Teaching Metamorphic Petrology When the Closest Metamorphic Outcrop Is Greater Than 4800 Km Away

I emphasize process over content in my metamorphic petrology course. My goal is to help the students learn and think for themselves and to enjoy it. To facilitate this aim I have organized the course around hands on activities. Minimal time is spent on lectures and I use cooperative learning with an emphasis on spiral learning for these labs. The online coarse management tool, Moodle, is utilized to dispense information, assignments, journal questions, knowledge surveys, and for online discussions of group projects. The students read papers from the current literature that illustrate the use of examples from their lessons to address the “why am I learning this?” question. As much as possible, the assignments involve solving “authentic” geological problems and provide examples of how scientists conduct research. A large part of how geologists perform research involves using modern analytical instruments and therefore the SEM is incorporated into a capstone project. The rocks that they investigate for this study are from outcrops that they will see and map on the mainland field trip for their field methods course in their senior year. A presentation with photos and maps of the field area is given as background. Using rocks from an area that they know they will see in the future and have heard their fellow students talk about helps to make the project relevant and is my “solution” for a “field trip”. Having the experience of using the SEM promotes critical thinking and problem solving skills as well as gives the students a feeling of accomplishment. In addition, students from previous classes who are using the SEM for their senior research projects come and give short presentations. This shows the current metamorphic petrology students that they too are now capable of conducting research.