TRANSFORMING A TRADITIONAL GEOMORPHOLOGY COURSE TO AN ACTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR UPPER LEVEL GEOSCIENCE STUDENTS

After teaching Geomorphology in the traditional lecture/laboratory format at multiple universities, I was frustrated by the students’ lack of knowledge synthesis. While most could summarize a key concept or identify a landform, they often failed to link the laboratory assignments to the lecture material or other course work. In the Department of Geosciences at Auburn University this course is taught with undergraduate and graduate students together and it is the only course with a laboratory that attracts students from both the Geology and Geography degree programs. This diversity of student experience adds a greater degree of complexity to planning the course curriculum. In order to improve student learning as well as teach them about the process of science, I redesigned the course into a project-based format integrating the lecture and laboratory components for Spring 2016. During the semester we covered four units – Weathering, Rivers, Tectonics, and Glaciers, which included assigned readings, class discussions, peer teaching, and an experiment or project. Students were placed in groups that reflected the range of knowledge and experience levels in the class. The primary assessments of student learning included in-class participation grades, project reports, and a final project presentation. Graduate level students were also expected to give “micro-teaching” lectures on a topic relevant to the class such as karst landforms or age dating the landscape. The challenges to teaching this course ranged from the logistics of working within the university class schedule (i.e. 50 or 75 minute classes) and finding an appropriate classroom to figuring out appropriate learning assessment mechanisms for the students. I will share examples of what worked and what didn’t during the first iteration of the redesign as well as how I see the course evolving over the next few years.