Geosciences Field Experience is our department's field camp class, which has a different regional focus every year. This class is an opportunity for our majors to contribute to a comprehensive study of a region by researching one aspect of the region. Each student completes an research project and part-way through the semester, we travel to see first hand what we have been studying ! The student manuscripts are bound into a Field Guide, which is our go-to reference for the trip.
So far our students have traveled to:
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The Colorado Plateau (2010, 2016)
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Puerto Rico (2011, 2015)
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The Rio Grande Valley (2012)
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Hawaii (2013)
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Ontario, Canada (2014)
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The Pacific Northwest (2017)
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New Zealand (2018)
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The Gulf Coast (2019)
Our 2020 field experience to South Dakota was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we hope to run it again in spring of 2022!​
Natural Resources Management is a senior level class that looks at many different types of natural resources with a view to preserving, conserving, and maintaining these resources sustainably. The Fall 2014 class developed grant proposals for a green infrastructure project to disconnect the Johnson City Public Library roof runoff from the Johnson City storm sewer system, rerouting the runoff to an infiltration bed. The plans incorporated a native plant garden and an eductation plan. The student's proposals formed the basis for a successful grant proposal which was funded by the Tennessee Storm Water Association for 2015-2016.
Teaching
I teach courses in Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Hydrology, and Natural Resources Management, plus a graduate level Spatial Analysis class. I also co-teach our department's Field Experience course. I like to teach both the intro general science classes, as well as the upper level classes because I can share my interest in Earth processes and their impact on humans. All of us rely on Earth's resources for food, shelter, and comfort. A basic knowlege of earth systems is fundamental!
For me, teaching is fun. I like to share how the earth works by using hands-on activities in the classroom, and getting the students out of the classroom as often as possible. All of my classes involve fieldtrips -- around campus, around town, or around the country! In 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of our classes were taught remotely. It has been interesting to run field-based classes completely online using virtual field trips and some amazing gigapixel imagery! Read on for a run down on my upper level classes.
Geomorphology is the study of Earth's landforms and the processes that create and change them over time. This junior-level class spends a lot of time in the field and in the lab, using hands-on activities to understand how different processes shape the land surface.
Hydrology is the study of water and how it flows over, into, through, and out of the lithosphere. East Tennesse State Univerity is located in a karst area with many sinkholes, caves, springs and sinking streams, and one part of hydrology is understanding how and where water flows. This can be very complicated in karst areas! The Fall 2013 hydro class conducted a dye trace on the Morrel Cave Springshed in Bluff City, TN. Another important aspect of hydrology relates land use and storm runoff to surface water quality and flood threat. Johnson City has a history of downtown flooding, but a new city park, Founders Park, is both a community gathering space, but also a flood mitigation feature designed to mitigate up to the 5-year flood. In this class we examine water budgets, flooding, karst hydrology, and groundwater flow.
Spatial Statistics is a graduate level class that prepares students to analyze data using both traditional and spatial statistics. We cover exploratory analysis, selection of appropriate analytical methods, and perform case studies using point pattern analysis, spatial interpolation, spatial autocorrelation, and spatial regression modeling. I have been working hard to transition to ArcPro for some of our analyses, and so this year we will be adding spatiotemporal modeling with space-time cubes to the curriculum. Mind-blowing!