Graduate Student Projects
Graduate students taking Geology 543 must complete an independent project as part of the course evaluation. The specific project is coordinated with the instructor to determine its suitability for the class. Although students are free to choose a topic of their choice, the project needs to demonstrate the student's understanding of basic groundwater concepts and applied in a way that extends that understanding beyond what was covered in class. In other words, the project cannot directly repeat material covered in class but needs to be applied to a new situation. For example, you may want to summarize the properties and water level changes in a regional aquifer in view of potential pollution problems or agricultural water use. If we covered that aquifer in class, then a different regional aquifer must be chosen.
I will be specifically looking for how well you summarize the material and for your understanding of the material. A simple recitation of facts may not get you by. To do really well requires a true synthesis of material where you take the facts from the literature and draw some broad conclusions. The broad conclusions are supported by the facts.
For example, you might say, "Based on my readings, the world is round.". Then you go on to say, "The idea of a round world is support by several key observations. Ships coming over the horizon to port are first detected by the mast and as the ship comes closer, by the hull. On a flat plane, the ship would only be smaller, whereas on a curved surface one would see the highest feature of the ship first. Second, based on observations of the solar angle and time at different parts of the world (Ptolomy, 544 BC) the radius of the Earth can be determined. Furthermore, there is no simple way to explain these angles if the earth was flat. ...."
All projects must reference original literature found in either journal articles or proceedings volumes. The student needs to demonstrate the ability to read the professional literature and synthesize the important results. Referring to basic texts in the field (e.g. Fetter) is fine for basic concepts such as Darcy's equation, but the original literature must be used to provide additional insight to the problem of interest.
A vast range of possible projects are available. Several ideas include, but not limited to are,
Scientific:
Groundwater/landslide
interactions
Coastal salt water intrusion
Subsidence due to groundwater withdrawals
Paleoclimate reconstruction
Groundwater/surface water
interactions
Karst flow systems
Biological aspects of
groundwater
Geochemical aspects
Application of simple groundwater models
Educational:
Development of a groundwater web page including general information and modeling of simple systems. The web page will support future efforts of the geohydrology class. The web page is not to be a simple compilation of data or other web pages, but it needs to include some modeling/applications to provide students with experience in viewing a geohydrologic problem. It could also provide students with homework. The student will need some fairly sophisticated web skills or have to develop such skills.
Schedule:
Oct 20: Project Idea
Dec 13: Final Draft