Education and fieldwork
Members of the Climate Geology research group are involved in teaching at the Bachelor’s and Master’s level, in lecture, laboratory, and field courses.
In our teaching, we seek to give students the chance to learn through direct experiences in the research laboratories. For example, in the course Analytical Methods in Petrology and Geology, students work through the full process of sample analysis from preparation to setting up sequence on the instruments, as they learn the underlying principles of various instruments. In other courses, such as Climate History and Paleontology, student plan the analysis of a stalagmite to create a record of past climate, prepare the samples in the laboratory, and present a poster with interpretations of their original dataset.
In lecture courses, in the Bachelor’s and Master’s, we seek to implement the teaching and learning practices which cognitive research shows to be most effective in fostering student learning and understanding (see external pageDeslaurieres et al 2011 also external pageKnight & Wood 2005). This includes more interactive approaches during class periods, team problem solving and discussion, debates, and open-ended problems. In the Integrierte Erde course, students tackle the problem of designing the most lethal large igneous provence eruption, describing the important feedbacks, and inventing a hypothetical geological and geochemical record that could provide evidence for every aspect of the scenario. In Molecular Paleontology and Micropaleontology, students develop hypothetical evidence obtained on an ocean cruise, to support a storyline of past change in the ocean temperature and productivity. In the Climate History and Paleoclimate course, monthly debates based on currently scholarly literature, gives students the chance to wrestle with the challenge of incomplete evidence of past events and processes and think critically about arguments and data.
Excursions
Further information about our excursions are published on the Department of Earth Sciences excursions page.
Fieldwork
If you are interested in fieldwork with the Climate Geology Group, please contact Prof. Heather Stoll or Prof. Stefano Bernasconi.
