Objective Measures of Student Navigation Correlate with Field-Based Geologic Problem Solving

Field instruction is a critical piece of undergraduate geoscience majors' education, and fieldwork remains a major part of the work of professional geologists. The geological sciences requires practitioners to extract and reconstruct spatially and temporally embedded information more than most branches of the natural sciences, and being able to successfully do this is key to problem solving in the field. This study adds tools and insight to the study of field problem solving. We used GPS tracking of students engaged in independent field examinations, and developed a two-part qualitative coding scheme for analyzing navigational choices. Four primary codes are related to travel speed, and six secondary codes are related to navigational sequences and reoccupation of sites in the field. Our coding enables correlation of navigational characteristics with performance and lends insight into problem solving.. Our results indicate that most advanced geology undergraduates are capable of recognizing important features in the field, however lower-performing students fail to systematically test multiple interpretations of their data as reflected in inefficient navigation represented by secondary codes. Track sequences that exhibit a higher number of secondary codes correlate to lower traditional map scores and indicate a particular difficulty in certain aspects of problem solving. Our study offers new tools and an independent approach to gauging student skills in geologic field problem solving. This ongoing research will be expanded to a significantly larger sample pool at an established field camp in the Summer of 2008. New quantitative and qualitative data will be collected and this coding will be applied to extend our results. New spatial tests, background and novelty surveys will also be conducted throughout the field camp to correlate with student efficiency and map performance. This additional insight into undergraduate geologic problem solving will be the focus of this presentation.