Teaching Service Learning in the Geosciences

Virtual Workshop

Welcome to the service learning online workshop. Please jump in and introduce yourself. Tell us your name, where you are from, a bit about your background, and what type of service learning project you are working on.

Hi! I'm Bill Locke, Montana State University, Earth Sciences. I used to be a geologist but I am now a geographer (or so it would seem) with responsibilities that have at various times included physical and environmental geology, geology for engineers, physical geography, weather and climate, geomorphology, glacial geology, physiography, Quaternary geology... I have followed Dave Mogk with service learning exercises off and on since 1995.
I don't have a specific project (as I am anticipating impending retirement), but I have done past poster sessions on Metal Mining in Montana and The Geoscape of Bozeman, Montana (modeled after the Canadian Geoscape series) as well as the flood project I posted. I will be glad to share those ideas with you all.

This post was edited by Ed Laine on Feb, 2010
Hi Everybody

Welcome aboard.

My own background is as a marine geologist, oceanographer. I have been doing some type of community based learning for over 20 years, but I only became effective and consistent at it after I took a three day workshop on problem-based service-learning sponsored by the Maine Campus Compact about 10 years ago. Since then I have become a consultant for the Campus Compact and have done workshops on service learning and civic engagement for faculty all over New England. I am really excited about this since you all are geoscientists. Reading the other thread, I am very impressed how supportive many of your home institutions are.

Ed Laine

Hey all, my name is Bridget Cameron and I work for the Texas Water Development Board. I am here with a colleague (Linda M) and we are developing two service learning projects. These projects will be online free resources for all students at high school level, but which can be altered for other school levels.

Hello! I'm Julie Martin and I am currently a visiting professor at Tulane University. I'm looking forward to getting some new ideas to develop a service learning project that will help non-science majors develop an appreciation for the Earth sciences.

This is Dave Mogk, here at Montana State University. I'm a mineralogist and petrologist by trade, but my teaching interests include Environmental Geology for non-majors. We try to use SL to motivate students to learn some science, but also to help with their communication skills (oral and written), sometimes quantitative skills, and practice in the preparation of graphics to communicate ideas to broad audiences. I'm particularly enthused about SL as influencing the affective domain--as a motivator to get students engaged with science, and also to help students overcome barriers (e.g. fear of speaking in public; distrust of Science). One of the benefits of SL I hope we'll address are the impacts on students--I've had many students return to say that they were successful in employment interviews because they had undertaken community service--and they had hard evidence based on the products of our SL projects in class. There are huge rewards in doing SL: for the institution, faculty, students and community!

I have also been around the block a few times as it were. I started out in Texas as an oil&gas exploration geologist; called a hiatus when my kids were born; went back to grad school to escape small children in the suburbs and keep my brain alive. My dissertation was experimental contaminant fate and transport in sand. I taught hydrogeology for 6-7 years at a New England College; then HS chemistry for 4 years. Currently I teach chemistry (general, analytical) and a capstone geoscience class at Unity College. Unity (www.unity.edu) is a small environmentally focussed undergraduate institution in organic farming rural Maine.
I like service learning and community based learning but it has to fit the class. I am not comfortable trying it with 60 intro chem students. I have been nominated 3 times for the Maine Campus Compact service learning award.

Hi! I'm Jen Houghton. I am the lone geologist at Rhodes College in Memphis TN. Geology is part of the Environmental Science/Studies minors we offer here. I teach a variety of intro courses for non-science majors. This semester I am teaching a course called Environmental Hydrogeology that was already approved as a service learning component and I have chosen to continue this practice and have set up a project that involves both peer learning with a local high school class and a more field-based project in these same neighborhoods (and involving the HS students) in conjunction with Sierra Club. The Sierra Club project is the one I will be refining during this workshop.
I am new to teaching service learning so I hope to learn a lot from those more experienced and to have a finished product that I can test later this semester that will have been peer reviewed and so hopefully work more smoothly.

Hi. I'm Stephanie Maes and I am in my 3rd year at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. My geology background is in structure and igneous petrology. Every semester half of my teaching load is in service of our geology major. I also teach 2 fundamentals of science courses required for elementary and special education majors. Service learning has been a part of the course for the last 5 years.
We have a number of community partners with which our students have the opportunity to work. Most of the projects completed by the students involve teaching science in the community. We feel this is a great way to help prepare them for their future career and to give them confidence in their ability to teach science.

