247 Balancing Tradition and Innovation: Evolving Geoscience Curricula for a Changing World, Part I
This session examines geoscience curricula balancing traditional foundations and innovative, interdisciplinary approaches. We invite abstracts exploring how programs address evolving societal challenges while preparing students for licensure exams and diverse career pathways.
Wednesday, 22 October 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
HBGCC, 301B
Environmental Geology: Transitioning a General Education Class from Natural Science to Health and Well-Being in Response to Changing University Requirements
Paper number: 247-1
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:05 AM – 8:20 AM
Authors
Abstract
Environmental Geology is an introductory class that is most often taken by students needing a natural science course (without a lab) to fulfill a general education requirement (GER). The course serves as an important recruiting tool to the geosciences as a commonly found major or course of study. UW-Milwaukee is changing its GERs for the students arriving in Fall 2026 by adding two new "buckets" of study for a total of six: students will need to take three credits from each for a total of 18 GER credits (down from 21) and they will no longer need a laboratory course. In response to the upcoming change, the UWM Geology Department reviewed current GER classes that might reach into one of the new buckets with the goal of not losing students and even perhaps gaining some that we typically didn’t reach in the past.
Even though Environmental Geology clearly fits in its current Natural Science bucket, so do a lot of other geoscience courses that typically enroll more students every semester, i.e., Introductory Geology. Environmental Geology was the clearest choice for the new "Health and Well-Being" bucket as many of the topics covered concern our relationship with Earth processes: avoiding and preparing for natural disasters, accessing clean water, and exploring how climate affects human welfare. With a few small changes to the existing syllabus and the addition of topics usually not covered in class (but do have good coverage in current textbooks and research papers) i.e., air pollution, the newly designed Environmental Geology class was smoothly accepted by the university for a Health and Well-Being GER course.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-414602
© Copyright 2025 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.