HR: 0830h
AN: ED41C-1180    [PDF]
TI: The Poster: A Petrologic Exercise For The Resource-Challenged
AU: * Flood, T P
EM: tim.flood@snc.edu
AF: St. Norbert College, 100 Grant Street, DePere, WI 54115 United States
AB: The scientific poster is a common format for transmitting information and can be used as a petrologic exercise that may be particularly beneficial for those programs with limited resources. For example, the Saint Norbert College geology program was founded in 1987 and a traditional geology major established in 1994. We have high quality petrographic microscopes and excellent on-campus computing resources but otherwise lack common facilities such as a rock preparation room and instrumentation for obtaining research quality geochemical data such as XRF or SEM. The petrology poster exercise is designed to mimic the formative stages of a research project from fieldwork through geochemical analysis. A background literature search on a regional rock assemblage, usually suggested by the instructor, is conducted by the students. A specific petrologic aspect, such as the troctolitic portion of the Duluth Complex, is selected for investigation. Fieldwork consists of detailed outcrop and handsample descriptions, with approximately ten samples collected for thin section analysis. Geochemical data is culled from the literature by the instructor and computer modeled by the students using standard petrologic modeling programs such as IGPET. Having characterized the rock in detail, the students make interpretations of their data and more importantly, formulate research questions for future investigation. The final poster summarizes a student's work and is presented to their peers for critique. The goal of this semester-long exercise is to provide a near-professional research experience to the students for limited costs (i.e. site field trip and professional preparation of the thin sections). Additional benefits include: in-depth instruction related to writing an abstract, enhanced computer graphic skills related to poster construction, and a final product that makes an excellent springboard to a senior thesis.
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting