Incorporating computational skills into undergraduate Geoscience courses
Jill Pearse, Earth Science, California State University-Long BeachGeoscience is unusual in the STEM disciplines in that it applies all the basic sciences in an interdisciplinary way, and there is no consensus on what must be included as core content in a university program. Most graduate Geoscience programs admit students from a wide range of STEM undergrad degrees who then work on projects that are suited to their skill set, whether it be geology or biology, chemistry, physics, or engineering, which makes it difficult to define a set of standard required graduate-level geology courses for all students. Undergraduate Geoscience programs may be focused on Geology, Earth System Science, Geophysics, Oceanography, or Environmental Geoscience, and the course offerings and required basic science preparation may have little overlap with those of other similar programs. Many Geoscience undergraduate programs have no required computational courses, perhaps in part because there is a concern that it will scare off students who see Geology as a more qualitative STEM field.
Most of my teaching experience was in a program in Colombia with a strong Geophysics focus, and students were required to get to the level of Vector Calculus and Differential Equations and take three computational methods courses. They had very high success rates in obtaining jobs close to their field, because graduates with that combination of geology and computational skills are hard to find, and employers are increasingly seeking out graduates with that skill combination to analyze large field and satellite datasets. However, requiring Geology students to be proficient programmers is still controversial: when I ask students in my large introductory elective why they chose to take a geology course, the most common answer is that it seemed like the "easiest" option - i.e. it is not seen as quantitative or rigorous. Many Geology majors express something similar - for example, that they like science but are afraid of math and computers, so Geology seemed like a way to study science without having to take too many math, physics or computation courses.
So while there is a general consensus now that Geology programs need to be updated to include more computational skills, there is also a worry that in a field that has already suffered a sharp decline in enrollment over the past few years, requiring all students to take computational courses may cause those numbers to decline even further. During my 4 years as Geoscience Department chair in Los Andes University in Colombia, I faced mounting pressure from the university administration to lighten up on the quantitative requirements of the program in order to attract more students. Many students did express frustration - some of them asked me outright, "why am I taking all these physics and computational courses? I thought I'd signed up for Geology!", but most of them, when they arrived at their upper-division Geophysics courses, were grateful for those skills - and even more so when they graduated.
I am now teaching in a program in which no computation courses are required, so the challenge is how to help students acquire these necessary skills without having a required computational methods course (and knowing that few students would be likely to choose a course called "computational methods" as an elective). I believe the answer is to normalize the use of computation by introducing it early in the program within their core courses, so that they perceive it as part of the standard Geology toolkit rather than as an intimidating hurdle to overcome. Students too often see quantitative and computational skills as something they need to have a special talent to acquire, and unfortunately, many arrive at University already convinced that they are "bad with computers" (and math, and physics). Including some level of computer use from the start and developing their skills gradually over the course of their degree would help them build confidence and open up a wider range of employment opportunities for them.
In my previous position, it was easy to include computational activities and assignments in my courses because the students arrived with those skills already in place, and all I needed to do was prompt them to apply those to specific geological problems; so I have no experience in teaching computation specifically, and now that I am teaching students who in some cases have no prior computational experience, I've had to change my strategy. I have found that giving them tasks that are too open-ended can result in frustration and even panic, or too much reliance on peers who have had more computational experience. I am currently working on a series of Geophysics labs that will hopefully build up students' proficiency and confidence in the use of computational tools in a non-intimidating way.