18 Best Practices in Geoscience Education (Posters)

Sunday, 17 March 2019
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Casco Bay Hall

OUTCOMES FROM AN OFF-CAMPUS, FIELD-BASED GEOSCIENCE SEMESTER FOR SECOND- AND THIRD-YEAR UNDERGRADUATES

Paper number: 18-4
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 1:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

The Environmental Science Semester (ESS) at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine is a semester-length, off-campus field program designed for mid-level undergraduate students (second and third-year). The ESS currently consists of four geoscience and environmental science courses:

  • Climate Change & Glacial Geology was conducted primarily in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, in eastern Maine, and in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia;
  • Marine Ecology utilized the estuaries and marshes of coastal Maine and the beaches of Cape Cod;
  • for Oceanography, we sailed the coastal Gulf of Maine aboard a small schooner as our mobile classroom and lab;
  • components of Field Methods were concurrent with each of the other three courses.

The ESS is intended to enhance aspects of academic and personal growth relative to campus-based courses. Specific academic benefits include:

  • enhanced critical thinking skills;
  • greater concept retention;
  • more active, collaborative learning;
  • field work in diverse environments; and
  • greater synthesis of course topics.

Specific personal growth benefits include:

  • greater confidence;
  • elevated perseverance;
  • stronger student connectedness;
  • improved faculty-student interaction; and
  • sharper focus and motivation.

Three cycles of the ESS have occurred (2014, ’16, and ’18). A few patterns are emerging:

  • internal marketing via student-to-student communication has been excellent;
  • student communication has led to more realistic expectations of academic, physical, and interpersonal challenges;
  • approximately 60-80% of eligible students participate;
  • program alumni are remarkably enthusiastic even two and four years beyond completion.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 1

doi: 10.1130/abs/2019NE-328357

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