Overall rating of instructor
4.76
Geology 103
Physical Geology
Spring 2021
Excellent to Good
4.76
Geology 103
Physical Geology
Spring 2021
Excellent to Good
Geology 103, Physical Geology, is the most traditional introductory geology course at SUNY Potsdam. The course satisfies the general education requirement for Thinking Scientifically-Natural World. A diverse group of students typically enroll in this course. I think one of the biggest challenges is to captivate the uninterested non-major and the enthusiastic geology major simultaneously. In my experience, it is all about the relevance to the student. Therefore, I begin each lecture with how and why this topic matters to them.
I taught this course in the spring of 2021, when most students were still learning virtually but some were face to face (F2F). Teaching F2F students and virtual students simultaneously that was largely overcome through technology. In addition to Zoom and Moodle, I took advantage of the OWL, a device purchased by the school that enabled virtual students to be more 'present' in the classroom. It was equipped with a microphone which enabled me to wander around the classroom freely and for students to hear one another. It also had a rotating 360° camera that showed the blackboard as well as the students in the classroom.
The most time-consuming part of teaching Physical Geology that semester was the assembly of virtual labs. Learning to identify rocks and minerals through a computer screen is much different than holding a specimen in your hand. As a department, we have high-quality photos of every mineral and rock sample to use in the Moodle 'laboratories'. Almost all the labs were embedded into Moodle, so that students had immediate feedback about their responses and could reassess before continuing on in the lab exercise.
In the fall of 2021, I was happy to return to complete face-to-face instruction. Labs were much more effective and enjoyable in person. One of the new labs that semester was the use of the Geoscience Garden to practice identifying rocks, using stratigraphic principles, and learning the regional geology. The exercise was a great transition from learning how to identify different types of rocks to learning about geologic time. This introductory geology lab using the Geoscience Garden can be modified for use in all of the introductory courses: Environmental Geology, Physical Geology, and Earth Systems.
I taught this course in the spring of 2021, when most students were still learning virtually but some were face to face (F2F). Teaching F2F students and virtual students simultaneously that was largely overcome through technology. In addition to Zoom and Moodle, I took advantage of the OWL, a device purchased by the school that enabled virtual students to be more 'present' in the classroom. It was equipped with a microphone which enabled me to wander around the classroom freely and for students to hear one another. It also had a rotating 360° camera that showed the blackboard as well as the students in the classroom.
The most time-consuming part of teaching Physical Geology that semester was the assembly of virtual labs. Learning to identify rocks and minerals through a computer screen is much different than holding a specimen in your hand. As a department, we have high-quality photos of every mineral and rock sample to use in the Moodle 'laboratories'. Almost all the labs were embedded into Moodle, so that students had immediate feedback about their responses and could reassess before continuing on in the lab exercise.
In the fall of 2021, I was happy to return to complete face-to-face instruction. Labs were much more effective and enjoyable in person. One of the new labs that semester was the use of the Geoscience Garden to practice identifying rocks, using stratigraphic principles, and learning the regional geology. The exercise was a great transition from learning how to identify different types of rocks to learning about geologic time. This introductory geology lab using the Geoscience Garden can be modified for use in all of the introductory courses: Environmental Geology, Physical Geology, and Earth Systems.
Amazing professor with an amazing teaching method. She made a class I hated in high school into something I wanted to go to.