Graduating geology students from Arkansas Tech furthered their studies by attending Geology Field Camp, an intensive six weeks of learning in the field.
Students went to Colorado, Wyoming and Montana to engage in learning experiences that are not naturally available to them in Arkansas.
Field Camp is a culmination of the knowledge and skills students learn in geology courses. They practiced skills such as mapping, orienteering, hydrogeology dynamics, stratigraphy, interpreting geologic sequences of events and understanding structural geologic processes.
Josh Stevens went to Montana with students from across the country. His stay included camping and experiencing large scale geology at The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. He gained experience producing accurate geologic maps and comparing what he learned in the classroom to what he had learned in the field.
Scott Meier and Dave Ezell went to Canon City, Colorado in the Frontal Range of the Rocky Mountains. Their camp took them to Pike’s Peak, Leadville, Garden of the Gods, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Cripple Creek Victor Mining District.
“I learned how to orient myself and map large regions by using only a map and compass,” Meier said.
The students said they were thankful for their professors at Arkansas Tech because they were able to apply the practical framework from which they had been taught, which made them feel as though they were “a head above the rest,” as the students described.
“We had spent so much time in the field before we got to Field Camp doing similar missions, so we had all the basic skills and confidence needed,” Stevens said.
Additionally, the students learned how to work as a team, because most of their projects were designed for team work.
Each week, Ezell said a new team leader was selected. The leader was important, as the students received grades just as they would on campus.
“When your decisions affect not only your own grade but the grades of the people on your team it creates a very real sense of the pressure that will surely be present in the workplace. I found myself rising to the pressure and performing at my best,” Ezell said.
Other students who attended Geology Field Camp were Chris Trotter, Tommas Taylor, Dan Dempsey and Austin Myers.
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