Integrated Critical Zone project
Nick Bader, Whitman College
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection
This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.
Initial Publication Date: June 6, 2013
Summary
This project is a way to assemble information about geology, hydrogeology, and soils into a coherent whole in a way that may otherwise not happen in any one class. The "critical zone" concept ties the pieces together. This project is not tied to a course but I have used it as a component of a senior assessment for geology students.
Context
Audience
This could be effective as a stand-alone project in an upper-level integrative course on soils and hydrology/hydrogeology or an upper level environmental geology course.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
This exercise that students know or can figure out:
1. Basic concepts of soils and soil horizons
2. Basic concepts from hydrogeology: the likely shape of the water table near a perennial stream, the vadose and phreatic zones, etc.
3. How to use library and web resources to locate soils and geologic data for their location
How the activity is situated in the course
I have used this as part of a senior assessment.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Soil horizons, the shape of the water table, depth to bedrock, the components of the unconfined aquifer, etc.
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
The higher order goal is to understand how the soil type, geologic units, and hydrogeology fit together in a particular place.
Other skills goals for this activity
Finding information from the soil survey, USGS and state surveys, etc.
Description and Teaching Materials
The attached file contains the handout for students. In this case the assignment is written as an open-book exam, but it could also be a homework project.
Student handout for Critical Zone project (Acrobat (PDF) 32kB Apr15 13)
Teaching Notes and Tips
Provide two sheets of 11x17 paper for this assignment, one for a working sketch and one to turn in.
You will almost certainly want to provide a different area of the world for your project. It is useful to choose an area near a body of perennial surface water to pin down the location of the potentiometric surface, and an area for which a geologic map with cross sections is available.
Depending on the students' background, they may not know how to search for soil survey information. I have directed them to the old print copies of the soil survey in the past (available at the library) because they contain maps and are easily understandable. Alternatively you could direct students to the web soil survey at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htmhttp://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm
Assessment
To assess this project, check two things: (1) are the soil and geologic unit descriptions accurate for this area? and (2) does the water table and saturated-unsaturated zone description pass a plausibility check? Make sure that the soil information is correct for this site and is not merely a description of soils in general.
References and Resources
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