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This was not just another field trip.

A team of 13 University of Wisconsin Oshkosh students and one UW-Milwaukee student spent six weeks traversing the western United States studying regional geology, its various rock types and geologic histories.

UW Oshkosh professor Tim Paulsen and co-instructor/instrumentation specialist James Amato led the group on long days (and many nights) of intense fieldwork as part of capstone course Geology 51-344.

“The course requires students to synthesize all of the geology that they have learned in the geology program, as well as other classes on campus,” Paulsen said. “It exposes them to geology in the field, giving them a sense of scale and an appreciation for how geology expresses itself in the real world.”

The group was based in Park City, Utah, a community with a population of 8,000 located in the Wasatch Mountains east of Salt Lake City. They traveled to a number of other regions, including visits to Capitol Reef National Park, Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry and the Black Rock desert. There also were tent camping trips to locations in central Utah and eastern Nevada as the students were exposed to a wide variety of geology outdoors in the mountains and deserts in Utah, Nevada and Wyoming.

The UWO class has been taught each summer in the region since 2000.

“Yesterday we made a visit to Wyoming, where the students had a chance to examine, collect and describe fish fossils from 50-million-year-old rocks that were deposited in a fresh water lake that no longer exists,” Paulsen said via email during the trip.

Thomas Suszek, senior instrumentation specialist emeritus, who co-taught the UWO field camp for 17 years, said the undergraduate geology program and the summer camp experience has a longstanding reputation as being one of the finest in North America.

He said there is a focus on critical-thinking skills and problem-solving. Projects during camp may last one to five days.

“The students learn to live and work together under strenuous physical and mental conditions and under ridged time constraints,” Suszek said. “These are the conditions that the students may often encounter in their careers.”

Projects involve geologic mapping, rock descriptions, cross-section construction, stratigraphic section measurement and descriptions, stereonet analysis and interpretations of geologic histories. There is guidance and feedback from faculty to assure that students become independently thinking geologists as the course progresses.

Suszek said students unanimously express a sense of accomplishment following their six weeks in the field.

“This strong sense of accomplishment, along with work ethic, responsibility, consideration for others and endurance are the things future employers are thinking about and focusing on when geologists apply for employment,” Suszek said. “It is not at all uncommon for employers to ask if you attended field camp and where.”

He said employers are seeking a strong skill set as well as the ability to deal with adversity and problems that crop up.

The students worked at elevations ranging from 6,000-10,000 feet above mean sea level and worked in deserts and on mountains. Temperatures might register 80-100 degrees at a low elevation and in the 50s at higher elevations.

Career-prep

Paulsen said there are several students who will head to graduate school and others who will get jobs in the environmental industry. Water, petroleum and mining industries involve resources that are used by everyone. Geologists are required to meet demands and ensure resource use is done in a responsible manner.

Suszek said over the years, his career path has led him to metallic and industrial mineral exploration, groundwater and surface water remediation, work with local municipalities on decisions regarding landfill locations, geophysical exploration survey work and instrumentation specialist at UW Oshkosh. Though retired, he said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been inquiring about his services.

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