Workshop Program

All events are in South Woulfe Alumni Hall (Room 378 - Anderson Student Center) unless otherwise noted.

Monday, June 16, Day 1

8:30-4:00 Review Camp

The Review Team should meet in Anderson Student Center room 341 to discuss the review process and assign final review status to the existing activity collection.

4:00-5:00 Workshop Check-in (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

5:00 Pre-dinner reception (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

Opening mixer with cash bar (beer and wine)

6:00 Dinner (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

Buffet dinner including salad, pasta, two meat choices, vegetables and dessert.

7:00-9:00 Welcome, workshop overview including goals of workshop, and opening plenary session: Grand challenges, frontiers, and implications for our teaching. (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

Tuesday, June 17, Day 2

7:00-8:00: Breakfast at The View, 2nd floor, Anderson Student Center

8:15-8:30 Preview of the day (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

8:30-10:00 Plenary session - Earth Systems: integrating across our disciplines in the classroom. Developing pedagogical tools and goals that allow cross-disciplinary exchange.

Part of the focus of this workshop is to address how to better integrate sedimentary geology, geomorphology, paleontology, paleoclimate and marine geology (SGPPM) disciplines into undergraduate courses in order to enrich these courses, to help students de-compartmentalize their thinking about geoscience, and to help instructors design better courses in situations where the curriculum may be limited to only one or two courses that address these disciplines. Thinking about the approaches that each discipline uses to address questions is a useful way to focus the experiences that we want students to have in our courses.

Part 1: We will brainstorm a list of the approaches that we (as scientists) use to address questions in our respective disciplines and assemble an initial list of what is essential for undergraduate students to be able to do in these disciplines.

Part 2: We will brainstorm a list of examples and/or case studies that could be effectively integrated into courses (particularly in situations where there is only one required course) to incorporate the approaches of three or more of the disciplines.

10:00-10:30 Break

10:30-12:00 Great strategies for teaching SGPPM I
This time block is divided into three 25-minute time blocks for concurrent presentations by workshop participants to share examples of their teaching strategies. You may go to any one in each time block. Each presentation will be repeated once later in the workshop.

Block 1 (Room ASC 341):

Block 2 (Room ASC 366):
Block 3 (Room ASC 367 233):

12:00-1:30 Lunch at The View, 2nd floor, Anderson Student Center.

1:30-3:00 Mini-workshops.
These workshops are designed to provide participants with some background in a topic and time for discussion on how to integrate that topic into a course. Each workshop will have a content block followed by discussion and work time for participants to get started developing an activity for their own classrooms. Workshops will run concurrently, and participants will choose one mini-workshop to attend. These mini-workshops will be repeated.


3:00-3:30 Break (Snacks and beverages served)

3:30-5:00 Great strategies for teaching SGPPM II
This time block is divided into three 25-minute time blocks for concurrent presentations by workshop participants to share examples of their teaching strategies. You may go to any one in each time block. Each presentation will be repeated once later in the workshop.

Block 1 (Room ASC 341):

Block 2 (Room ASC 366):

Block 3 (Room ASC 367 233): :

5:00-5:15 End-of-day wrap-up and roadcheck

6:00-7:00 Dinner at The View

7:30-9:00 Poster Session: sharing your contributions to SGPPM teaching. (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

  • Participants should bring a poster that describes their work in teaching about SGPPM topics.
  • We will also have tables available for those who wish to do demos.

Wednesday, June 18, Day 3

7:00-8:00: Breakfast at The View, 2nd floor, Anderson Student Center

8:15-8:30 Preview of the day (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

8:30-10:00 Mini-workshop
These workshops are designed to provide participants with some background in a topic and time for discussion on how to integrate that topic into a course. Each workshop will have a content block followed by discussion and work time for participants to get started developing an activity for their own classrooms. Workshops will run concurrently, and participants will choose one mini-workshop to attend. These mini-workshops will be repeated.

10:00-10:30 Break

10:30-12:00 Great strategies for teaching SGPPM I
This time block is divided into three 25-minute time blocks for concurrent presentations by workshop participants to share examples of their teaching strategies. You may go to any one in each time block. These sessions are repeated from Tuesday morning.

Block 1 (Room ASC 341):


Block 2 (Room ASC 366):
Block 3 (Room ASC 367 233):

12:00-12:45 Lunch at The View, 2nd floor, Anderson Student Center.

Meet at Cretin Ave. entrance to the Anderson Student Center at 1:00 for departure for field trips.

