Geology (42) Equipment implemented for environmental monitoring in this project allows for interweaving research experiences from periodic and long-term observation of geologically dynamic sites into curricula developed and adapted from techniques used at The College of William and Mary in their sedimentology and stratigraphy, environmental geology, and hydrogeology courses (as with Ibsen, 1995, Baseline hydrologic study of Beaverdam Creek, New Kent County, Virginia, unpublished senior thesis). Students in both introductory geology and in upper level environmental geology and hydrogeology classes use this data. Examples of data collection and monitoring occur in watersheds impacted by development such as at Towson Run on campus and Minebank Run in Cromwell Valley Park. These sites are monitored for stream discharge, groundwater levels, water quality, bank stability and erosion/sedimentation. In the sedimentology and stratigraphy course the estuarine shoreline at Cove Point, a migrating cusp on the Chesapeake Bay coast, is being monitored for erosion and sedimentation. The databases obtained from successive years of data collection at these sites provide access for students to a meaningful time series of data that is then integrated into student projects. This provides them with a larger data set than could be collected during a single course. They are then better able to interpret and analyze environmental change. In upper level environmental, hydrogeology, and sedimentology and stratigraphy courses, students prepare a research report concerning monitored sites as a class requirement. Geology majors have these experiences in at least one course prior to their final year, and experience the process of interpreting and drawing conclusions from significant, real-world data sets, culminating in the preparation of a formal scientific senior research report.
