Watershed-Based Integration of Hydrology, Geochemistry, and Geophysics in an Environmental Geology Curriculum

Abstract

Inquiry-based study focused on the campus watershed was initiated at Binghamton University after creation of an undergraduate Environmental Geology Track within the Geological Sciences curriculum. Use of the watershed in environmental geology courses has been implemented to 1) promote active learning outside of the classroom; 2) allow students to work with state of the art field and laboratory equipment and “real world” data; and 3) encourage interdisciplinary thinking. The longer-term goal is to enable undergraduates to conduct meaningful, field based, “capstone” research projects. A grant from the National Science Foundation supported instrumentation of the entire campus watershed into a readily accessible field laboratory; included are groundwater monitoring wells, equipment for measuring and sampling stream flow, a meteorological station, a wet and dry deposition collector for sampling atmospheric quality, and portable environmental monitoring equipment. In addition, geophysical equipment, including seismic refraction and reflection, DC electrical resistivity, and gravity anomaly measurements, is used to determine subsurface structure at various locations on campus. The undergraduates are now able to explore differences in physical and chemical processes between and within the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere on real-time scales. The use of this equipment and the watershed focus has been fully incorporated into three inquiry-based undergraduate courses (Environmental Hydrology, Environmental Geophysics, and Environmental Measurements) to foster interdisciplinary learning about the complexity of watershed-based processes. This manuscript describes the campus field stations, presents examples of field exercises, and assesses the impacts of the program to date.