Teaching groundwater flow processes: connecting lecture to practical and field classes

Abstract

Preparing future hydrogeologists to assess local and regional hydrogeological changes and issues related to water supply is a challenging task that creates a need for effective teaching frameworks. The educational literature suggests that hydrogeology courses should consistently integrate lecture class instructions with practical and field classes. However, most teaching examples still separate these three class components. This paper presents an introductory course to groundwater flow processes taught at Université Montpellier 2, France. The adopted pedagogical scheme and the proposed activities are described in details. The key points of the proposed scheme for the course are: (i) iterations into the three class components to address groundwater flow processes topics, (ii) a course that is structured around a main thread (well testing) present in each class component, and (iii) a pedagogical approach that promotes active learning strategies, in particular using original practical classes and field experiments. The experience indicates that the proposed scheme improves the learning process, as compared to a classical, teacher-centered approach.