Geologic field trips teach students how to perform research and how to prepare field reports that well document their experiences, data, and hypotheses and let them fully share their findings with instructors and peers. Field trips allow students to see the important connections between observations, gathering data, and making interpretations and help them gain an appreciation for the scientific procedure of backing up one's claims with supporting evidence.

How to Conduct a Self-Directed Geology Field Trip: So how does one conduct a self-directed geology field trip? It's not as difficult as it seems. Begin this project by first looking for and considering potential field trip sites. Contact local geology or gem and mineral clubs, talk with friends and neighbors, and review potential field sites with teachers or local geology experts.

This should not be a “virtual” field trip. You have to actually get outdoors and physically examine the rocks you find. Even if you live in the middle of an urban area, there are ample geology field opportunities. You can examine natural stone buildings, observe a pattern of transportation and deposition of sediment by rain water along a city street, or study rock outcrops within parks and along trails. Your field trip can be slanted toward economic geology, mineralogy, hydrology, or any major aspect of geology covered in your geology textbook. With a little creativity and forethought, you can certainly find an interesting site and have the chance to enjoy and demonstrate your geology knowledge.

Conduct your initial research on the Internet. Gather historical geologic information on the state or region of the world where you live and then specific information on the locality of the site you will visit, plus on the site itself, if available. Parks often have a wealth of information about their natural history. In the U.S., there are excellent Roadside Geology© books available at most bookstores and park visitor centers for almost all of the states; these are a great source for selecting sites as well as beginning your research.
Record pertinent data from the websites, journal articles, pamphlets, books, etc. from which you gather information to include in the references section of your report. A good field report will include at least three references that do not include your course textbook. Think of the information provided by your references as a starting point of currently accepted knowledge. Your own field work may corroborate or refute those findings, but you must provide evidence for your assertions. That's why field work is so important. In geology, rocks are data, and while the interpretation of the data may be wrong, the actual data can't be wrong. The more rocks you look at and the more data you gather, the greater will be the likelihood that your interpretation based on those rocks is correct.

The field report must include a road log with specific directions to the site presented in such a way that another person could easily find it. Make note of highway mile markers and identifying landmarks during your trip to include in your directions. Mapping sites can be useful for accurately conveying the exact directions to your geologic field sites.

Try to find, use, and include geologic and topographic maps in your research and report. They will be very helpful in identifying and describing sites as well as in helping others to find and identify them too, especially if some hiking is involved. Geologic maps typically reflect an area's different rock types with different colors, and they show unique geologic structures through the use of different symbols; refer to the map's key to help you identify these things. Topographic maps depict the elevation and general layout of the land. The contour lines on topographic maps show differences in elevation such as hills and valleys; the closer spaced the lines, the steeper the slope. Topographic maps by the United States Geologic Survey are available online at http://store.usgs.gov and are often found in sporting goods stores where fishing and hunting licenses are sold.

Most importantly, you should bring a field notebook to record the geology observed during your trip. Your field notebook should be sturdy and ideally, hardbound and waterproof; if you use a softbound notebook remember to bring a clipboard. Hardbound field books can be found at supply stores that cater to surveyors and engineers. Start by recording your route to the site, the date, who accompanies you, and the weather conditions. Record all of your observations as they occur; don't rely on memory to fill in the gaps later as you may forget a lot of things! If you later find you incorrectly identified a rock or landform in your field notes, simply cross it out with a single line, writing in the correction neatly in a margin. Recording this decision process in a transparent matter - meaning that you can still read everything you did - makes revisions easier and is also the way professional geologists record their notes. You might find that you wind up with several revisions as your interpretation develops.

You also need to bring a camera and reference your notes to pictures of the area and any samples you collect. Numbering rock samples is the easiest way to keep them organized. With a permanent marker write a number on the sample; then refer to that sample number when recording your notes. Draw simple color sketches of the interesting rocks and/or landform that you take pictures of and annotate them with a note to “see photo #__”. Relating what you observe with pictures you took is a great way to get organized for writing your formal field trip report. Your report can be based on more than a single outing; you may go on as many geology field trips as you wish and then select the best ones for your project or include them all and relate various observations from the different trips to each other.

The field trip should include at least three stops, and your report will need to well document the trip with a minimum of eight pictures from the different sites you visit. Take overview pictures of the site stops plus specific pictures of unique geologic features and areas from which you pick up rock specimens for examination. Try to identify interesting rocks you find while you are still in the field by using common mineral identification tools such as a nail, weak acid such as vinegar, rock hammer, and magnifying lens.
A formal field trip report should approximate the length of a five to ten page report, be word processed, utilize appropriate grammar and organization, and professionally present the results of your activities and observations. Since the report will include photos and graphics, be sure to save it in an appropriate format if you wish to publish it to the web. It's helpful if you compress photos so that they do not use up too much file space. You might want to create and/or upload your report to a website or blog. It's easy to create a personal blog at online sites.

There is no specific required format for your formal field report, although most professional field reports start by summarizing the report in a short paragraph summary called an “Abstract”. Following the abstract is an introduction that is then followed by the “Field Data” section which provides the directions to each site and the data found at each site. A distinction should be made between data and interpretation. Think of it like detective work; facts are irrefutable, but interpretations of those facts can vary. Interpretation is typically discussed after the field data section under the heading “Discussion” or “Interpretation”. Be sure to carefully separate what you determine are facts and what you interpret those facts to mean geologically. Provide evidence to back up your interpretations; refer back to the data or outside sources. Wrap up the report with a short conclusion section, and remember to cite your references both within the body of the report, and as a list of cited references at the end of the report.

Your field report should include descriptions of the geology at each stop and any geological points of interest between your stops. The report should address objectives of the trip in sufficient detail to leave a demanding geologist satisfied and to demonstrate your working knowledge of geology and proper use of geologic terms. One good way to approach your report is to pretend you are writing it for someone you know who is interested in but completely unfamiliar with geology. Then try to explain and define all the geologic concepts and terms you use in such a way that that person will fully understand everything you say. This approach makes your report understandable to a general audience while at the same time satisfying a geology instructor that you are in command of the concepts and terms you learned in your geology course.

Supply List for The Self-Directed Field Trip:
* Field Notebook * Mineral Identification Kit Containing:
* Pens & Colored Pencils Magnet
* Geologic & Topographic Maps Penny
* Reference Books/Papers/Pamphlets Nail
* Camera Geologic Hand Lens (or similar magnifier)
* Rock Hammer (or a claw hammer) Hydrochloric Acid (or substitute vinegar)
* Rock Specimen Collection Bag Streak Plate (or an unglazed tile or tile back)

Trina Riegel, M.S. has been a geology professor for over 13 years and is the author of the geologic lab manuals around which the GK-1 and GK-2 Geology LabPaqs are produced by Hands-On Labs, Inc. (www.LabPaq.com). She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Morris, and she obtained her graduate degree from Michigan State University.
As an expert in teaching geology at a distance, Trina teaches Physical Geology and Historical Geology courses fully online for the University of Maryland, Laramie County Community College, and for Colorado Community Colleges-OnLine which presented her with a Gold Medal Faculty award.
In 2005 and 2006 Trina put some real distance into distance education by teaching her courses from northern Italy where she visited and researched numerous fascinating geologic sites. You can read about Trina's geologic adventures in Italy at http://www.geologyteacher.blogspot.com . To learn more about Trina and about the Geologic LabPaqs Trina helped create, visit: http://www.athomescience.com/o-geology.htm