Foos, A., 1997, Integrating a research project into a traditional geochemistry lab course. Journal of Geoscience Education, V. 45, p. 322-325

ABSTRACT

With careful selection of the research topic, a semester long, class research project can be integrated into a traditional geochemistry lab course. An aqueous geochemistry project is described, where students make on-site measurements in the field, collected samples and analyzed them for major, minor and trace elements. The data is incorporated into exercises on data quality, graphical presentation of data, ionic strength, ionic activity, carbonate equilibrium, Eh-pH diagrams and geochemical modeling. The results of each lab are presented to the class the following week and their implications to the research project are discussed. The project results are presented as a poster session at a regional scientific meeting. In addition to providing students with a research experience the class research project reinforces the lecture and weekly laboratory exercises by illustrating the practical application of the geochemical concepts.