College of Science and Mathematics

Geological Sciences

Undergraduate Programs

Student responses on senior exit interviews, student evaluations of teaching, peer reviews of teaching, and program reviews by the undergraduate committee demonstrated that the department needed to revise and update the curriculum for geology and geophysics majors in a significant, systemic manner. This had to go beyond adding/dropping courses. A complete program revision done Fall 1999, includes major systemic changes.

The first Department of Geology at USC was started by Joseph R. LeConte in 1856. At that time, there were only about 100 known minerals, the mechanics of rock deformation were unknown, and the systematic study of fossils was in its infancy. As a result, a discipline-oriented approach to the geology curriculum arose from the fact that each of the disciplines within the realm of geological science was an important field of study on its own right.

Today, there are over 3500 known minerals, the mechanics and causes of rock deformation are relatively well understood, and the study of fossils has progressed to the point that we now study the ecology of ancient extinct species much as we would study the ecology of animals that exist today. Today, the field of geological sciences uses the disciplines defined over 150 years ago as tools to study broad topical problems related to the history of the earth and the processes that shape that history. And the field of geological sciences has expanded to include topics such as global climate change and man's impact on the environment that did not exist 150 years ago, or even 50 years ago.

Despite the vast changes that have occurred in earth science over the last 150 years, the standard geology curriculum today is not much different from that which Joseph LeConte would have taught his students. Its emphasis was defined in an age when mineral extraction industries were the dominant employers of geologists, followed by universities and government surveys. Many of these career paths no longer exist, or are much less common today, and new career paths in the environmental geosciences, global change, and marine geology are not adequately served by the old curriculum.

Today, new initiatives in the earth sciences focus on understanding the processes that shape our earth and how these processes relate to topical problems such as mountain building, the formation of sedimentary basins, the origin of ocean basins, global climate change, and man's relationship to the environment. This is especially true at funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, which plans to focus the current discipline-oriented structure of the Earth Science Directorate towards process-oriented initiatives. A few universities have already begun to reorganize their curriculums in this way as well (e.g., the University of Georgia).

A central premise of our revised curriculum is that tools which would normally be used in concert to study a given process should be presented together when teaching students about that process. Thus, when we study the process of mountain building, we should include the structural, tectonic, metamorphic, and geophysical methods that would normally be taught in 3 or 4 separate courses, integrating their application in the same way a working geologist would. While it would seem to be intuitively obvious that this is best way to learn, it is a practice that has not been followed in earth science education historically.

The geological sciences can be divided into four main areas of inquiry and study: earth materials, earth history and time, internal processes, and surface processes. For each of these areas we propose to teach 2 required courses that present broad overviews of the processes involved, what we currently understand about these processes, and how these processes relate to earth systems science.

The two courses which deal with earth materials will be taught at the 200-level in order to encourage students to take these classes early in their student careers. These courses will be Geology 201 (Observing the Earth) and Geology 202 (Rocks and Minerals). These courses will provide the background knowledge students will need to continue their studies of geologic processes, and provide an introduction to the study of earth processes in the field, where all geologic studies ultimately begin. As a field-oriented science that relies on information from the earth itself for all advanced studies, we feel that it is especially important that students be introduced to real geologic situations in the field as early as possible in their careers.

The other core curriculum courses focus on the 3 remaining areas of inquiry in earth science: earth history, internal processes, and surface processes. We plan to offer two courses in each area which will alternate from year to year, so that each year one course from each area will be taught. These courses, and our rationale for their content, are listed below:

These six 300-level courses, and the two introductory 200-level courses that precede them, will form the core of our new curriculum. Additional concentrations will be formed (as they are now) by selection of appropriate elective courses in geology and cognate courses in other departments. The format of teaching each 200-level course yearly, and alternating the 300-level courses, will allow students to enter the major at different stages in their university careers and to complete the major in 4 years.

All of the 300-level core courses (the six courses listed above) will be team-taught by two faculty members. Because of the integrated nature of these courses, we will pair faculty from different disciplines who would not ordinarily teach together (for example, a geophysicist and a petrologist, or a stratigrapher and a geochemist). These faculty will bring different viewpoints to their courses and show students how different topics can be approached from different disciplines and, more importantly, show how these different disciplines can work together to solve problems that cannot be resolved by a single approach.

An important aspect of this team teaching will also be that it is integrated over the course; that is, it will not consist of one instructor for the first half of the course and another for the second half. Both instructors will attend all class sessions to provide counterpoint and to stimulate discussions with the students.

We do not undertake these changes lightly. We began our discussions of what the geological science curriculum should look like in the 21st century over a year and a half ago, beginning with extended brainstorming sessions by the Undergraduate committee, and gradually involving our entire faculty in the process with a series of ad hoc subcommittees in each of the major focus areas. Many versions of this curriculum have circulated by email throughout the department, and everyone on the faculty was given the opportunity to comment. We also made contacts by phone, email, or in person with faculty from other universities to get their feed back and ideas. This process culminated in an extended meeting of the entire faculty to approve the curriculum.

The decision of our faculty to adopt this new curriculum was unanimous. We realize that it may require some fine-tuning over the next few years to achieve "perfection", but we are all in agrement that this curriculum represents the best possible approach to teaching geological sciences today and in the foreseeable future. We also realize that everyone in our department will have to change the way they teach, as well as discard their old course notes and start fresh.

Ultimately, it is the students who will benefit most from the new curriculum. By presenting material in an integrated, process-oriented format we are providing them with an educational experience in which theory is tied directly to applications, and the applications are tied directly to the processes that shape our Earth.

Graduate Programs

Student satisfaction, need, perception, and attitude are assessed once a year for every graduate student in Geological Sciences. The assessment activity is based on a fifteen minute interview of the student by two or three faculty members of the Departmental Graduate Studies Committee. An Assessment Survey Form if filled out by the student and the interview committee. The Graduate Director summarizes the results and presents them to the Graduate Studies Committee and departmental faculty.

From the annual graduate student interviews faculty have learned the 90% of the graduate students in Geological Sciences are satisfied with the graduate program, their academic and research needs are being provided for, and they perceive that their preparation is adequate for careers in academia, industry, and governmental services. About 15% of the students said that there was need for more interaction among the graduate students, increased student attendance at the weekly seminar series, and better notification of graduate student proposal presentations, and thesis and dissertation defenses. Often Ph.D. Comprehensive Oral Examinations were delayed pending the required acceptance of a paper for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

To improve interaction among the graduate students and give them a sense of class identity, the first annual Graduate Student Retreat was instituted at the beginning of the Fall 1999 semester. The Retreat at Dreher Island State Park included two full days of seminars, a field trip to the Lake Murray spillway, an assignment in which they had to find out information about faculty members, and the Departmental Fall picnic. To increase student attendance at the weekly seminar series and give the students experience in public speaking, a seminar requirement was added for all graduate students. All Master's and Ph.D candidates must register for GEOL 800 in all semesters when they register for six or more credit hours of other courses. All MS and Ph.D. candidates must present public seminars on the USC Columbia campus on their research plans and progress at least once per year. To improve notification of student proposal presentations, and thesis and dissertation defences, abstracts for proposal presentations, and thesis and dissertation defenses must be submitted to the Graduate Director at least one week in advance with the date/time/place and posted by electronic mail. To avoid unnecessary delays of the Oral Comprehensive Examination, the Examination may now be scheduled as soon as a paper is submitted for publication by a peer-reviewed journal.