31 Transforming Geoscience Education: Reimagining how we teach the Earth

This session will explore innovative and student-driven approaches to geoscience education. Contributions may focus on either design and implementation or research on evidence-based instructional strategies like active learning, project-based learning, field experiences, and others.

Tuesday, 10 March 2026
1:30 PM - 5:00 PM
RCC, 105

Field Camp With Options: Career-Specific Training Modules During a Mapping-Based Summer Field Course

Paper number: 31-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:00 PM – 2:15 PM

Authors

Abstract

Summer field camps are historically one of the most influential and foundational experiences for many undergraduate geoscience majors. While the benefits of these courses are widely recognized and the skills learned are frequently sought by employers, many students increasingly struggle to find relevance in “traditional” field camp experiences based on mapping, correlation, and similar exercises commonly taught at these camps, as well as with the costs associated with camp: at a minimum, tuition/fees and lost wages during summers. This issue is compounded by the increasing costs of living and education, and the resulting financial hardship of field camp can be substantial. This leads to stressed students who concentrate on those issues instead of the work at camp. Some camps have adapted with flexible scheduling and/or remote experiences—this certainly helps with the logistics side of the problem. However, many students still frequently describe the cost as “not worth it” and the experience as “irrelevant” or “too old school.” To alleviate this, we have developed a new field camp model based on the incorporation of both traditional field camp projects (mapping, correlation, etc.) and career-specific modules that allow students to gain real-world experience in one of our available subdisciplines. Beginning in 2024 with the introduction of an environmental geoscience module and continuing in 2025 with geophysics, paleontology, and economic/petroleum geology modules, students at our camp now spend at least one week of camp performing field-based projects typical of the subdiscipline they choose during the enrollment process or the first week of camp. Student feedback thus far has been largely positive, with many students citing module week as the highlight of camp—particularly students from smaller departments without the resources to provide these experiences. An unexpected result has been the inspiration of graduate school direction for several students based on the work done during module week. Here, we present an overview of the model and a sampling of student results and outcomes. We expect further positive results from this model, and are currently designing a survey-based method to gain additional insight into the impact this model has on student learning.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 1

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026SE-411887

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