Field and Laboratory Equipment Support for Student Training in Interdisciplinary Environmental Geoscience

作为课程开发计划的一部分，在不断扩大的环境地球科学领域，一套跨学科的，基于实地的课程，从蒙大拿州西南部的地质野外站教授。 本现场指导的设置是一个示范流域，其源头是一个大型积雪集水区，其下游排水系统位于干旱构造盆地。 示范流域的建立是大学、州和联邦机构以及当地水域和牧场主合作努力的一部分。 让学生成为这一奋进的一部分提供了一个平衡的角度来看他们正在解决的问题，并需要合理的，实际的解决方案，他们正在帮助创造，因为他们在他们的职业生涯继续。 该课程的技术阶段涉及从流域内部署的一套永久性仪器中收集数据。 参加该课程的学生将参与永久设备阵列的校准，并在流域子区域和沿着网格调查中进行额外的测量。 可靠的，最先进的便携式设备是必要的，以完成这些方面的课程。 为了确保数据的定位和最终汇编都是准确的，并且处于技术的前沿，该项目将用于定位的全球定位系统接收器和用于数据显示的地理信息系统纳入学生的工作中。 该项目提供了额外的现场设备和便携式膝上型计算机，以确保为下一代实地环境地球科学家提供最先进的培训。

As part of a program of curriculum development in the expanding area of environmental geoscience, a set of interdisciplinary, field-based, courses are taught from the Geologic Field Station in southwestern Montana. The setting for this field instruction is a Demonstration Watershed whose headwaters is a large snow catchment and whose lower drainage is in an arid structural basin. The Demonstration Watershed has been established as part of a cooperative effort involving the university, State, and Federal agencies, as well as the local water district and ranchers. Having the students become part of this endeavor provides a balanced perspective on the problems they are addressing and the need for reasonable, practical solutions that they are helping to create as they go on in their professional careers. Technical phases of the course involve data collection from a suite of permanent instruments deployed within the watershed. Students enrolled in the course participate in calibration of permanent equipment arrays and undertake additional measurements in watershed sub-areas and along grid surveys. Reliable, state-of-the-art portable equipment is necessary to complete these aspects of the courses. To ensure that the location and final compilation of the data are both accurate and also at the leading edge of technology, the project incorporates GPS receivers for location and a GIS system for data display into the students' work. This project provides additional field equipment and portable lap-top computers that will insure state-of-the-art training for the next generation of field-based environmental geoscientists.