Geoscience 101, "Our Changing Planet".
I am currently teaching this class as an answer to the four basic questions that reoccur in public discourse concerning geoscience.
1- Is California going to fall off into the ocean?
2- What does "Contaminated Groundwater" mean exactly?
3- Are we really going to run out of oil?
4- Is Climate Change a liberal plot?
The Earth Systems aspect of these questions are a central point to the course. In a metateaching sense have structured the class as such to not only focus the class into material they as citizens need to have to help our society in the future, but also to further develop students understanding of how science works.
Geoscience 190 - "Energy Concepts" (Spring 09)
During the spring semester I will be teaching a modified version of a "Energy and Society" class I've taught several times in the past. The 190 course designation at PLU denotes an "Inquiry Based" course. Considering the hot topic that Energy is, I suspect this course will be really fun.
Geoscience 325 - "Structural Geology" (Spring 09)
This course is a fundamental building block of a professional geologist. It incorporates the spatial thinking, or 'seeing in 3-D', as well as mechanical behavior of the earth that builds the big geology picture for most students. As a dual structural geologist / metamorphic petrologist I bring a lot to this class. This will be fun class to teach.