Geology, Dickinson College

Information for this profile was provided by Ben Edwards in 2009. Information is also available on the department website. Dickinson College is a private four-year institution, primarily undergraduate. Students in this program are pursuing a BA or BS degree.

Program Design & Assessment

Overview

We require a total of ten courses in Geology (see below) for a geology major, including two introductory level classes and six 'core' courses. A geology minor requires six geology courses. This is our only geoscience curriculum at present. We recently suggested starting an Environmental Geology major but the proposal was not approved by the College's Academic Programing Committee.

Strengths of this program

Our program was designed to give students a particularly strong grounding in field geology and geochemistry within the Liberal Arts context. It needs to serve as an entryway into graduate school and the workplace.

Types of students served

Program Goals

The goals of this program are as follows:

This curriculum was formulated many years before two of the four faculty in the department arrived. We are presently working to more clearly formulate what our goals should be.

The learning goals were informed by the following resources:

How program goals are assessed

We are presently working to construct proper assessment tools.

Design features that allow goals to be met


Alumni Careers

Graduation rate

Careers pursued by our alumni

Courses and Sequencing

Diagram of course sequencing and requirements

Entry into the program

  • History of Life
  • Geology of National Parks
  • Planet Earth
  • Global Climate Change
  • Geology of Natural Disasters
  • Earth Systems Science

Core courses

  • Mineralogy
  • Petrology

  • Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
  • Chemistry of Earth Systems

  • Field Geology

  • Structural Geology

Electives

Students are required to take 2 credits (2 courses) of electives. These vary as we have a variety of courses taught as topics courses, and many students do Independent Research or Independent Study.

Other required courses

  • One semester of Chemistry

Capstone

  • Senior Research or Internship

Other key features of this program:

Detailed_Dept_Curr (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 204kB May19 09)

Supporting Materials