AUGEN NEWS - September 2022
From the President
Our inaugural first-year geoscience teaching discussion even is coming up very soon! Join us online on Friday 7 October. The session will include short presentations from subject co-ordinators of first year subjects at a range of our universities in our region. Those presentations will be followed by a general discussion session. See below for more details, all welcome. Note that pre-registration is required.
Are you interested in getting more involved in AUGEN? Key roles and some general committee vacancies are coming up and we would welcome new people to join. Send us an email!
And don’t forget to complete an AUGEN TEAM member profile to be included on our website and in a future newsletter https://forms.gle/kPk5YQwFDXh4S8vD8
Best, Sandra
A/Prof Sandra McLaren, School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University of Melbourne
📣 First year teaching discussion 📣
Friday 7 October
10-12 pm WA
11:30-1:30 NT
12 - 2 pm Qld/PNG
12:30-2:30 pm SA
1-3 pm Vic/NSW/ACT/Tas
2-4 pm Fiji
3-5 pm NZ
The event will begin with a number of current first-year geoscience co-ordinators each giving short (5-10 minute) presentations on teaching at their respective universities. These presentations will then be followed by general discussion on the key points around recruitment of first-year students, retention of first-year students, and pedagogy in first-year teaching.
Following the discussion we aim to produce a short document that (1) summarises the current ‘state of play’ in first year teaching and (2) highlights some aspects of best practice in first year teaching.
** Registration is required to join this event ** https://unimelb.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtceivrDopH9DhqwjzYNlijF63mrLNCDjA
🗓 SAVE THE DATE 🗓
Friday 10 February - AUGEN TEAM Annual conference (virtual event)
In our October newsletter the call will go out for abstracts/EOIs for presentations at our annual conference! Please think about topics you would like to discuss and/or a presentation you would like to make. Did you approach an aspect of your teaching differently in 2021? Did you have some successes you would like to share? Did you have some failures you’d like to share? Do you have some questions to put to the team? We want you!
AUGEN Conversations
We had an interesting discussion session in mid-September on the topic of student motivation (and perseverance) led by team member Dom Wolff-Boenisch from Curtin. A recording of the presentation and the slides are available from the Conversations page of our website
Our next Conversations event will be held on 16 November - save the date!
For further queries, or to suggest a topic for Conversation, contact Dom
Indigenous Knowledge in teaching
The inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge in geoscience teaching is currently a topic of discussion within the AUGEN committee and an area of practice we would like to develop more broadly across the network. Stay tuned for a discussion event on this topic. Meanwhile, consider attending the GSA Neo event below, which promises to be an excellent and thought-provoking introduction to this important aspect of our earth science
11 October 2022 – GSA Neo Earth Science Week Connection to Country: towards sustainable Earth Science
Details: This online event will include a presentation and panel discussions that will include First Nations Australians speaking about connection to country and what it means to them. There will also be a workshop sharing how to develop a personalised Acknowledgement to Country. GSA NEO Earth Science Week will be held in partnership with the Geoscience Indigenous Collaboration and Engagement (GICE) Specialist Group and sponsored by Geoscience Australia
12:00pm - 3:00pm AEDT (ACT, NSW, Tas, Vic)
11:00am - 2:00pm AEST (Qld)
11:30am - 2:30pm ACDT (SA)
10:30am - 1:30pm ACST (NT)
9:00am - 12:00pm AWST (WA)
Cost: FREE for Geological Society of Australia members and Geoscience Australia employees. $10 for non-members
Registration: Click here
Upcoming Seminars and Events
HERDSA Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Webinar
Thursday 13th October 2022
The aim of the webinar is to introduce participants to the valuable HERDSA Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) online learning modules. The modules introduce new scholars to the role and value of SoTL in an academic’s professional learning plan and remind experienced scholars of the process of designing and implementing a SoTL project. In the webinar, participants will be briefly guided through an overview of each of the five modules and discuss the breadth of approaches to engaging with the modules as individuals, communities of practice, and as part of formal learning and teaching accreditation programs. The modules can be accessed individually by HERDSA members, and an institutional license is available for purchase.
Presented by Associate Professor Deb Clarke, Lead author, HERDSA SoTL modules
Further information: https://www.herdsa.org.au/herdsa-webinar-series
Opportunity!
