Thursday, October 10 from 10:30-12 PM in Parlor C Room
John Taber, IRIS
Beth Pratt-Sitaula, UNAVCO
Are you interested in teaching shallow geophysics to undergraduates? Do you have experience or insights related to teaching intro level geophysics? Then come learn about and provide input regarding ongoing UNAVCO and IRIS undergraduate curriculum development efforts.
As part of the NSF SAGE frontier funding, IRIS, along with geophysics community members, has begun development of urban and environmental geophysics modules to be used in geoscience courses. A goal is to engage freshman and sophomores in questions or problems in their communities that can be addressed with geophysical approaches. The modules will be designed to engage a broader audience of students, particularly those from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in geosciences. The modules will use a variety of near-surface geophysical techniques to image and interpret shallow subsurface structure and processes.
This session will begin with a brief overview of some current resources and approaches and then focus on a discussion of options and needs related to teaching geophysics and situating it in a societal context. This will include a summary of the GETSI project (GEodesy Tools for Societal Issues), which has developed a dozen modules using geodesy to address critical societal issues such as climate change, natural hazards, water resources, and environmental management for both classroom and field courses. Both the UNAVCO and IRIS efforts leverage the resources and structure developed by the InTeGrate project led by SERC, which developed over 30 modules for use in geoscience-related courses.
