Interview a Faculty Member in Your Major
This material was originally created for
On the Cutting Edge: Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
Initial Publication Date: April 10, 2008
John Hogan, University of Missouri-Rolla
Course: Structural Geology
60 to 70 students
Course: Structural Geology
60 to 70 students
Connecting course topics to students' lives is a very effective strategy to motivate their learning.
The Activity
I have students go and interview a faculty member in their respective department as to why Structural Geology is important to their field. In the second class they get into small groups comprised of the same majors and compare answers. They then write on the board the all the reasons why Structural Geology is important to their respective field. The entire class then discusses the answers on the board.
This excercise accomplishes several things:
- Students meet and interview a faculty member (quality time)
- Students write several paragraphs
- Students think about their future and why "required" classes may be useful to them
- Students from different majors realize that they actually share similar interests even though they are in different degree programs
By the way, faculty in other departments let me know just how much they appreaciate this excercise!
