Thanks Jackie, thanks Ed!

We thank two dedicated and enthusiastic AUGEN TEAM committee members as they step down from their committee roles in February

• Dr Jackie Dohaney is leaving Australia to take up an ongoing academic position at the University of Edinburgh. Jackie has engaged with AUGEN since her arrival in Australia from New Zealand (where she completed her PhD in Geoscience Education Research at the University of Canterbury) and quickly became a valued and key member of the team. Although we’ll miss Jackie’s contributions, we’re all super excited for her next career step and wish her all the very best! Jackie has generously offered to keep in touch with the team and help support us as we start some geoscience research projects over the coming months. Thanks Jackie!

• Dr Ed Saunders is stepping down from his committee role after enthusiastic service since the formalisation of AUGEN in late 2020, and after having been a long-time participant and supporter of AUGEN more generally (having presented at many AUGEN annual meetings and freely shared his experiences and advice on teaching with members) He’s also been a great advocate for our regional universities and for supporting students from a broad range of backgrounds and experience. We’ll miss his many contributions to the team but wish him the very best in his next role. Thanks Ed!

AUGEN Conversations

Given many members were on well-deserved leave, we decided to hold over the scheduled December AUGEN Conversation until 14 March 2022. The date has been updated on the Conversations page of our website, where you can also check out previous sessions.

“Care to find out why a T&L study got cited close to 9000 times?”

The Conversation will discuss concepts explored in another classic paper ”Learning and Teaching Styles In Engineering Education” Felder, & Silverman, Engineering Education, 78(7), p. 674–681 (1988) Read the paper here (Note that it’s not necessary to do any pre-reading, Dom will lead us through the key concepts in the paper on the day)

Here is the link to join via CollabUltra - you don’t need to pre-register just click the link on the day!

10 AM WA

(11:30 am NT — 12 noon Queensland, PNG — 12:30 pm SA — 1 pm NSW, Vic, Tas, ACT — 2 pm Fiji — 3 pm NZ)

Meet the Team

Dominique Tanner

University of Wollongong

dtanner@uow.edu.au

My current teaching role

Senior Lecturer

Areas of special interest/expertise

Petrography, Geochemistry, Field work, Assessment, Outreach (general public), Outreach (primary and secondary schools), First year geoscience teaching, Industry skills, Work-integrated learning, SoTL (scholarship of Teaching and Learning), Geoscience Education Research

Feel free to get in touch if you have questions on these topics!

What’s the best teaching advice anyone has ever given you?

That students are the greatest legacy of any academic

What do you enjoy most about your teaching role?

I really enjoy the autonomy that university teaching provides. The freedom to create and redesign how you present skills, assessments and content in a subject always gives you the opportunity to experiment and learn interesting new things

What advice would you give someone starting out in geoscience teaching?

Be careful how much you take on when you are starting out, because teaching can absorb an infinite amount of time (and this is even more true for designing online learning experiences)

What is the greatest challenge to increasing the reach of geoscience education?

I think that as a community we have to help overturn the public's perception that geoscience education solely leads to careers in resource extraction. As geoscientists, we know that developing a strong foundation in understanding the processes which shape our planet provides scope for a diverse array of career pathways. From my experience with public outreach, I've noticed that by high school, many students have already developed a negative attitude and narrow view towards geoscience career pathways. More research is needed to address why these negative attitudes are widespread: are they inherited from their families' opinions, from stereotypes portrayed in movies, online, or in the media, or their first-hand experience with - or perhaps lack of exposure to - geoscience in school curricula

Which wins for you? Rock, mineral, fossil, structure?

Mineral!

See all the AUGEN TEAM profiles online

https://www.augenteam.net/contact

WE NEED YOU! Complete the form at https://forms.gle/kPk5YQwFDXh4S8vD8 to be profiled on our website and in an upcoming newsletter!

REMINDER: Who teaches what, and where?

Help the TEAM understand the current geoscience education landscape at different universities across the region.

We have set up a google spreadsheet and would like you to check and add/edit/complete the details for the Institution where you teach:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EMe3x0EhLFuNnqoNXGw4gg2c8KZlZkc8ddMyuBvy88k/edit?usp=sharing

The sheet will be open and available for editing until 4 February 2022 - when we will discuss the results at the AUGEN TEAM meeting online . Note the level of detail we are seeking here is greater (and different) from the AGC ‘State of the Departments’ survey that is currently underway

Special COVID-19 special issue of The Journal of Geoscience Education

The Journal of Geoscience Education is soliciting manuscripts for a Special Issue (5 August 2022 submission deadline) on the impact of COVID-19 on geoscience education. Please consider submitting a manuscript.

https://bit.ly/Geoscience_Education

The Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis on Geoscience Education: Insights, Problems, and Unanticipated Benefits

The COVID-19 crisis is a major event likely to result in lasting changes to geoscience teaching, outreach, and administration. For geoscience education researchers who were collecting data or began collecting data when the crisis began, the crisis provided the opportunity to observe the impact of a major event on behavior in the educational environment. Much of what happened during the 2020-2022 phase of the crisis involved the abrupt movement of many education and outreach endeavors onto virtual platforms. Has this shift impacted student learning outcomes, including opening or closing learning gaps? In what ways have faculty and students changed their use of digital technologies, and which of these changes are likely to be permanent? Have departments/programs created structural changes that are likely to persist, and what impact will these changes have on the long-term health of the programs, especially in the context of equity and inclusion? We welcome submissions from educators and education researchers whose projects overlap with the COVID-19 crisis or who began new projects in response to the crisis.

Submission of research papers, curriculum and instruction papers, and commentaries is welcomed.

Through the lens

It’s been a warm summer and with COVID-19 in wide circulation, socially-distanced time on the rocks has been a good way to recharge with some fresh air and exercise. Here are views of the rocks, some modern sedimentary processes in action, and some near-tropical vistas from Cape Liptrap, SE of Melbourne (Sandra McLaren, January 2022)

WE NEED YOU! Do you have some geoscience photos to share? Email them to sandra.mclaren@unimelb.edu.au to be featured on our website and in an upcoming newsletter!

Contributions to AUGEN News are welcome! Please send your updates, commentaries, book or journal article reviews, photos and ideas through to the team - sandra.mclaren@unimelb.edu.au