Using Geophysics to Address Societally-relevant, Urban and Environmental Real-world Questions in Introductory-level Geoscience Courses

Thursday 1:30pm-4:00pm Science Village 10

Afternoon Mini Workshop

Conveners

Andrew Parsekian, University of Wyoming

Danielle Sumy, EarthScope

John McDaris, Carleton College

Klaudio Peshtani, Rutgers University-Newark

Sarah Kruse, University of South Florida

Introducing Geophysics for Urban and Near-surface Applications (IGUANA)

Recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce begins with attracting a diverse student population into the geosciences. The IGUaNA project, Introducing Geophysics for Urban and Near-surface Applications, has developed a set of curricular modules that apply magnetics and gravity techniques to societally-relevant, real-world problems. Teaching materials are designed for introductory-level undergraduate courses such as earth science, environmental science, geology, geophysics, physics, engineering, geography, or chemistry. In this mini-workshop, we will review the curricular materials, demonstrate exercises and activities, and provide guidance for how these activities may be incorporated into classrooms.

Goals

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

Explore magnetics and gravity curricular materials aimed at first- and second-year undergraduates
Practice using real-world data problem sets
Form a plan for integrating IGUANA magnetic and gravity curricular materials into their own classes.

Program

Presentation Slides (Acrobat (PDF) 5.6MB Jul20 23)

1:30pm: Welcome and overview of IGUaNA goals and curriculum

Brief overview presentation of the IGUaNA curricular materials (Danielle Sumy)
Introduction to Magnetics & Gravity content of today's mini-workshop (Andy Parsekian)

1:50pm: Navigating the IGUaNA SERC website

Tutorial reviewing how is the site organized and how to find different teaching resources (John McDaris)

2:00pm: Breakout 1 - participants divide into two groups preview magnetics or gravity content

Group 1: Hands-on demo of smartphone app [IGUaNA Magnetics Module, Unit 2, Task 4] (Klaudio Peshtani)
Group 2: Gravity principles and lab exercise using provided data [Unit 1; Unit 3, Part 1] (Sarah Kruse & Andy Parsekian)

2:45pm: Breakout 2 – participant groups switch breakout themes

Group 2: Hands-on demo of smartphone app [IGUaNA Magnetics Module, Unit 2, Task 4] (Klaudio Peshtani)
Group 1: Gravity principles and lab exercise using provided data [Unit 1; Unit 3, Part 1] (Sarah Kruse & Andy Parsekian)

3:30pm: Instructor stories & implementation plan