January 12, 2022
Starting the semester with understanding, decoding, and the process of science
Here are a few resources that may be useful to share with students as one kicks off the semester and starts talking about understanding, decoding, and the process of science
January 1, 2022
A New Year’s resolution: Climate action
There are so many topics and efforts that deserve our attention – how can we possibly select which one (or more than one) to declare as a New Year’s resolution? One can’t go wrong with increasing our actions relating to addressing climate change.
December 31, 2021
Top Science Stories of 2021 – what would our students say?
If you ask your students what were the major scientific accomplishments in 2021, what would they say? Are they aware of what happened in the previous year, as well as the major concerns and challenges in the sciences?
December 28, 2021
Getting students to create a course purpose statement
Having students write a course purpose statement at the beginning of a semester provides them an opportunity to articulate why they selected to study this content, what their overall learning goals are, and what they aim to accomplish in this course.
December 27, 2021
A celebration of Quilt Your Science 2021
When you put out a call for mini quilts themed on earth/space science, what you get in return is creativity and inspiration!
December 20, 2021
Thank you, AGU Staff, for Fall Meeting 2021
My first blog post from the 2021 AGU Fall Meeting is dedicated to the AGU staff for their incredible preparation and effort into planning and carrying out the first/largest hybrid conference – paving the way for new ideas and models of connection and collaboration among the global science community
December 10, 2021
Reading books from diverse authors – a campus program that builds an earth science curriculum
My continuing work with my URGE pod to be actively anti-racist in the geoscience classroom has me reflecting even more on the role of books/essays written by diverse authors and the impact these words can have on students as well as the overall curriculum
November 9, 2021
Learn about 50 Indigenous scientists through a 50-mile run by Dr. Lydia Jennings
Dr. Jennings refers to this as a Running with Purpose Project, but it is about so much more than running. It is about her journey as an Indigenous scholar. It is about the impacts of mining on Indigenous lands and the role of Indigenous communities and knowledge in these places and spaces. It is about raising the voices and identities of existing Indigenous scientists and at the same time paving the way for the Indigenous scholars of the future.
November 7, 2021
The “golden line” as an inclusive and equitable classroom strategy
A “golden line” is an evidence-based instructional approach supports both academic and social-emotional learning (social, personal, cognitive, and knowledge-building), and is modeled to develop student academic identity, engagement, subject-area knowledge, and disciplinary literacy
November 3, 2021
My journey to becoming an Outreach Officer on the JOIDES Resolution
I’ve been asked by several colleagues what exactly that means to be an Outreach Officer on a research vessel and how you become one to begin with – this post is a write up that details some of this information.
Laura Guertin is a Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences at Penn State Brandywine in Media, PA. Her research focuses on how technology can enhance teaching and student learning in introductory-level geoscience courses for non-science majors. Her blog focuses on geoscience education/outreach, science communication, and technology tools in the classroom, online, and in the field.