The Bigger Picture: A Project-Based Course on Environmental Geophysics and Geochemistry

将为地球科学课程二年级的学生开发一门基于项目的环境领域方法课程，为学生第一次接触更复杂的，特别是更定量的科学课题创造一个新的背景。通过教授地球物理和地球化学场方法，通过对当前环境问题的一系列深入研究，在他们的历史和社会背景下，我们希望让学生，特别是妇女和少数民族，保持在定量科学的管道中，并明确他们自己在这方面工作的潜力。学生将通过环境“案例研究”或项目模块，研究诸如佛罗里达沿海的咸水入侵、纳瓦霍民族的铀矿开采补救以及佐治亚州河口的富营养化等主题。学生将处理数据的子集，合并数据集，分析和解释数据，定义其解释的限制，并制定和证明政策决策。本课程将围绕六到七个连续的模块进行构建，每个模块的设计都要遵循相关实地方法的课堂介绍。我们计划向这些模块添加辅助材料，以便它们也可以作为环境地质学、水文学、地球物理学和地球化学课程的个案研究，并将以一种可以在WWW、CD-ROM和硬拷贝上传播的形式传播。这项工作将是不同机构(威廉与玛丽学院、纳瓦霍社区学院和佐治亚理工学院)的四名教员共同努力的结果。我们每个人都将设计一到两个模块，与我们家乡机构的本科生一起工作。在开发整个课程时，我们将协作检查和修改每个模块。因此，与目前的地学定性课程相比，学生将接触到更广泛的环境问题的地理环境和文化背景。

A project-based course in environmental field methods will be developed for students in the second year of earth science programs, creating a new context for students' first encounter with more complex, and in particular, more quantitative science topics. By teaching geophysical and geochemical field methods through a sequence of in-depth studies of current environmental problems, presented in their historical and social context, we hope to keep students, especially women and minorities, in the quantitative science pipeline and make clear their own potential for such work. Students will work through environmental "case-studies", or project modules, on topics such as salt water intrusion in coastal Florida, uranium mining remediation in the Navajo Nation, and eutrophication in a Georgia estuary. Students will process a subset of the data, combine data sets, analyze and interpret the data, define limits to their interpretations, and make and justify policy decisions. The course will be built around six or seven sequential modules, with each module designed to follow a classroom introduction to the relevant field methods. We plan to add supporting materials to these modules so that they can also `e used as individual case studies in environmental geology, hydrology, geophysics, and geochemistry courses, and will be in a form that can be disseminated on the WWW, CD-rom, and hardcopy. This work will be a collaborative effort by four faculty at disparate institutions (College of William and Mary, Navajo Community College, and Georgia Tech). Each of us will design one or two modules, working with undergraduates at our home institutions. We will collaboratively review and revise each module as we develop the course as a whole. Thus students will encounter a wider range of both geographic settings and cultural contexts for environmental problems than is currently found in qua ntitative geoscience courses.