Meet the Team

Myra Keep

University of Western Australia

myra.keep@uwa.edu.au

My current teaching role

Teaching structural geology and tectonics from First Year to Level 5 Masters, includes field geology, structural geology as seen in various environments from granulites to seismic data. Also heavily involved in outreach in a number of programs, lead teacher training and development programs for Teaching Outdoors. Am also a Senior Fellow in the Higher Education Academy

Areas of special interest/expertise

Structural Geology, Geophysics, Fieldwork, Outreach (general public), Outreach (primary and secondary schools), First year geoscience teaching, industry skills, work-integrated-learning, SoTL, 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?

I'm not sure anyone ever gave me any specifically ! But I did have the pleasure of watching my PhD supervisor, Vicki Hansen, in action, and wanting to be like her!

What do you enjoy most about your teaching role?

These breakthrough moments, where someone gets it

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

Passion is contagious, use it liberally!

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

Social media echo chambers - so many people now believe that geoscience as a whole is "bad" and are not open to any other opinion on the matter

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

All of the above!

See all the AUGEN TEAM profiles online https://www.augenteam.net/team-profiles

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

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. We still need to know about subject offerings at:

Monash University, Federation University, University of Adelaide, University of Western Australia, Curtin University, University of Tasmania, University of Sydney, QUT, University of Queensland - PLEASE HELP US OUT!

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

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 and which should have been sent to all Heads of Department in the latter part of 2021.

We will use the data to put together an opinion piece for TAG and other professional societies

Links, reading and resources

Some recommended reading and online resources from the AUGEN TEAM:

• Are you a member of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT)? Or do you regularly check their website for teaching discussions? You should! https://nagt.org/index.html

• Do you teach tectonics or structural geology? A video collection of Sandra’s deformation sandbox experiments is available here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/8554437

• TEQSA - Australia’s higher education regulator - publishes a range of resources that may be helpful in your teaching, check them out: https://www.teqsa.gov.au

• Writing online exams? A short discussion from Peter Kandlbinder (UTS) here: https://lx.uts.edu.au/blog/2020/05/22/how-to-write-online-exam-questions/

NAGT Featured Publication

Student perspectives of the spatial thinking components embedded in a topographic map activity using an augmented-reality sandbox

Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 70, 2022

https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2021.1969862

Elijah T. Johnson and Karen S. McNeal

Spatial thinking skills are crucial for success in any of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) domains, and they are malleable. One approach to support the development of student spatial skills is through the use of innovative technologies, like the augmented reality (AR) sandbox, that can also effectively teach geoscience content in the process. In this study, we aimed to create a student-informed spatial topographic map activity designed to emphasize mental rotation, spatial orientation, and spatial visualization skills using the AR sandbox that incorporated elements such as drawing topographic profiles and recognizing stream flow direction. Furthermore, this study explored the spatial reasoning beliefs and challenges of undergraduate students at a large-enrollment Southeastern US university. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were employed to better understand student performance on and challenges with the topographic map and spatial tasks. Overall, the students found spatial visualization tasks in the activity to be the most challenging, and they were least confident in their spatial visualization skills. However, they believed that their spatial visualization skills were most improved after completing the topographic map activity, and those activities were reported to be the most effective at getting them to think in spatial terms. These results highlight that multi-step mental manipulations required to perform spatial visualization tasks are of great interest to instructors when developing topographic map activities using the AR sandbox. With more investigation, the AR sandbox has the potential to aid in the development of students’ spatial visualization skills while simultaneously teaching geological content.

Through the lens

A selection of beautiful and practical handmade, painted wooden block models made for teaching (University of Melbourne collection) Do you have similar models in your teaching spaces (or museum collections)?

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