Field Trip: Describe & Hypothesize
This material was originally created for
On the Cutting Edge: Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
Course: Physical Geology
24-48 students
The Activity
Sometimes the first day of the quarter is a lab day. On those occasions, I write the students a letter telling them that we will be going on a field trip to a local site where there is a river terrace (although I do not call it a terrace) during the two hours of the lab time. Their task when we arrive at the field trip site is to describe what they observe related to the terrace and suggest possible ways that it could have formed. I try to make the point that even if they have not had a geology class, they have ideas about how the world works. Some of those ideas will help them answer geological questions, other ideas will make it more difficult (if their pre-instructional concept is incorrect).
Additional Information
I have noticed when I start the quarter with a field trip, the class bonds together very well and I lose very few students over the quarter.