Hello everyone, I'm a geologist by training as well, but here at McMaster University I teach environmental science and environmental studies. In most of my classes, I'm trying to help the students make connections between social science and science.

A colleague on the human geography side of our department has run a service learning course in the past and we plan to introduce it again next year. In the past he had students commit to volunteering with a local community partner for a certain number of hours per week. I'd like to get environmental studies/science students into this course and partner with local environmental NGOs.

Hi, I'm Rhonda Spidell and I have had some tehnical difficulties, but I think I may be ready for this afternoon's session. I teach Earth Systems Science at Albuquerque Academy and I'm interested in learning how to create connections to my Service Learning Project--A Sustainable Southwest Japanese Garden. By background is science education with emphasis in geology/earthsystems.
Hope to communicate with everyone this afternoon.

Hope I'm not too late. My name is Renee Faatz. I teach geology and physical geography and math at Snow College - a residential 2-year college in central (very rural) Utah. I am the only geologist here. I earned my MS in geology (isotope geochem) at The Ohio State University. I've been teaching at Snow College for 23 awesome years.....geologic heaven here. I have been on the Service Learning Committee at the college for 6 years. The sad reality is that while I have an easy time finding service learning opportunities for other disciplines, I have been challenged to find ones appropriate for my classes. I look forward to learning from all of you!

Hi-
I'm Cathy Manduca. Renee what town is Snow in? Great name for a school in the mtns! I'm a petrologist by training, but I spend all of my time now helping faculty be better teachers, building strong geoscience departments, managing the NAGT office, and working on understanding faculty and student learning. Mostly I do that by directing SERC which is full of really wonderful people who do magnificent work. So while not what I anticipated doing with my petrology degree, I like it a lot.

My experience with Service Learning is 0 (other than reading the module :)). That said, I have some experience working with our county on geologic issues and some experience working with the local nature centers.

And I have a lot of experience helping faculty get their teaching activities described and on line- so I can help with that aspect of this workshop.

Looking forward to learning from all of you.

Hello I am Federica Raia. Sorry, I could not be in this morning (I was teaching). I am very excited to be participating in this workshop and, I see I am in great company!!!
I am faculty at the City College of New York and City University of New York (NY City). I have a great fascination with complex dynamic systems in my original field petrology and in on how people learn Complex Systems. One of the applications: Understanding Complex Systems in the Environment We Live in
With colleagues from economics I am working on very exciting interdisciplinary projects to 1) Understand the effect of the Green Roofs on local climate 2) Develop environmentally-conscious scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs of the future –including designing courses with a service learning component 3) engage local community residents and stakeholders by creating jobs and wealth in the sustainable production industry. The course I am teaching now is Environmental Soil Science for Urban Sustainability. Soil science will be integrated in the study of urban agriculture and green roofs. The course has a Service Learning Component

Hello-
I am Linda Ruiz McCall from Austin, Texas. I am a geologist, MBA and I have a MA in Secondary Science Education from Teachers College of Columbia. Currently, I work for the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), a state agency in Texas charged with planning the future water supply looking out 50 years into the future for the people, economy and the environment of Texas. Our agency is involved in education and outreach to help build an understanding about water resources and water stewardship. We are currently working on a new web-based high school curriculum that we hope to release for field testing this summer. Dr. Katherine Ellins from the University of Texas Institute of Geophysics is our primary investigator and the contact that told us (Bridget Cameron and I) about this wonderful opportunity to further develop our service learning componets of our high school program. We hope to us service learning as a means of raising community awareness about the challenges we are facing for our future water supply.

Hi-
I am Mary Cosgrove from The College of St. Rose in Albany, New York. I am a biologist who is teaching with Stephanie Maes in the Fundamentals of Science II course that we offer to pre-service teachers. We have had service learning in our course for 5 years but we still have to refine the experience and the assessment. It is exciting for me to see so many science faculty interested in service learning. I am looking forward to sharing ideas about our projects and learning about other projects.

Pamela Gore here, at Georgia Perimeter College in suburban Atlanta. We are a multi-campus two-year institution serving about 24,000 students, and we are part of the University System of Georgia.

I am a geologist, and also serve as STEM Coordinator for the college. In addition to teaching geology, I teach Integrated Science to Early Childhood Education majors - both Life/Earth Science, and Physical Science. I have taught geology online for 12 years.

I developed my first service learning projects for the Integrated Science courses. I will soon be inducted as a Member of the GPC Civic Engagement and Service-Learning Faculty Academy.