Teaching

AFTER MY 1979 CAREER SHIFT  from being a geologist to being a professor, my life’s work has mainly been to help my students become more effective planetary citizens.  That’s forty six years and counting of courses, field trips, seminars, workshops, writing course texts, and supervising online courses.   Teaching is, without doubt, my most satisfying modality for sharing the knowledge and skills I have acquired with the help and mentorship of others. This has been the case since earning my B.S. degree in Earth Science Teaching in 1973, and a state certification as a secondary school science teacher.  My teaching ranges from first-year Honors Seminars to PhD graduates.

In 2023, the course I developed, maintain, and teach with others, ERTH 1000E – The Human Epoch: Living in the Anthropocene, won the Teaching, Learning, and Student Success Award from UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It is our department’s most highly enrolled course in multiple sections are multiple campuses and in High Schools via the Early College Experience program.

Highlights – Climate Change, Anthropocene, Communication, Dinosaurs, Honors , Graduate .

Department of Earth Sciences – Regular Teaching, Course Archive

Honors Program –  Honors Core, First-year seminars

Graduate Students – Major & Associate Advisor

Early College Experience – Our courses in High Schools

Guest Lecturing – Other Classes

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Photo: Chalkboard in my old office. I took this photo after a student walked in and asked me what the scribbling signified.  I couldn’t remember.  That episode helped me realize that my thinking has always been largely visual and conceptual. The picture of Millard Fillmore provokes students to ask:  “Who’s the geologist?”