Laboratory Manual for Introduction to Physical Geography, Second Edition

Physical geography lab exercises tend to be crafted for internal institutional use only. In light of the need to have online laboratory material for remote instruction, a group of geography instructors from across British Columbia (BC), Canada came together for this collaborative project with the goal of producing a cross-institutional open education resource (OER) laboratory manual for first-year post-secondary physical geography courses. The lab manual consists of 24 labs that cover an introduction to physical geography, weather and climate, biogeography, map and geospatial skills, hydrology, geomorphology, and landform identification. Many of the labs have a BC setting; however, they are useable across Canada and further abroad. The majority of the labs have been developed so that they can be done in any order to increase instructor flexibility and promote adaptability to differing course structures and durations. Many of the labs have students using live data, or built-in flexibility with datasets for instructors in order to prevent the lab exercises becoming static over time. The lab manual is licenced under a creative common license (refer to licensing information) so that the lab modules can be modified as needed by instructors to meet the learning outcomes of their students.

The second edition of this lab manual was created in the spring and summer of 2021 for the 2021/22 academic year and beyond. The second edition features substantial revisions to the labs and instructor notes for consistency and effectiveness, a reordering of the lab numbers, and two new labs (lab 07 and 19).

This lab manual is a cross-institutional project from British Columbia (BC), Canada that provides 24 labs to be implemented within first year post-secondary physical geography courses. The labs have been developed to be easily adapted for various course structures, durations, and differing laboratory learning objectives set out by instructors. Instructor notes are available for each lab that outline the instructional intent of the lab author, along with some suggestions for modifications. The lab manual is licenced under a creative common license (refer to licensing information) so that the lab modules can be modified as needed. The second edition of this lab manual was created for the onset of the 2021/22 academic year.