jmdelvecchio.github.io

Teaching and research mentoring

Table of contents:

EARS33

For Spring 2022, I wanted to modify the existing Surface Processes course to incorporate the skills necessary for students to succeed in the modern, data-driven geosciences. My course learning goals were:

  1. List mechanisms of physical and chemical weathering; describe examples of weathering-induced landforms at small and large scales.
  2. Give examples of diffusive versus advective processes and how they affect hillslope morphology.
  3. Explain why understanding channels and their behavior is fundamental to geomorphology.
  4. Identify features, landforms, and deposits associated with different geomorphic processes (e.g., glacial, periglacial, aeolian, volcanic, tectonic, fluvial)
  5. Practice extracting key takeaways and outstanding knowledge gaps from scientific journal articles, and communicating those concepts in written and oral form to a nonspecialized audience
  6. Practice acquiring, analyzing and plotting landscape data from computer models and databases

(Bold objectives new to Spring 2022)

Before the start of class, I asked my students to rank their agreement with the following statements (1 being strongly disagree, 5 being strongly agree), which aligned with one or more learning objective. At the end of the course, I asked the students to perform the same self-assessment. The class averages before and after the course are (ranked by largest change):

Question Pre-course Post-course
I am comfortable working with geospatial datasets in mapping software like ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth, etc. 2.5 4.3
I am comfortable using formulas on Microsoft Excel 3.7 5.0
I am comfortable generating data with code (MATLAB, Python, R, etc.) 2.5 3.8
I am comfortable manipulating data with code (MATLAB, Python, R, etc.) 2.5 3.7
I am comfortable locating and downloading tabular environmental data (time series, point measurements) from government or research institutions 2.9 4.1
I am comfortable organizing and analyzing data on Microsoft Excel 3.9 4.9
I am comfortable locating and downloading remotely sensed imagery or spectral data from government or research institutions 2.9 3.9
I am comfortable thinking about how theoretical physical relationships (stress/strain, fluid flow, force balances) can describe processes at Earth’s surface 3.3 4.1
I am comfortable locating and downloading scientific journal articles about a topic I’m interested in 4.4 4.9
I am comfortable communicating technical science information to nontechnical audiences orally or in a multimedia presentation 4.1 4.6
I am comfortable communicating technical science information to nontechnical audiences in writing 4.2 4.5
If needed, I can apply the skills I’ve learned in my coursework to a job outside of academia after graduation 4.2 4.5
I am comfortable extracting key points from scientific journal articles 4.5 4.6
I am comfortable communicating why my field of study is broadly important to society 4.5 4.6
I am comfortable translating a word problem describing the natural world into an appropriate algebraic expression 3.9 3.9
Course average 3.6 4.4

WISP

Undergraduate researchers

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