286-7 EXPANDING ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENGINEERING FIELD EXPERIENCES IN A TRADITIONAL GEOSCIENCE CURRICULUM

Session: Balancing Tradition and Innovation: Evolving Geoscience Curricula for a Changing World, Part II

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Abstract:

At Wichita State University (WSU), we provide students with a traditional geology educational experience that meets the requirements for our graduates to sit for state licensure exams. Our curriculum includes a traditional Field Camp in the mountains of Wyoming, where students hone their skills creating geologic maps, structural cross-sections, and stratigraphic columns. Many students who participate in the traditional curriculum find that these field skills are very different from the field experiences found in the current industry employer of our geoscience graduates - environmental/engineering consulting.  To address this discrepancy, the department reconsidered the skills taught and decided that the answer was to incorporate more robust engineering/environmental consulting skills into our traditional geoscience curriculum.

We began incorporating job-relevant skills in 2014 with the addition of a Soils class, which included an activity that required students to characterize soils using the USDA and USCS soil classification systems. The hydrogeology class collaborated with the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to allow students to collect groundwater levels and construct a groundwater contour map at a KCC site as a lab activity. The KCC uses this data as supplemental data for the site.  In geomorphology class, students get to experience stream gauging at a WSU field site.  The next step involved the completion of nine 2” wells on 10 acres of the larger WSU-owned Ninnescah Field Station. Having these wells greatly increased the number the hands-on experiences (well development, well purging (traditional and low-flow), slug testing, etc.) we could provide for the students. In 2023, we decided to incorporate most of these activities into our existing Field Mapping Methods course, which was a prerequisite for Field Camp.  Ultimately, we have rebranded the Field Mapping Methods course into Environmental and Engineering Field Methods and redesigned it to cover the basic field skills used in environmental, engineering, and hydrogeologic consulting.

The redesigned Field Methods class will be taught for the first time this spring, but our past hands-on activities have been well-received by students. While redesigning the Field Methods course, we consulted with individuals working in the field and received good feedback from them regarding the planned activities. We anticipate that the redesigned Field Methods course will fit well into our existing curriculum and help prepare students for a variety of career options.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-8967

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