About Us

Initial Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Kim Kastens is a Doherty Senior Research Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory ( This site may be offline. ) of Columbia University. Her training and early career were in marine geology, but in recent years she has turned her professional efforts towards enhancing public understanding of the Earth and environment, by working with teachers, journalists, instructional technology and research on learning. Her current research focus is spatial thinking in geosciences.

Read Kim's "By Way of Introduction" post.


Cathy Manduca, is the director of the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College and the Executive Director of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. Her blog posts draw from her experiences working to improve teaching and learning at the undergraduate level, particularly in the geosciences, and from research on geoscience expertise and faculty learning.

Read Cathy's "By Way of Introduction" post.


What's this guy running to (or from?) Dave Mogk is a Professor of Geology at Montana State University. By training, he is a metamorphic petrologist with research interests in Precambrian evolution of continental crust, deep-seated petrogenetic processes, spectroscopic analysis of mineral surfaces, and recently, life in extreme environments. He has worked for the past 15 years to help build the geosciences education community, with particular interests in Earth system science, use of information technologies to support geoscience education, integration of research and education, and research on learning in the geosciences.

Read Dave's "How I got Here" posts: Part I, Part II, Part III