Teaching About Energy in Geoscience Courses: Current Research and Pedagogy

Note: This workshop has already taken place. Presentations given at the workshop are available on the program page.

Saturday, October 30, 2010 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM, in conjunction with the GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado

Fee: US $70 | Limit: 40 participants | Continuing Education Units: 0.9. credits

See the GSA short course page
oil refinery

Modern industrialized societies use massive amounts of energy from many sources to power commerce, industry and transportation. Growing populations and rising standards of living in the developing world ensure that this energy demand will grow for the foreseeable future. At the same time, the dominance of fossil fuels complicates efforts to address global climate change. To address tomorrow's energy challenges our students must be conversant with both traditional energy and alternative energy sources, as well as a host of emerging topics such as carbon capture and storage, life cycle assessment, carbon footprint and energy return on investment. Thus, there is a clear need for effective approaches for teaching about energy topics in our classrooms.

This workshop is for faculty who teach about energy and geoscience and for graduate students who anticipate teaching about energy or are engaged in research about energy resources. It will bring together geoscience educators to share their understanding about energy in the context of teaching and learning geoscience. The workshop will also showcase approaches for teaching about energy and provide a forum to develop new educational materials.

This one-day workshop will both build on and disseminate the results of a longer workshop that took place May 17-19, 2009, at the University of Wyoming. The original workshop focused on the science of various energy sources, provided an outlook on future energy and how best to prepare our students for the challenges ahead, and illustrated pedagogical techniques for teaching about energy. The program and outcomes of the May workshop can be viewed on the May 2009 workshop program page.

View the workshop program | Read the workshop overview

Workshop Conveners

  • James Myers, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming
  • Fred Loxsom, Environmental Earth Science Department, Eastern Connecticut State University
  • Devin Castendyk, State University of New York, College at Oneonta
  • Karin Kirk, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College


This workshop is one of the On the Cutting Edge follow-on workshops which are designed to disseminate themes and outcomes from a larger workshop. This workshop is part of the On the Cutting Edge professional development program for current and future geoscience faculty, and is sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers with funding provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation - Division of Undergraduate Education .


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