Co-Author, Historical Geology Lab Manual
Co-Author, Environmental Geology Lab Manual
Commercially published manuals have two major shortcomings for use in our geology laboratory courses. First, they are written so as to be marketable to audiences all over North America. Consequently, these manuals tend to be very general- often emphasizing maps of Appalachian areas to which most of our students cannot easily relate. In addition, many manuals tend to rely on a memorization approach to identification of only a few select rocks, rather than on the fundamental observations that geologists use to distinguish them. Secondly, commercially published manuals tend to be very expensive- almost as expensive as textbooks themselves. Yet lab manuals are designed to be used only once.
As such, the GCC Geology Program instructors have committed to producing in-house manuals customized for rocks, minerals and fossils in our collections, and coordinated with exercises in our courses. I am the primary editor and author of the Historical Geology lab manual which incorporates resources produced for the GLG103 lab manual and other exercises produced as part of the SyRIS project listed below. I am also the primary editor for the Environmental Geology lab manual, working with the structure originally produced by Karrie Wood before her retirement.
Review of GLG101 Text Chapters
I assisted with the review of several chapters for multiple GLG101 textbooks that are currently in publication. I feel this is an important part of continuing to peer review the material being taught by the textbooks we use with our students.
SyRIS - Systemic Reform in Science
In 2002, I was part of a team of science instructors from several disciplines (Geology, Biology & Chemistry). We developed worksheets and labs for use across the disciplines while utilizing the various expertise of the project participants. Some of the resulting work continues to be used in the Historical Geology lab manual and as exercises within the course. I am extremely grateful for the work done during this program.
From 1998 - 2002, I served as a faculty representative/consultant to the ACEPT program (an NSF sponsored project administrated through Arizona State University). The ACEPT program's focus is to examine and perhaps re-define the curriculum of introductory college level science courses to make them less intimidating and more relevant, more hands-on, and more problem-solving oriented to future K-12 teachers. The intent of the project is to develop new teaching styles that these future educators may integrate into their classes .