The power of moving sediment: integrating experimental sedimentology into the undergraduate geoscience curriculum

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Discipline: Geology (42)Based on successful instructional models developed at MIT and Univ. Wisconsin-Eau Claire, this project is integrating a flume laboratory into instruction throughout the undergraduate curriculum at Winona State University (WSU). The laboratory helps students better visualize complex geologic phenomena through the experimental examination of sedimentology. WSU students model a variety of surficial processes in the laboratory and connect their experiments with field studies as they explore research questions of their own design. To make the results of the project available to the broader geological community, short videos are being prepared of experimental runs, and these videos will be posted to a new project website, making them available through DLESE and other venues. Video content and complexity are targeted as appropriate to different learner levels throughout grades K-16. A standing institutional community outreach program is being leveraged by this project to draw local K-12 students to the facility, introducing younger students to active scientific experimentation. Community members can interact with the ducts via remote control access at times when they are not in use for student experiments. This hands-on approach with the general public is intended to increase the numbers of undergraduate students attracted to careers in science. Increasing the numbers of females in geoscience majors is a specific project goal. At the K-12 level, the project should inspire more students to pursue STEM careers, and to increase public awareness of the river community in which they live.