Development of an On-Campus Environmental/Hydrological Laboratory Site

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The Cullowhee Creek Environmental Field Station Project adapts practices that involve active investigations in local environmental systems using investigative experiences, collection and analyses of quantitative data, expansion of interdisciplinary opportunities, and emphasis on connections between theory and application. This project implements investigative science using a variety of methods to stimulate student research questions including that developed by the NSF-sponsored NCL Nest project. This thematic approach in labs increases the student's ability to make connections and increases crossdisciplinary interactions between programs by the development of an on-campus environmental laboratory site, the Cullowhee Creek Environmental Field Station. Students adapt a variety of geophysical and hydrological tools to characterize and monitor earth materials, and ground and surface water systems. The site includes wells, a weather station, and a stream gage and is characterized by using hydrological and geophysical methods. Geophysical equipment will include resistivity, seismic, and ground penetrating radar, three techniques used in the environmental industry. Four courses, Environmental Geology, Soils & Hydrology, General Physics and Geophysics, ranging from introductory to advanced, are restructured to include integrated, site-based laboratories. The site is used in other courses and student research projects. A field-station website allows dissemination and evaluation of data and results are presented at meetings and published in the Journal of Geological Education and the American Journal of Physics.