Teaching groundwater flow processes: connecting lecture to practical and field classes

V Hakoun,N Mazzilli,S Pistre,H Jourde

doi:10.5194/hess-17-1975-2013

Abstract

Abstract. Preparing future hydrogeologists to assess local and regional hydrogeological changes and issues related to water supply is a challenging task that creates a need for effective teaching frameworks. The educational literature suggests that hydrogeology courses should consistently integrate lecture class instructions with practical and field classes. However, most teaching examples still separate these three class components. This paper presents an introductory course to groundwater flow processes taught at Université Montpellier 2, France. The adopted pedagogical scheme and the proposed activities are described in details. The key points of the proposed scheme for the course are: (i) iterations into the three class components to address groundwater flow processes topics, (ii) a course that is structured around a main thread (well testing) present in each class component, and (iii) a pedagogical approach that promotes active learning strategies, in particular using original practical classes and field experiments. The experience indicates that the proposed scheme improves the learning process, as compared to a classical, teacher-centered approach.

Highlights

Hydrogeology is essentially an applied science that lies at the boundaries of geology, hydrology, hydraulics, soil sciences, physics and chemistry
The main challenges associated to groundwater flow processes are the assessment of both local and regional hydrogeological changes and, issues related to water supply
A recent review on pedagogy for hydrogeology education suggests that an effective pedagogical scheme should: (i) integrate the three class components within an iterative loop in which each would support the others, and (ii) promote learner-centered teaching methods (Gleeson et al, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Hydrogeology is essentially an applied science that lies at the boundaries of geology, hydrology, hydraulics, soil sciences, physics and chemistry. A recent review on pedagogy for hydrogeology education suggests that an effective pedagogical scheme should: (i) integrate the three class components (i.e. lecture, field and practical classes) within an iterative loop in which each would support the others, and (ii) promote learner-centered teaching methods (Gleeson et al, 2012). Most educational publications in the area of hydrogeology still dissociate field experiments (such as Woltemade and Blewett, 2002) from laboratory activities (such as Lee, 1998; Singha and Loheide II, 2011; Renshaw et al, 1998). Numerical models may help to assess and visualize the influence of the parameters involved in hydrogeological processes such as velocity and concentration fields (Singha and Loheide II, 2011) or to address basic modeling concepts such as sensitivity

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