Big Bend Field Camp

Our Geology Field Camp in Big Bend began with advertisements going out to Texas universities in January. Although many external applications were submitted only ten made the prerequisite requirements for our capstone writing intensive camp. Jacob Byerly, Colton Coons (TAMU-CC), Monica Estrada, Scott Fenner, Eric Garza (TAMU-CC), Austin Johnson, Cody Lopez (TAMU-CC), Richard Lopez (TAMU-CC), Kasey Phelps, Jonathan Thomas and field assistant Alex Johnston headed out to Big Ben with Drs. Thomas McGehee, Mark Ford and Veronica Sanchez on May 18. Both students and faculty are engaged in an intensive learning experience for our profession.

Our field camp personnel selected a number of great projects this year that would provide mapping challenges and test their knowledge in the core areas of mineralogy, petrology, sedimentology/stratigraphy, field geology, and structural geology. The writing intensive component was added to help camp participants improve their science writing skills in a comprehensive report. We are very proud of these students’ demonstrated work ethic and abilities to compete at a very high level in the future job market. Good job!

Hydrogeology Field Camp

The Hydrogeology Field Camp conducted in Central Texas is the second-half course of our 49-day field camp. Ten students. three volunteers, four faculty members, and one teaching assistant spent twenty-four consecutive days together learning how to find groundwater resources for the Central Texas area. This writing intensive, geosciences capstone course measure our participants’ knowledge in mineralogy, petrology, sedimentology, structural geology, field geology, and hydrogeology. The course requires 10-16 hour work days and is graded by our professional staff.

Four students from Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) were joined by 6 geology majors in our program. Jacob Byerly, Colton Coons, Monica Estrada, Scott Fenner, and Jonathan Thomas attended this camp. These students gave 100% every day and produced the higher quality of work yet demonstrated in the hydrogeology field camp. We are proud of these geologists and would recommend them to our professional colleagues.