Without a doubt, one of my favorite things about being a graduate student is getting the chance to teach about the geosciences. For some reason, I always think of this quote from the (not-so critically acclaimed) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindelwald movie, "You've never met a monster you couldn't love." (Albeit, I believe this quote was heavily used in the trailer). And I always have thought about this concerning myself with a substitution leading to, "You've never seen a wild place you couldn't love." Another quote that describes my mindset is from Game of Thrones, 'remixed' to be "The World is wide, and full of WONDERS." From the ever hot and humid, mosquito-teeming swamps of the American Southeast, to the "barren" and dry American Southwest, to the awe inspiring peaks of the Rockies and Cascades, I fall in love with almost every natural place I go (give or take Texas). I seem to have a special affinity for "harsh" environments for they are less desirable from civilization, are left untouched, and show the limits that life will do to cling to the Homeric fig tree.
The past year, I got to TA for an Introduction to Earth Science lab, affectionately known as "Rocks for Jocks" as it is a common way for non-STEM students to fulfill a natural science laboratory requirement to graduate. This puts me in the very unique opportunity to be one of the first people to introduce them to the Earth Sciences. There is nothing more satisfying by teaching them about the things happening right out in our backyard, from rivers and groundwater, to sinkholes, why Florida doesn't get earthquakes but Missouri sometimes does, the Cody scarp over past the fairgrounds, what was really happening with the 2019 Denver Bomb Cyclone, and having the student connect with it and get excited.
I tell stories. We talk about volcanic hazards and I tell about what Mt St Helens looks like 39 years later or what a Mt Rainier eruption would mean to Seattle. How can we read the cursive of glaciers? How did we get to the point where we know the Earth is ~4.54 billion years old? What do fossil position in the rock strata mean? How can we look at a picture of a rock wall and understand what erosional, depositional, and tectonic activity has occurred? I tell the story of the Earth, seemingly distant but also stunningly close to not just "today," but the current date. I teach them how to learn about the world. We are but one set of readers of the never ending story that is natural existence.
This semester, I get to undertake a different opportunity by being a TA for the Environmental Capstone class for senior Environmental Science students. I'm excited because I get to teach variety with upper level students now and I wished I could have taken this class which is mostly field trip based. This is going to be a really new experience and I am going to be doing a LOT of learning in this time that I am really excited for. The instructor has a very different approach, favoring very Active Learning, making a very deliberate and conscious effort to take this approach in everything. It is very reminiscent of the snippets that I get from my sister's Master's work in Environmental Education and is really interesting to me.
Here's to a new school year, a new year of learning, and a new year of sharing my love of the natural world with students excited to get out of the classroom (hopefully at least)!
In essence, that was all a large tangent to say that I LOVE THE EARTH and everything it offers. There is nothing more that I love than being able to understand the intricacies and nuances of these places. I am so fortunate to be able to share this understanding with students in their academic journeys.
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| Sedona, AZ |
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| Colfax County, NM |
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| Mt Rainier, WA |
The past year, I got to TA for an Introduction to Earth Science lab, affectionately known as "Rocks for Jocks" as it is a common way for non-STEM students to fulfill a natural science laboratory requirement to graduate. This puts me in the very unique opportunity to be one of the first people to introduce them to the Earth Sciences. There is nothing more satisfying by teaching them about the things happening right out in our backyard, from rivers and groundwater, to sinkholes, why Florida doesn't get earthquakes but Missouri sometimes does, the Cody scarp over past the fairgrounds, what was really happening with the 2019 Denver Bomb Cyclone, and having the student connect with it and get excited.
I tell stories. We talk about volcanic hazards and I tell about what Mt St Helens looks like 39 years later or what a Mt Rainier eruption would mean to Seattle. How can we read the cursive of glaciers? How did we get to the point where we know the Earth is ~4.54 billion years old? What do fossil position in the rock strata mean? How can we look at a picture of a rock wall and understand what erosional, depositional, and tectonic activity has occurred? I tell the story of the Earth, seemingly distant but also stunningly close to not just "today," but the current date. I teach them how to learn about the world. We are but one set of readers of the never ending story that is natural existence.
This semester, I get to undertake a different opportunity by being a TA for the Environmental Capstone class for senior Environmental Science students. I'm excited because I get to teach variety with upper level students now and I wished I could have taken this class which is mostly field trip based. This is going to be a really new experience and I am going to be doing a LOT of learning in this time that I am really excited for. The instructor has a very different approach, favoring very Active Learning, making a very deliberate and conscious effort to take this approach in everything. It is very reminiscent of the snippets that I get from my sister's Master's work in Environmental Education and is really interesting to me.
Here's to a new school year, a new year of learning, and a new year of sharing my love of the natural world with students excited to get out of the classroom (hopefully at least)!
Hi you're the coolest
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