Geology Dept. to Alter Nat Sci 10 Next Year

Natural Sciences 10 will undergo substantial revision next year, the Geology Department announced Saturday. In order to "improve the continuity and unity" of the course, several changes in both lab and lecture scheduling will be made.

According to Raymond Siever, Associate Professor of Geology and head lecturer in the course, an increased number of field trips will replace the weekly two-hour laboratory required in the past. Six afternoon field trips will be offered during the year, as well as one more extensive trip each semester. Written reports will be required of students following each trip.

To fill out the course, a one-and-a-half hour section will augment the lectures.

Siever said the change has stemmed from the Department's growing conviction that "the best laboratory in the earth sciences is the field," and from the overwhelmingly favorable student response to an optional three-day trip to northern New England this spring.

In addition, the number of guest lecturers in the course will be drastically reduced, according to Bernhard Kummel, Professor of Geology and lecturer in Nat Sci 10. In the past, Kummel said, the guest lecturer program has tried to expose Nat Sci 10 students to some of Harvard's "rich personalities." Unfortunately, he added, the visitors have tended to "blow hot and cold."

Despite the operational changes, the course will continue to cover essentially the same material as in the past. "The goals of Natural Sciences 10 remain unchanged," Siever said; only the approach will be somewhat altered.

Nonetheless, the instructors do not feel next year's schedule will be "ideal," primarily as a result of problems with the weather. Although a month's preparation for the first field trip--a two-day excursion to the Helderberg Mountains--will take place in early October.

The second major excursion, to take place in May, will travel to the Adirondack Mountains and to parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. The groups will travel by bus, financed by the University.