Geology students grow through field studies
Students learned more than how to interpret written geologicdata and maps as they accompanied their professor and a teachingassistant for a weekend field trip to the Arbuckle and WichitaMountains in Oklahoma.
The students learned to visualize the ancient history of theEarth, but they also learned to work more closely as a researchteam.
“Nothing will ever beat seeing something with your owneyes or touching it with your own hands,” David Blackwell,professor of geothermal studies said. “We can send probes andsensors into crevasses and down holes or to other planets, but theycan only send back mathematical data. It takes scientists toexplore and study things first-hand to be able to take the data andtranslate it so that other people can understand what the data isreally saying.”
Approximately a dozen students in two vans traveled with theirinstructors from SMU to various places around Oklahoma, looking atcliffs, mountains, waterfalls, road construction cut-aways,quarries and a wildlife refuge. Blackwell said that he has beenmaking this approximately 700-mile trip with students for 19years.
“By going to the more rustic areas, we can get abetter idea of how the Earth looked, before some of the changesmade by man,” Blackwell said. “It is getting harderevery year because of the encroaching civilization and budget cuts.Many of the places we used to hike to just don’t exist anymore.
Blackwell also said that cost of the expeditions and increasinglegal issues these days made the trips more difficult.
“There just doesn’t seem to be enough time or fieldtrips to teach these young men and women all of the things that wethink they need to know, so we do the best we can,” Blackwellsaid.
The mixed group of undergraduate and graduate students scaledsmall cliff faces and rock cutaways, climbed on ledges and campedin the wilderness. They also learned to rely on each other not onlyto help get over the next ridge, but to understand why that ridgewas there to begin with as they compared notes and samples.
“I think that it’s very important to be able to workwith the other students of different levels this way,”undergraduate Samira Armas Aparicio said. “It is the best wayto learn and more completely understand all of the things that weare being taught. Sometimes the professors say things in a way thatwe may not understand very well. When we work with the otherstudents, someone else who did understand the explanation or hassome past experiences can help make things more clear.”
The students also enjoyed the wildlife in the refuge, exclaimingover the buffalo, longhorn cattle and prairie dogs. Jokes were madeabout sneaking a prairie dog home because it was so cute or abouthow exciting it was to see baby buffalo.
Students also stumbled onto a rattlesnake, but stood a safedistance for five to 10 minutes while listening to the snakesrattle.
“Now, you know what to listen for,” Blackwell saidas he steered the students far away from the outcrop of rock wherethe snake was. “If you hear that, stay exactly where you are,be still and call out to me. Unfortunately, spiders, snakes andcentipedes share the great outdoors as well. We must be verycareful, but that does not mean that we can’t still enjoynature.”
The day began when they all met in the school’s parkinglot outside of Heroy Hall at 6:30 a.m. It wasn’t untilafter eight stops for studies and pitching their camping gear thatthe group had dinner at a restaurant in Medicine Creek, Okla.,after a full day of hiking, climbing, lectures and studies.
The group sojourned in Lawton after some misunderstandings overthe campsite.
Blackwell doesn’t think actual field trips can bereplaced.
“It is very important for the students to have a thoroughunderstanding of the Earth’s mechanical and chemicalprinciples in order to be successful in their fields. A lot can belearned from computers … but nothing beats the humanexperience,” Blackwell said.
