GEOL 1110-001 Physical Geology Course Design
I was fortunate to have the experience to design and teach my own section of this introductory class. While my first experience with this was a crash course in COVID course design, I felt it truly prepared me to be adaptable to anything! I wanted to give students the best experience possible, so I taught the class on Zoom meeting twice a week at the scheduled times. I strived to give my students a connection to the material we were learning in class to the real world, so for many of the topics I put together 'case studies' of NM geology that directed related to the content. These would involve analyzing aspects of NM geology through a series of guided Zoom Poll questions to get students to make those connections. I also put together a final project that allowed students to research a state, national, or international park of their choice and create a geologic brochure. GEOL 1110-01 Class Syllabus
A group of mineralogy students investigating an outcrop at the Harding Mine, New Mexico.
GEOL 1110-001 Final Project
Taking into account this class had students of different backgrounds and majors I wanted to offer a way for students to explore the geology of a state, national, or international park and creatively showcase what they have learned. I asked students to design a 'brochure' to educate visitors of the park on the local geology. Students were expected to provide appropriate references and cite their materials. Examples of how to cite sources and where to find sources were provided. To help students, I provided an example of what a brochure could look like. The project description, rubric, and example provided can be found below. Some components of a few final products are showcased below with names redacted.
Diversity & Equity
Below are a few links to resources for diversity, equity, and inclusion education in the Earth Sciences.
Online Teaching Resources
These are some of my favorite online/remote learning resources for Mineralogy & Petrology Laboratory classes. RockPTX has a variety of thin sections videos of hundreds of minerals. The middle link is suite of mineralogy and petrology resources for online teaching through the Mineralogical Society of America. Krystal Shaper is a great crystallography teaching tool that enables students to create their own crystals using crystallographic concepts.
Earth Science Simulators
These three simulators can be used in an intro to geology or general earth science class. The first one is an "ant farm" simulator for groundwater movement. There is a lab prepared and paired with this simulator which can be accessed here. The other two are climate change related. The sea level rise simulator was developed by NOAA to visualize how coastal communities in the US would be impacted by different amounts of sea level rise.
Formative Assessment Resources
I love using Padlet and Poll Everywhere as technology integration in the classroom. Padlet is a link you can give to students to use on their phone etc. in the classroom. The emoji chart is a fun handout I have used as an 'exit exam' if I do not want to use technology.
Assistive Technology
The first link is to a website called BeeLine Reader. It adds color gradients to text to help the eye follow along. You can use it in many different ways including installing it on browsers! The second, allows students to convert text to an mps3 file and listen to it at any time!
Awesome Sauce
These are a few of my favorite websites that I wanted to share!
