EOS 119:  Experiencing Geoscience

In 2003, I joined a number of my peers in the Duke Division of EOS to construct and teach - without any faculty oversight - an undergraduate research course.  Our objective was to introduce undergraduate EOS and Environment majors to research methods that they would likely encounter in either graduate school or geoscience-based jobs.   In addition to giving undergraduates a valuable research experience, the course provided graduate students the opportunity to teach a course from the ground up:  from curriculum development through final evaluation. 

The most recent edition of "Experiencing Geoscience" (Spring 2006) was broken into 3 separate modules corresponding to the focus areas of EOS:  Climate/Ocean Studies, Surface/Geomorphic Processes, and Structural Geology/Seismology.  All three perspectives were focused on addressing management problems and challenges at a single field site:  The Falls Lake Dam and Reservoir in the Neuse River Basin, North Carolina.

I assembled and taught the Surface/Geomorphic Processes section, which relied
heavily on GIS applications (skills not ordinarily offered to undergraduates at Duke).  Below are documents from my 4-week module:

Full Course Syllabus
Surface/Geomorphic Processes Module Description
Falls Lake GIS Tutorial 1
Falls Lake GIS Tutorial 2
Falls Lake GIS Tutorial 2_Feedback
Falls Lake GIS Tutorial 3
Falls Lake GIS Tutorial 3_Feedback
Final Paper Guidelines