The main goal of this project is to provide a framework within which a significant number of Georgia Southern University undergraduates can achieve basic literacy through the study of geology. We seek to accomplish this goal through enhancement of an existing environmental geology course. This course constitutes an element of GSU's new core curriculum that will be required of all students, including science majors, non-science majors, and future K-12 teachers. The new course will utilize environmental issues to introduce and discuss relevant scientific concepts, providing in-context instruction with a substantial amount of field experience. Distinctive features will include: an approach that makes students aware of local, regional, and global environmental problems which relate to the earth sciences; a focus on hands-on laboratory activities; and involvement of advanced science and science education majors in the laboratories as faculty-mentored interns in the Undergraduate Teaching Internship Program (UTIP). Expected project outcomes are: graduates who possess the knowledge to engage in environmentally-aware behavior and informed citizenship; improved scientific and environmental knowledge among future K-12 teachers; appreciation by students of the connections between science and "real-world" problems; and teacher training for UTIP participants. A specific request is made to provide funding for on- campus installation of three piezometer nests, with each nest consisting of two to three monitoring wells. The wells will be equipped with continuous water-level recorders which will record the hydraulic head in separate shallow aquifers as a function of time. With this system of monitoring wells, the students will learn how subsurface water levels can vary with time, how multiple "water tables" may exist in the subsurface, and how groundwater moves both vertically and laterally. In addition, students will learn fundamental aspects of water quality and chemist through the sampling and analysis of w ater from the monitoring wells.
