Geology course lets students climb for credits

For four credits this summer, students can climb over the crest of the Sierra Nevada into Yosemite Valley. They can hike in craters formed by volcanic eruptions, ski down California's Mammoth Mountain and observe 5,000-year-old bristlecone pine trees with the U.S. Forest Service.\nThe course, Volcanoes of the Eastern Sierra Nevada: Geology and Natural Heritage of the Long Valley Caldera, is a four-week long field-oriented course the department of geological sciences and Collins Living-Learning Center developed two years ago. \nTaught by Associate Professor of Geological Sciences Michael Hamburger and senior research scientist with the Indiana Geological Survey, John Rupp, the class is intended to engage students in a broader range of human experience than is offered in a stagnate classroom environment, Hamburger said.\n"One of the primary goals is to teach students an approach to doing science in the natural world, to open student's eyes to the processes taking place in the world around them," Hamburger said. \n"This is a science class, but we're trying to experience the environment while exploring a variety of academic issues -- the sociological, anthropological and environmental aspects of science."\nModeled after an intensive seminar offered annually at Princeton University, 14 to 18 students will have the opportunity to explore Death Valley, discuss Precambrian through middle Paleozoic strata and structural processes while traversing the sand dunes. \nThey will learn about the regional geology and glacial and fluvial erosion of the Sierra Nevada while assessing freshwater streams, discussing the water quality and its environmental impact with the help of faculty from the University of California at Santa Barbara. \n"We went from wet springtime in Bloomington to 100 degree weather in the desert and not a drop of humidity in the air," Hamburger said. "It was like we had landed on another planet."\nJunior Leslie Schaffer said her favorite part of the trip was the experience at Death Valley. \n"My favorite was Death Valley because we were at the mountains in the morning and it was 35 degrees," she said. "Then we went into the valley and it was over 100 degrees. You couldn't do that anywhere else."\nDuring the end of the spring semester, the course will include an intensive seminar session to introduce students to critical and societal issues surrounding the natural history of eastern California's Sierra Nevada mountain chain.\n"The seminar was formed to help the students understand the terms and the techniques we will be using in the field," Hamburger said. "We need to start from some common base of knowledge." \nThe course is not limited to geology majors or residents of Collins, he added, because the hands-on experience will ensure that concepts are thoroughly understood by everyone, even those students who have had no previous contact with geological studies. \nThe group must keep daily individual journals during the excursion and will be expected to hand in a 10 to 15 page research paper upon returning to Bloomington, on a topic related to the area of study in which they have the most interest.\n"With this we were able to pick an area we were really interested in and take the two weeks and study that while tying it into geology," Schaffer said. "People write papers on everything from water shortage to the movement of magma."\nThe group also had the opportunity to work with outside experts from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, Hamburger said. \n"I enjoyed meeting all the different experts in the various fields during the trip," said junior Neal Solon, who originally saw the trip advertised at Collins Living-Learning Center.\n"We saw some of the oldest living plants on the earth. If you went on your own you wouldn't have access to some of the areas," Schaffer said. \nSchaffer added that her experience was especially breathtaking, as she had never been out west before. Solon agreed.\n"I think it's a worthwhile experience," Solon said. "It's an opportunity to do something that most people haven't done."\nHamburger decided to move the schedule up a week this year, so that students who choose to go will be back before June 1, and have the entire summer ahead of them. The class will head to Las Vegas on May 9 and return to Bloomington May 23. Student are required to pay a $560 course fee, tuition, fees and airfare. The course fee, however, covers room, board and local travel, and most of the students felt they were getting a deal. \n"They worked really hard to find the best deals," Schaffer said. "Once we were there there were no unexpected costs. It's really cheap for what you get to see and all the things we did. We could have paid a lot more."\nHamburger encourages students who are concerned about costs to come talk to him, as the program's organizers is eager not to exclude students because of financial need. \nFor more information about the course, students can visit http://www.indiana.edu/~sierra. Applications are due online Feb. 28. Tuesday there will be an informational meeting at 7 p.m. in the Edmunson formal lounge at Collins. Interested students are encouraged to attend.