This project will design an Environmental Geology laboratory course that addresses urban and suburban problems in a scientific manner. Exercises designed for this course will be practical, based on a problems that that could be encountered in a variety of urban settings, with solutions derived through quantitative analysis of datasets on the computer. Students will be asked to evaluate or design remediation methods for a number of environmental problems. Several instruments will be designed and built for this project. Northern New Jersey is the ideal area to develop such a course because it is largely urban or suburban, because it contains many severe environmental hazards at all scales, and because New Jersey spends more per capita on environmental clean up than any other state in the union. The Rutgers-Newark campus contains a culturally and ethnically diverse student body that is largely from this highly populated area; urban environmental geology issues will have particular relevance for this student clientele, and will help to recruit minority participation in geoscience education.
