Students in the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy have the opportunity to attend a first-year field trip during the beginning stage of their coursework. The first-year field trip is designed to create bonds between classmates, build support networks and study groups, and preview future courses.
Riley Woodrow, junior geosciences major, participated in a recent trip to the school's field camp facility in Canon City, Colorado. On the trip, Woodrow and other students visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Garden of the Gods, Capulin Volcano National Monument, and the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine. Read what Woodrow had to say about his time in Colorado.
"After being on a hiatus due to COVID-19, the School of Geoscience’s first-year field trip was back, and I would finally get to experience geology in the real world with my classmates. However, since the trip was not offered during my freshmen and sophomore year, I would attend with the current freshmen class I had not yet met. I was apprehensive about spending a week with a group of students that I had never met before, but that quickly changed by the end of the car drive into camp.
Each day started with an amazing breakfast by two of the sweetest human beings I have ever met, Bob and Carol. Afterward, we packed our lunches, jumped into the Suburbans, and departed for the day’s “geology in the wild." Our stops included: Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Zapata Falls, and others. Sprinkled between these destinations were daily road cuts that displayed unique features of metamorphic geology that textbooks cannot do justice.
I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoyed this trip and how helpful it was, even as a junior, to see so many different geological processes that we were taught in a classroom out in the real world. Not only did I learn a lot, but I had a great time and came out of the trip with some good friends that I now get to see around Sarkeys and in the classroom. I am truly appreciative that the School of Geosciences includes ways to learn about geology outside of the classroom." - Riley Woodrow
