Field methods have long been a staple in geology. How better to learn about the Earth than to have it unfold beneath your feet and before your eyes? Tim Diedesch is transforming this time-honored experience for the 21st century, broadening its focus, inclusivity and cultural scope to give Rice students the skills they’ll need for whatever careers they choose.
Diedesch, lecturer of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, is using active learning, expanded field modules and other techniques to rejuvenate field-trip portions of both introductory and upper-level courses.
To make field experiences available to those who cannot travel, he’s using virtual technology. For EEPS majors’ capstone field experience, a weeklong trip to New Mexico, Diedesch is adding lessons tailored for environmental science majors as well as interactive lessons with Native American partners, all without changing the overall goal — teaching critical thinking and problem-solving — or the centerpiece — a hands-on mapping exercise that requires students to identify and analyze rock distributions and orientations as a means of interpreting ancient geological activity.