Become an Associate Editor of the Journal of Geoscience Education!
Do you enjoy reviewing manuscripts and providing constructive feedback to authors? Are you interested in engaging more deeply in the review process? Would you like to be more involved in the geoscience education community? If so, you might be interested in serving as an Associate Editor. Applications by October 1 (write fast!)
In the literature
LaDue, N. D., McNeal, P. M., Ryker, K., St. John, K., & van der Hoeven Kraft, K. J. (2021). Using an engagement lens to model active learning in the geosciences. Journal of Geoscience Education, 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2021.1913715
Active learning research emerged from the undergraduate STEM education communities of practice, some of whom identify as discipline-based education researchers (DBER). Consequently, current frameworks of active learning are largely inductive and based on emergent patterns observed in undergraduate teaching and learning. Alternatively, classic learning theories historically originate from the educational psychology community, which often takes a theory-driven, or deductive research approach. The broader transdisciplinary education research community is now struggling to reconcile the two. That is, how is a theory of active learning distinct from other theories of knowledge construction? We discuss the underpinnings of active learning in the geosciences, drawing upon extant literature from the educational psychology community on engagement. Based on Sinatra et al. engagement framework, we propose a model for active learning in the geosciences with four dimensions: behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic. We then connect existing literature from the geoscience education community to the model to demonstrate the current gaps in our literature base and opportunities to move the active learning geoscience education research (GER) forward. We propose the following recommendations for future investigation of active learning in the geosciences: (1) connect future GER to our model of active learning in the geosciences, (2) measure more than content learning, (3) document research methods and outcomes with effect sizes to accumulate evidence, and (4) prioritize research on dimensions of active learning essential to the geosciences.
"Every Rock Has A Story" Season 3!
"Every Rock Has A Story" is a growing collection of YouTube videos for kids designed to inspire wonder, curiosity, and engagement in the geosciences. Hosted by Earth & Environmental Sciences Prof. Ethan Baxter of Boston College, each 5-10 minute episode features a different rock and the story it holds inside. The storytelling approach is critical in engaging a diverse array of children by bringing to life myriad topics spanning climate change, natural hazards, natural resources, tectonics, Earth history, history of life, and even outer space Check out Season Three on Youtube!
Earth Science Week, 9-15 October 2022
The happiest week of the year for earth scientists is coming very soon!
In 2022, ESW will celebrate the theme "Earth Science for a Sustainable World" emphasizing the essential role of Earth science in helping people make decisions that maintain and strengthen the planet's ability to support thriving life
Geoscience Australia have released their program of events - check the website here
And check out the official earthscienceweek.org website here
Meet the Team
Melanie Finch
James Cook University
melanie.finch@jcu.edu.au
My current teaching role
First year geoscience and third year structural geology
Areas of special interest/expertise
Structural Geology, First-year geoscience teaching
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 learnt a lot about teaching from my own first year undergrad teacher, Marion Anderson. Her pracs were fun and interesting, with a focus on problem solving rather than rote learning rocks and minerals. I now use the same approach with my students. Also, someone recently told me that when I'm making decisions about pedagogy I should focus on how students learn best rather than how I can be the best possible teacher. Oddly enough, that does change the way I approach coordination of my subjects
What do you enjoy most about your teaching role?
My first year students begin my subject seeing the world as an ordinary person does, and they leave my subject seeing the world like a geologist does. It feels like I'm giving them a superpower
What advice would you give someone starting out in geoscience teaching?
Give yourself the time and space to make the teaching content as you want it to be. In a couple of years you will be able to deliver a lecture with only a brief look at the slides 10 minutes beforehand, but that is not the case when you're starting out and you shouldn't feel guilty about taking the time to get it right for the first few years
What is the greatest challenge to increasing the reach of geoscience education?
Geoscience is not in the public eye as much as chemistry, maths and physics. Where is the geoscience equivalent of 'Breaking Bad', 'the Big Bang theory' or 'Numb3rs'?! We need a PR campaign to let the world know how incredibly diverse and interesting the study of Earth processes can be. Or we could just get geoscience into all Australian high schools, ideally as a subject taught at every year level, just like chemistry and physics. That would probably work too
Which wins for you? Rock, mineral, fossil, structure?
Rock!
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!
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