1:00-5:00 Field trips: meet at passenger drop-off area on west side of Anderson Student Center

Two field trip options, your choice of one. You will be asked to sign up for one ahead of time:

St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and the National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics

The St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota houses flumes, tanks, large experimental channels, and the Outdoor Streamlab, all of which have been used to develop a deeper understanding of Earth surface processes, sediment transport, and ecosystem dynamics. The lab also is the home of the eXperimental EarthScape facility (XES), a large basin that has been used to test stratigraphic models and provide insights into the controls on stratigraphic architecture. This tour will provide participants an in-depth look at this world-class facility and show them how to access data from the lab for their teaching. Close-toed shoes required!
Trip leaders: Tom Hickson and Karen Gran

LacCore, National Lacustrine Core Facility

During this trip you will visit the National Lacustrine Core Facility (LacCore) located on University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. LacCore is widely used by investigators from around the globe who make use of lake cores to explore research questions in paleoclimatology, paleoecology, and sedimentary geochemistry to name a few. While touring LacCore's equipment and capabilities, we will have a chance to view and ask questions of researchers working on cores from around the world. Researchers will be working on core splitting, high-resolution linescan imaging, and core logging. You will learn how LacCore might fit into your own research program and we will discuss some examples of classroom activities and projects that make use of lake cores that could be adapted for your use.
 Trip leader: Kevin Theissen (and LacCore Staff)

Resources:

End of Day roadcheck (Do on your own time please.)

6:00-7:00 Dinner at The View

7:30-9:00 Special Topics in SGPPM Teaching (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

We will break into sub-groups to engage topics that are of interest to you. You will choose one session to participate in. We provide some ideas here, but participants will have the opportunity to suggest additional topics for discussion:

Thursday, July 19, Day 4

7:00-8:00: Breakfast at The View, 2nd floor, Anderson Student Center

8:15-8:30 Preview of the day (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

8:30-10:00 Designing Effective Activities and the Review Process (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 14.6MB Jun18 14)

10:00-10:30 Break

10:30-12:00 Review of new submissions to the collection

Each participant will review some of the new activities submitted by their peers to the assignment/activity collection and provide feedback to the authors.

12:00-1:30 Lunch at The View, 2nd floor, Anderson Student Center.

1:30-3:00 Great strategies for teaching SGPPM II
This time block is divided into three 25-minute time blocks for concurrent presentations by workshop participants to share examples of their teaching strategies. You may go to any one in each time block. These presentations are repeated from Tuesday afternoon.

Block 1 (Room ASC 341):

Block 2 (Room ASC 366):

Block 3 (Room ASC 367 233): :

3:00-3:20 Break

3:20-5:00 Teaching in the Field:Cambro-Ordovician Strata and Geomorphology of the Twin Cities Cancelled

The Twin Cities lies atop a thick Paleozoic sedimentary sequence of mixed carbonates and siliciclastics. They tell the story of base level rise and fall in a cratonic interior seaway, providing an excellent sequence stratigraphic laboratory. Some units are loaded with fossils--trilobites, bryozoa, crinoids--creating an top-notch locality for paleontological teaching. Differential erosion of this sequence has led to the formation of the Mississippi River Gorge and the first estimate of the end of the last glaciation. This field trip will focus on how to use small, local outcrops to teach paleontology, stratigraphy, and geomorphology.

3:20 - 5:00 Discussion Time and Poster Work Time

Please put the following at the top of each of your posters (modifying as appropriate for a group poster:

Your name, course title, # of students, other relevant course info (e.g., required course in paleontology,senior capstone course, etc,)

Please reserve some space on your poster for comments, and include questions / topics about which you would like advice or suggestions

5:00-5:15 End-of-day wrap-up and check-in

5:30-6:30 Cash bar, Anderson Student Center (specific location to be determined)

6:00-7:00 Picnic dinner, Anderson Student Center patio, north side of building. Bad weather option: Scooters restaurant, adjacent to the patio.

7:00-9:00 Work and poster preparation time; also, time for individuals to suggest possible group efforts, new directions, and so forth.

Friday, June 20, Day 5

7:00-8:00: Breakfast at The View, 2nd floor, Anderson Student Center

8:15-8:30 Preview of the day (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

8:30-10:00 Poster Session (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

Participants will prepare an informal poster for two new assignments/activities for a particular course that use effective teaching strategies for actively engaging students.

  1. One idea must integrate an approach from one of the disciplines that is not the main focus of your course.
  2. One idea must address a grand challenge/leading edge idea/frontier OR develop an idea or teaching strategy based on something you've learned at the workshop.

10:00-10:30 Break

10:30-12:00 Plenary session, closing remarks, and end of workshop evaluation (South Woulfe Alumni Hall)

Box lunches will be provided at the end of the session.