Earth & Environment

Faculty

Michael W. McRivette, chair, and associate professor.
B.S., University of California, San Diego; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles. Appointed 2008.

Joe Lee-Cullin, assistant professor.
A.A., Kirkwood Community College; B.S., University of Iowa; M.S., University of Iowa; Ph.D., Michigan State University. Appointed 2020.

Madeline Marshall, assistant professor.
B.A., Macalester College; Ph.D., The University of Chicago. Appointed 2019.

Carrie A. Menold, professor.
B.S., University of Michigan; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles. Appointed 2006.

Thomas I. Wilch, professor .
B.A., Macalester College; M.S., University of Maine; Ph.D., New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Appointed 1998.

Introduction

The Department of Earth & Environment provides undergraduate students intellectually engaging and challenging learning opportunities in geology, environmental science and studies through integrated classroom, laboratory, field, and research experiences. Our students learn to deal with transdisciplinary problems involving complicated systems with complex variables, a wide range of scales of both time and space, and often incomplete or ambiguous data sets. This is excellent preparation for many careers, including geology, environmental science, education, law, business, and medicine, as well as for informed citizenship.

Earth & Environment Department Website

Career Opportunities

Albion College Earth & Environment graduates are successful in obtaining interesting and rewarding jobs in their major or minor field of study. Recent departmental graduates have been employed by research institutes, state and federal agencies, universities and colleges as professors, environmental consulting firms, and secondary schools as earth science teachers.

Over one-half of our graduates have chosen to continue studying in their fields or other disciplines, including business, law, medicine, and public policy, at major universities and have obtained master’s or doctoral degrees before beginning their careers.

Special Features

The department’s facilities include five instructional laboratories, a GIS lab, individual faculty offices and research labs, a student research lab, a map room, and a rock and fossils preparation shop.

Field study is important in understanding the Earth and enviornment, so the department maintains an active field program. Each spring students and faculty participate in a seminar that culminates with an eight- to 14-day field trip; trips have been to the Pacific Northwest, Wisconsin, California, Louisiana, Great Britain, Iceland, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona and New Mexico, New England, the Ozarks, the Northern Appalachians and the Smoky Mountains. Local field trips are sponsored by the student-run Earth & Environment Club. In addition, the Earth & Environment Department operates a biennial six-week summer field program in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming. Students from Albion and many other colleges and universities attend this camp for training in geologic mapping and field research. The Oslund Family Fund supports student field experiences.

Research opportunities are available to all majors in their junior and senior years. Students may work on an individual laboratory or field problem within the scope of their background and present their results at professional meetings. Outstanding seniors are encouraged to complete honors theses. The Lawrence D. Taylor Undergraduate Geology Research Fund supports student research and travel to present at regional and national meetings. A local chapter of Sigma Gamma Epsilon, a national earth science honorary, is active on the Albion campus.

Departmental Policy on Advanced Placement Credit

Students who earn a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement (AP) exam will receive one unit of credit from the Department of Earth & Environment. Students who receive AP credit for calculus, chemistry, computer science, and/or physics from the respective department may use the AP credit to replace equivalent requirements for majors and minors offered by the department. In most cases, these courses might replace a cognate course requirement. Students should consult with the department chair to verify how AP credit may be awarded.

Student Learning Outcomes

Geology Major

Students will be able to:

Articulate fundamental concepts in core areas of geology, including plate tectonics, earth history, solid-earth composition/structure, and surface and atmospheric processes.
Articulate ideas effectively orally and in writing.
Use the scientific method to investigate geologic questions.
Employ field and laboratory skills to gather geologic data.
Interpret qualitative and quantitative data to answer geologic questions.
Integrate geologic concepts, methods, and data to solve geologic problems.
Develop personal goals for further education or careers.

Earth Science Major

Students will be able to:

Articulate fundamental concepts in most core areas of geology, including plate tectonics, earth history, solid-earth composition/structure, and surface and atmospheric processes.
Articulate ideas effectively orally and in writing.
Use the scientific method to investigate geologic questions.
Employ field and laboratory skills to gather geologic data.
Interpret qualitative and quantitative data to answer geologic questions.
Integrate geologic concepts, methods, and data to solve geologic problems.
Develop personal goals for further education or careers.

Environmental Science Major

Students will be able to:

Articulate multidisciplinary complex environmental problems that require change in scientific understanding, technology, or social relations.
Articulate ideas effectively orally and in writing.
Use the scientific method to investigate environmental questions.
Employ field and laboratory skills to gather environmental data.
Interpret qualitative and quantitative data to answer environmental questions.
Develop personal goals for further education or careers.

Environmental Studies Major

Students will be able to:

Articulate multidisciplinary complex environmental problems that require changes in scientific understanding, technology, public policy, social relations, or worldviews.
Articulate ideas effectively orally and in writing.
Recognize how humans’ varying perceptions of, interactions with, access to, and control over natural resources are shaped by both cultural diversity and structural inequality.
Interpret qualitative and quantitative data to answer environmental questions.
Reflect critically on their roles, responsibilities, and identities as citizens, consumers and environmental actors in a complex, interconnected world.
Develop personal goals for further education or careers.

Geology Minor

Students will be able to:

Articulate fundamental concepts in some of the core areas of geology, including plate tectonics, earth history, solid-earth composition/structure, and surface and atmospheric processes.
Articulate ideas effectively orally and in writing.
Use the scientific method to investigate geologic questions.
Employ field and laboratory skills to gather geologic data.
Interpret qualitative and quantitative data to answer geologic questions.

Environmental Geology Minor

Students will be able to:

Articulate fundamental concepts of geology that relate to the surface and near-surface environment, including rock weathering and soil formation, slope failure and erosion processes, streams and groundwater systems, and landscape evolution.
Comprehensively summarize either chemical interactions of water with the solid Earth or glaciation and the Earth’s climate system.
Articulate ideas effectively orally and in writing.
Use the scientific method to investigate environmental geology questions.
Employ field and laboratory skills to gather hydrologic and geomorphologic data.
Interpret qualitative and quantitative data to solve environmental geology problems.

Paleontology Minor

Students will be able to:

Articulate fundamental concepts in core areas of paleontology including Earth and life history, evolution, extinction, and surface processes and deposits.
Articulate ideas effectively orally and in writing.
Use the scientific method to investigate paleontological questions.
Employ field and laboratory skills to gather paleontological data.
Interpret qualitative and quantitative data to solve paleontological problems.
Apply a historical perspective to current biological questions.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Minor

Students will be able to:

Articulate fundamental concepts in core areas of geospatial sciences and geography, including geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, spatial analysis, digital mapmaking, and physical and cultural geography.
Apply fundamental geospatial science and geography concepts to other disciplines.
Articulate ideas effectively orally and in writing.
Critically analyze presentations of spatial data.
Employ field and GIS skills collect and create original spatial data.
Employ GIS and remote sensing skills to analyze spatial data to address geospatial problems and/or research questions.
Produce maps that effectively communicate the information they are intended to.

Programs

Major

Minor