundwater-surface water interactions using a multidisciplinary approach involving hydrogeology, geology, and geophysics
Bob Bauer, University of Missouri
Using Field Observations and Experiences to Teach Geoscience 2004

Top-Down and Bottom-Up: Investigating Perturbations to a Lake Ecosystem (Acrobat (PDF) 17.5MB Aug11 10)
Tara Curtin, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Teaching Geoscience in the Field 2010

A Field Course in the Snow! Learning Goals, Preparation, and Assessment (PowerPoint 5.6MB Aug24 10)
Steve Custer, Montana State University
Snow Stratigraphy Exercise Grading Rubric (Excel 21kB Aug4 10) / Teaching Geoscience in the Field 2010

Acid Mine Drainage Field-Lab Experience Round I (PowerPoint 4.6MB Jun14 05)
Greg Druschel, University of Vermont 
Teaching Geochemistry 2005

Student research projects on the impact of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on the environment (PowerPoint 2MB Mar9 08)
Syed Hasan, Unviersity of Missouri, Kansas City
Urban Students, Urban Issues 2008

Student research projects on urban wetlands (Acrobat (PDF) 6.9MB Mar9 08)
Solomon Isiorho. Indiana-Purdue University, Ft. Wayne
Urban Students, Urban Issues 2008

Field Guides and Databases

The NAGT Field Trip Collection contains more than 50 field trips and examples. The examples in this collection share information about the design of the trips and their important characteristics in addition to providing easy access to field guides. In addition, you can find information for teaching in the field in these other collections:

  • Field Trip Safety: This page in the Cutting Edge Teaching in the Field module presents guidance and example policies and forms for addressing safety concerns when taking geoscience students into the field to learn.
  • 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 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.