1. Designing Geoscience Courses Around Projects With Realistic Scenarios Bosiljka Glumac Geology Department, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
Idea:
To motivate students geoscience courses could include assignments that demonstrate the relevance of the work that geologists do.
Example:
The Sedimentology (Geology 232) course I teach at Smith College is structured around carefully designed projects that take advantage of the local geology and address a variety of topics.
The projects are designed to mimic real-life situations: the students address concerns of a local farmer, or have roles as field conference organizers and collaborators (with paleontologists) on a multidisciplinary research project. (
Questions/Comments:
Is this a useful approach? (Recently a colleague commented that demonstrating such relevance is not needed and that students should want to study rocks to enrich their lives, just like reading poems.)
Other examples?