All of My Faults Are Stress Related
Archives for March, 2009
Course redesign part 3: goal? I need goals?
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 13, 2009 I’m rethinking one of my courses, an upper level general education course called “The Control of Nature.” I’ve been blogging my way through the course redesign process, starting with past problems with the course and with my various practical constraints (class schedule, physical space, student background). I’m using an online tutorial to guide me through…
Ka-Boom! Eruptions is now on ScienceBlogs
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 13, 2009 Erik Klemetti’s blog Eruptions has just joined ScienceBlogs. Yay! Now you know that geology is the hottest science. (Well, except maybe for solar physics, but they go to American Geophysical Union meetings too.)
Course redesign cont: thinking through the context
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 12, 2009 I’m working on re-designing an upper level general education course called “The Control of Nature. Yesterday, I talked about the problems I’ve had in the past. Today, I’m going to start thinking about the context of the course, and what that means for improving it. One of my commenters yesterday made exactly the same suggestion…
Redesigning a broken course
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 11, 2009 I’ve got a course that (IMO) is broken, and I’m working on fixing it. I’ve been teaching a course called “The Control of Nature” (after John McPhee’s book) for 16 years, after thinking of the idea on my way home from my first academic job interview. (Yes, that was a bad time to come up…
Spring meme!
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 10, 2009 Spring has sprung in the geoblogosphere! In Virginia, Callan has been hiking on the Billy Goat Trail. In Colorado, Geology Happens has crocuses. And spring fever has even hit the New York Times – Andy Revkin is posting Youtube videos of Pete Seeger singing about maple syrup. Hey, I can play, too. Look – I’ve…
Magma beneath Socorro, New Mexico
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 9, 2009 I had no idea there was magma beneath Socorro, New Mexico. When I read about it in this month’s Geology, my first reaction was OMG WE’RE GONNA DIE!. (I’ve been occasionally using the electron microprobe at New Mexico Tech to look at rocks that were metamorphosed around a 380-million-year-old granite. I had no idea that…
Blogging for World Water Day, March 22
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 7, 2009 Cr!key Creek invites bloggers to join him on World Water Day, March 22, and post about water basins and aquifers that cross political boundaries. Here’s what he said: There are hundreds of water basins and aquifers that straddle our political boundaries, at both international and national levels. Neighbours stick their own straws into the same…
Workshop opportunities: building strong geoscience departments, early-career faculty, and future faculty
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 6, 2009 Earth is going to be here for the foreseeable future. Will there be geoscientists to help everyone else figure out how to deal with it? The people who organize the Cutting Edge geoscience teaching workshops have another set of workshops, aimed at helping geoscience departments figure out how to grow and stay vibrant. This is…
Stuff I’m reading
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 4, 2009 There has been a lot of cool stuff posted while I was getting this blog set up. From my Google Reader shared items: Exotic rocks. There’s an art exhibit in Oakland, California, that includes metamorphic rocks from Maine. Why? Because the schists sound like xylophone keys when they’re struck. I knew there was a reason…
Learning (and teaching) STEM-major survival skills?
Posted by Kim Hannula on March 3, 2009 I’ve got a question for all sorts of different scientists. What kind of skills do undergrad science/technology/engineering/math majors need in order to survive and thrive? If you’re a student, I’ve got some bad news for you. When you’re not around, professors have a tendency to rant about the stuff you don’t know how to do.…