Eric Baer

Des Moines

Geology, Geosciences, Physical Science (Geology Program)

Highline Community College

I am an instructor at Highline College who teaches a wide variety of geoscience courses. I am a PI on the SAGE 2YC project to support geoscience and STEM education in two-year colleges and was PI on The Math You Need When You Need It, a project to develop and test online quantitative support modules for introductory geoscience students. I have a particular interest in developing a community of community college faculty to exchange information and ideas about the wide variety of roles that we fill. To that end, I have been involved in several projects that support 2YC faculty attendance and participation at the national meetings of the Geological Society of America. My Ph.D in volcanology is from the University of California Santa Barbara and my Bachelor's degree in Geology is from Carleton College.

Project Leader, Webinar Leader, Workshop Leader, Website Contributor

Project Leader

The Math You Need, When You Need It Math tutorials for students in introductory geosciences part of Math You Need
The Math You Need, When You Need It provides web modules to help students succeed with mathematics in introductory geoscience classes.

Website Content Contributions

Activities (11), Essays (5), Conference Presentations (8), Other Contributions (4)

Activities (11)

Earthquake Shaking and Damage part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
This student homework and problem set has students quantitatively earthquake hazard, shaking and damage.

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Earth's history in 4.56 meters: constructing a timeline with calculator tape part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
An activity where students make a geologic timeline from calculator tape.

Vectors and slope stability part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
An in-class activity or homework for graphically solving slope-stability problems with vectors.

Modeling the interior of the Earth using Seismic Waves part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
Students use a variety of tools to explore the interior of the Earth in this inquiry activity.

Two streams, two stories... How Humans Alter Floods and Streams part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
An activity/lab where students determine the changes in 100-year flood determinations for 2 streams over time.

Shaking Ground - Linking Earthquake Magnitude and Intensity part of Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum:General Collection:Examples
An in-class activity for connecting earthquake magnitude, shaking, and intensity.

Angle of Repose part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
A student activity to determine the angle of repose and what factors determine the angle of repose.

Determining Earthquake Probability and Recurrence from Past Seismic Events part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
A homework/classroom activity where students collect historical earthquake information and use it to forecast the probability of larger earthquakes.

Driving Through Geologic Time - An analogy part of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection
An analogy of the Earth's history to a cross-country drive.

Earthquake Magnitude - Linking Earthquake Magnitude and Intensity part of Geophysics:Workshop 07:Geophysics Activities
An activity that helps students link earthquake magnitude and intensity.

Examining your Earthquake Hazard part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Engineering, Sustainability, and the Geosciences:Activities
An exercise for helping students determine and understand their seismic hazard.

Essays (5)

SAGE Musings: Guided Pathways - A Challenge and an Opportunity For 2YC Geosciences part of SAGE 2YC:SAGE Musings
Guided Pathways is a national initiative/movement that has important implications for two-year college programs such as geoscience where students typically do not "discover" the discipline until they are ...

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SAGE Musings: Student Memberships in Professional Organizations part of SAGE 2YC:SAGE Musings
Membership in a professional society is one way for students to get started on preparing for their careers in the geosciences. Membership in professional organizations can help students develop their identity as ...

SAGE Musings: Student-Centered Syllabi part of SAGE 2YC:SAGE Musings
As we come to a new term, I have been thinking about how to revise my syllabi. This was prompted by an email from a colleague in psychology; she pointed out that research shows that syllabi make a difference in ...

SAGE Musings: Using The Math You Need to Support Quantitative Skills part of SAGE 2YC:SAGE Musings
Do you have students who come to class with no idea of how to do basic conversions? Do you find that your in-class activities are stymied by teaching students the basics of how to calculate a rate? Maybe The Math ...

Using hazards to engage students part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Broadening Access to the Earth and Environmental Sciences:Essays
Eric Baer, Geosciences, Highline Community College Highline Community College is located in the Puget Sound region and therefore our students live with multiple geologic hazards including earthquakes, mass ...

Conference Presentations (8)

Quantitative skills in courses for geoscience majors part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2022:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday Poster Session
Application of quantitative skills in geoscience courses is a source of frustration for many faculty and a significant barrier to students. One response is to remove quantitative content from geoscience courses. ...

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Engaging your faculty colleagues in evidence-based practices using SAGE 2YC resources: Book clubs, journal clubs, and implementation groups part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2020:Program:Oral Sessions:Oral Session II
SAGE 2YC is a national network of 2YC geoscience faculty who use evidence-based strategies to improve students' academic success, broaden participation in STEM, and facilitate students' professional ...

SAGE 2YC Materials for Faculty Professional Development Workshops part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2019:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
Over the course of the SAGE 2YC: Faculty as Change Agents project, the 2YC faculty change agent teams have run annual professional development workshops and events for other faculty in their regional networks. In ...

Synthesizing lessons for creating change in faculty, programs, institutions, and regional networks: SAGE 2YC Faculty as Change Agents part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2019:Program:Oral Sessions:Monday A
The 17 teams of 2YC faculty participating in the SAGE 2YC Faculty as Change Agents project have spent between two and four years working together to transform their teaching, their geoscience programs and ...

SAGE 2YC: Sustaining Faculty Learning part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
In a continuing effort to provide two-year college (2YC) geoscience faculty with the resources they need to be agents of change at their institutions and in their regions, the Supporting and Advancing Geoscience ...

SAGE 2YC: Two-Year College Geoscience Faculty as Change Agents part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Poster Sessions:Thursday
The SAGE 2YC project is building a national network of self-sustaining local communities of two-year college (2YC) faculty, including adjunct instructors, from a broad range of geoscience fields including geology, ...

Exploring the many ways that instructors use TMYN part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
We explore the many ways that The Math You Need, When You Need It (TMYN) is used both formally and informally to support quantitative skills use and development in the geosciences. TMYN was originally designed as a ...

A Program Model for Engaging a Community: Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education in Two-year Colleges part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
Supporting and Advancing Geoscience Education in Two-year Colleges (SAGE 2YC) is a multi-year national professional development program for geoscience faculty in two-year colleges (2YCs) that enabled broad and ...

Other Contributions (4)

Successful Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Geoscience Majors part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Panel Discussions
With an aging geoscience workforce, employment opportunities in the geosciences remain robust, creating a demand for workers prepared as undergraduate majors in the geosciences. At the same time, participation of ...

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Physical Geology and Quantitative Geology at Highline Community College part of Math You Need:Implementations
Instuctor: Eric Baer, Carla Whittington, Matthew von der Ahe, and Mike Valentine Enrollment: 3-20 Challenges to using math in introductory geoscience As the most diverse community college in Washington State and ...