Teaching

Megan's classes:

GEOL 200 Earth's Fury

This General Education class is all about the science behind earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. We also learn about the societal impact of these events and efforts to build resilience to natural hazards. 

GEOL 322 Mineralogy

In this class, students learn to identify a wide range of minerals in hand sample. We discuss the formation conditions of minerals. We learn how the structure of minerals relates to crystallographic constraints and the nature of chemical bonding, and how minerals are classified based on their structure and composition. We also take a field trip to the Smithsonian to check out their fabulous mineral displays, including the famous Hope Diamond.

GEOL 789A Current topics in Volcanology

In this class, we learn about magma generation, storage, ascent and eruption. We discuss recent advances in volcanology research. Students adopt a volcano for the semester - they learn about their volcano's historical and current activity, and they write a proposal to conduct cutting-edge research. This year's students proposed a Mars analog study, muographic monitoring, and an InSAR study of a remote Antarctic volcano!

GEOL 789I Recent Advances in Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology

This class is co-taught with Sarah Penniston-Dorland. We learn about thermodynamics and subduction processes. This class includes a field trip to explore the igneous and metamorphic rocks of Maryland, and a final research project.