HR: 1330h
AN: ED12A-0122    [PDF]
TI: Success With Offering a Diversity of Majors in the Earth Science Department at the University of Northern Colorado
AU: * Nesse, W D
EM: william.nesse@unco.edu
AF: University of Northern Colorado, Department of Earth Sciences, Greeley, Co 80639 United States
AU: Taber, M R
EM: michael.taber@unco.edu
AF: University of Northern Colorado, Department of Earth Sciences, Greeley, Co 80639 United States
AU: Hoyt, W H
EM: william.hoyt@unco.edu
AF: University of Northern Colorado, Department of Earth Sciences, Greeley, Co 80639 United States
AB: Today, the number of geology majors at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) has declined to just 10 percent of the mid-1980s peak. At issue is the sustainability of a viable geology program, with a minimum of three tenure-track faculty and few graduating geology students. One solution to the sustainability issue is diversity of Earth Science Majors within a given department. At UNC we have five emphasis areas: Environmental Earth Science, General Earth Science, Geology, Meteorology, and Secondary and Middle Level Teaching. We have had the good fortune to add many Meteorology and Environmental Earth Science majors, while the Geology, Middle Level Teaching, and General Earth Science majors have declined in number. As students' academic goals fluctuate in the geosciences (often directly tied to the marketability), the diversity of major offerings allows for the department to maintain a balance in the number of majors. Today, we are close to the number of Earth Science majors we've averaged over the last 20 years (~135 majors). Strong advising is essential for our evolving systems to work for the students and the Department. Another stabilizing factor for the Department is the masters program, which provides graduate student teaching assistants at a low cost to the university-most of our teaching assistants teach General Geology labs, and that course continues to be an effective recruiting mechanism for all of the emphasis areas to some degree. State budget constraints have forced creativity in course offerings. For example, we still require a Geology Field Camp for graduation, but send our students to other university field camps - a cost saving for us. In addition, many of our courses serve multiple emphasis areas, mirroring the nature of earth system science. Moreover, we have managed to combine some upper division courses (mineralogy and earth materials, for example), offered others on an alternate-year basis, reduce the number of upper division electives, and increased teaching loads. What does the future hold? Undoubtedly, the number of majors in geology, meteorology, and teaching will fluctuate with the economy. More of our faculty will be subjected to paradigm shifts as low enrollment classes are combined. Our challenge is to continue offering a rigorous program in earth sciences by offering a diversity of curriculum in the geosciences.
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting