Enhancing Environmental Geology Courses Through Development of Laboratory Exercises and Field Experiences

该项目的主要目标是提供一个框架，在这个框架内，相当数量的佐治亚南方大学本科生可以通过学习地质学实现基本识字。我们寻求通过加强现有的环境地质学课程来实现这一目标。这门课程是格陵兰州立大学新核心课程的一部分，所有学生，包括理科专业、非理科专业和未来的K-12教师，都必须学习这门课程。新课程将利用环境问题来介绍和讨论相关的科学概念，提供具有大量现场经验的情景教学。特色将包括：让学生意识到与地球科学有关的地方、地区和全球环境问题；专注于动手实验室活动；让高级科学和科学教育专业的学生作为教师指导的实习生参与本科教学实习计划(UTIP)。预期的项目成果是：拥有从事环境意识行为和知情公民身份的知识的毕业生；提高未来K-12教师的科学和环境知识；学生对科学与“现实世界”问题之间的联系的理解；以及对UTIP参与者的教师培训。一项具体请求是为在校园内安装三个测压计窝点提供资金，每个窝点由两至三个监测井组成。这些井将配备连续水位记录器，它将随着时间的变化记录不同浅含水层中的水头。有了这个监测水井的系统，学生们将学习地下水位如何随时间变化，地下水位如何存在，以及地下水如何垂直和横向移动。此外，学生还将通过对监测井中的水进行采样和分析，学习水质的基本方面和化学家。

The main goal of this project is to provide a framework within which a significant number of Georgia Southern University undergraduates can achieve basic literacy through the study of geology. We seek to accomplish this goal through enhancement of an existing environmental geology course. This course constitutes an element of GSU's new core curriculum that will be required of all students, including science majors, non-science majors, and future K-12 teachers. The new course will utilize environmental issues to introduce and discuss relevant scientific concepts, providing in-context instruction with a substantial amount of field experience. Distinctive features will include: an approach that makes students aware of local, regional, and global environmental problems which relate to the earth sciences; a focus on hands-on laboratory activities; and involvement of advanced science and science education majors in the laboratories as faculty-mentored interns in the Undergraduate Teaching Internship Program (UTIP). Expected project outcomes are: graduates who possess the knowledge to engage in environmentally-aware behavior and informed citizenship; improved scientific and environmental knowledge among future K-12 teachers; appreciation by students of the connections between science and "real-world" problems; and teacher training for UTIP participants. A specific request is made to provide funding for on- campus installation of three piezometer nests, with each nest consisting of two to three monitoring wells. The wells will be equipped with continuous water-level recorders which will record the hydraulic head in separate shallow aquifers as a function of time. With this system of monitoring wells, the students will learn how subsurface water levels can vary with time, how multiple "water tables" may exist in the subsurface, and how groundwater moves both vertically and laterally. In addition, students will learn fundamental aspects of water quality and chemist through the sampling and analysis of w ater from the monitoring wells.