It's a tremendous opportunity for the students because they can use these tools to work on projects that have applications to the real world. They are learning skills and computer programs that will make them extremely marketable. Few universities can offer this kind of opportunity to undergraduate students. So he, Amidon, Farid, and a colleague from Northern Illinois University traveled to Wyoming to map surface exposures of the geological structure covered by the Marathon seismic data. These exposures, coupled with the subsurface seismic data, should provide insight into how the fold developed.
Students can relate to features in the field better than they can from textbooks.
I often think that I can teach more in two weeks in the field than I can in a whole semester in the classroom. The students agreed that the field experience in Wyoming was invaluable and clearly indicated the value of working closely with a professor on a project. The collaborative nature of the research is the key, Wilkerson believes. I don't know the answer either, so we're all working together to figure out the problem. Amidon declared geology as his major and continues his research on fault-related folds with Wilkerson.