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

作为不断扩大的环境地球科学领域的课程开发计划的一部分，蒙大拿州西南部的地质野外站教授了一系列跨学科的、基于实地的课程。本野外指导的背景是一个示范流域，其源头是一个大的雪集水区，其下游流域是一个干旱的构造盆地。示范流域的建立是大学、州和联邦机构以及当地水区和牧场主合作努力的一部分。让学生成为这一努力的一部分，为他们正在解决的问题提供了一个平衡的视角，以及他们在职业生涯中帮助创造的合理、实用的解决方案的需求。课程的技术阶段包括从流域内部署的一套永久性仪器收集数据。参加课程的学生参与永久性设备阵列的校准，并在流域分区和沿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完成这些课程所必需的。为了确保数据的定位和最终编制既准确又符合技术的前沿，该项目在学生的工作中结合了GPS接收器进行定位和GIS系统进行数据显示。该项目提供额外的实地设备和便携式笔记本电脑，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.