Teaching Geoscience in a Changing World

Aside from astronomy, all natural sciences directly or indirectly deal with Earth, but one science that specifically studies Earth as a planetary system is geoscience or earth science. Geoscience encompasses a vast field, including geology, geochemistry, geophysics, oceanography and meteorology. Geoscience is an important science to society and should be a fundamental part of public and school education. For the developing countries endowed with natural resources as well as facing environmental challenges, natural hazards and resource mismanagement, geoscience education and research should be regarded as a high priority and vital to national security. Obviously the quality of geoscience education impacts research and development in the field. In a recent editorial in the pages of this journal, Dilip Saha1 commented on how education also plays an important role in the employment of college graduates majoring in geoscience. Building upon his note, here I share some tips and suggestions for teaching geoscience courses. My emphasis here is on undergraduate courses, although many of the points highlighted below are also helpful for postgraduate courses in geoscience. The following notes stem from my years of teaching geoscience courses both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Nevertheless, this note does not claim to be inclusive of all principles and practices in geoscience education.