Helping Students Develop a Sense of Place Enhances Scaffolded Learning by Incorporating John Muir’s Journals and Drawings into a Multi-Day Field Experience in Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra

Abstract:

Multi-day field experiences provide excellent opportunities for community-building and can serve to develop a stronger sense of place withing the region. The geological & environmental science program at University of the Pacific conducts a 4-day field trip to Yosemite and Owens Valley for new majors. This trip helps students develop a sense of place and connects to content in future courses to deepen their learning. Famed naturalist John Muir was a champion for developing a sense of place. Pacific’s library curates the largest collection of Muir’s papers in the world. In preparation for the trip, students study selections from Muir’s original journals, sketches, and drawings. On the trip students spend time at several localities drawing features and developing their own sense of place in the field, guided by the Muir collection archivist who provides additional context. The trip is embedded within the Earth Materials course and is the first extended trip that all students in the program participate in together. In addition to learning field observational and descriptive skills, the trip builds community among the students by having them work together to describe the field locales, spend time in the evening cooking meals and reviewing the days’ events. Many of the locations visited during the trip are revisited in future courses and this provides an opportunity to scaffold their learning. For example, there is a detailed study of both the Tuolumne Intrusive Series and Long Valley Caldera/Bishop Tuff the following semester in Igneous & Metamorphic Petrology. Mono Lake water chemistry as well as geochemistry of plutonic and volcanic rocks in that region are included in the Geochemistry course the following year. Issues related to water diversions (LA Aqueduct, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir) and their environmental impacts are addressed in the senior Capstone course. Students report that they are better able to engage in the topics covered in more advanced courses because of the sense of place they developed on the early field trip.