6-2 The Groundwater Monitoring Laboratory Project at Western Oregon University: Connecting Undergraduate Geoscience Majors with Workforce Skills and Career Outcomes

Session: Geoscience Education in the Western U.S and México. Practices, Pathways, and Partnerships. (Posters)

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The Western Oregon University (WOU) Earth and Environmental Science Department recently created an on-campus Groundwater Monitoring Laboratory aimed at better preparing undergraduate geoscience students for professional careers as hydrologists, geologists, and environmental scientists. Collaborative support for the project was provided by the institution, professional community and dedicated alumni.

The drilling phase of the project included installation of three groundwater monitoring wells on the WOU campus, in the Monmouth-Independence area of Polk County, Oregon. Monitoring wells are spaced apart by ~70 m with a triangular pattern layout.  The outdoor laboratory covers an area of 6400 m², with wells drilled to a maximum depth of ~14 m within a 3-m confined, silty-sand (with gravel) artesian aquifer overlain by ~11 m of silt-silty clay that forms part of the late Pleistocene Missoula Flood deposits in the mid-Willamette Valley. The aquifer is characterized by the following measured hydraulic parameters: porosity 7%, hydraulic conductivity1.3 x 10^-4 cm/sec, saturated thickness 3 m, transmissivity 0.3 m²/day, hydraulic gradient of potentiometric surface = 0.008.  Local groundwater flow direction at the field site is oriented east-northeast at an azimuth of ~60^o, sub-parallel to the local eastward gradient towards the Willamette River.

The Groundwater Monitoring Laboratory is being used as part of the WOU Earth and Environmental Science curriculum at multiple levels, including introductory general education courses and the upper-level courses for majors.  For the latter, hands-on field training provides experiential opportunities for students to develop a mix of technical skills and scientific reasoning, the focus of which is on preparing graduates for pathways related to careers in geoscience, environmental science, water resources, and natural resource management. The collaborative community partnerships between the university, alumni and industry form the framework for student connections to the geoscience profession and real-world problem solving in the 21^st century. This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation Pathways into the Earth, Ocean, Polar and Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences (GEOPAths) program (GEO/RISE Award No. 2242842).

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 3, 2026

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