This year the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Education Committee has awarded five grants to fund the preparation of higher education (university-level) geoscience teaching materials. These Higher Education teaching grants, can be proposed on any geoscience topic, including laboratory or fieldwork and the successful winners have covered a range of disciplines.

The 2021 grant winners are:

CubeSats for Earth Observation Experience – Lev Horodyskyl, University of Virgin Islands, USA/ University of Lviv, Ukraine

This course will be a capstone for students interested in Earth observation through the use of Cubesats, including students from several disciplines, such as engineering, geoscience, astronomy, and social science. This course will provide training for engineering and science students and network students from around the world to conceptualize, propose, and potentially fund, build, and run a genuine Earth observation mission.

Introduction Seminar to Atmospheric Research (ISARE) – Lisa Küchelbacher, University of Augsburg, Germany

Time series are fundamental for the investigation of scientific relationships in geosciences. This course offers the opportunity to work through self-contained projects in atmospheric sciences with hands-on experience in the application of three different time series analysis methods. The groups are designed like small research projects (literature research, data analysis, presentation of results). Students will get first experience in programming with easy-to-apply but advanced analysis tools and in a critical discussion of their results.

Food choices and the environment – an introduction to modelling food production systems –
Joseph Oyesiku-Blakemore, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

This teaching package will lead students to explore the question: How do food choices impact the environment? The package is based around the creation of a series of activities/exercises, which will enable students to explore the environmental impacts of dietary choices. The package builds on some initial work using the Cool Farm Tool (CFT) as an educational aid. The Cool Farm Tool is an online tool, which can be freely used for research purposes and is easy to use; it can be applied to simulate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water footprints and biodiversity impacts of agriculture. It’s widely used in industry and research and will give students hands on experience performing analyses which are applicable.

Making magma in the microwave – Fabian Wadsworth, University of Durham, England

Magma is a multiphase fluid in which bubbles and crystals grow dynamically. Without specialist
equipment, this dynamism is not easy to convey in a teaching laboratory setting. The result is that
students of the geosciences do not always get experiential exposure to the timescales and materiality of magmatic processes; instead they are asked to take abstract imaginative steps in connecting observed petrographic textures in rocks with a complex sequence of physical processes that occur in nature. Here, we aim to explore a pedagogic method for creating magma in the laboratory using low-cost, readily available tools such as a microwave. The over-arching aim is to find ways to build-in the dynamism associated with teaching magmatic processes at university and schools, providing a method by which students can see and experience the changes in magmas in real-time, cementing the more conceptual learning that is the mainstay of petrology and volcanology classes.

Capturing, processing and annotating 3D models and 360° videos to enhance geoscience teaching – Josh Wolstenholme, University of Hull, England

The course will teach attendees how to create 3D models and best practices for 360° videos for effective communication and further evaluation of their work. Most geoscientists partake in fieldwork and physical modelling during their career, providing tools to capture processes and data will help communicate their work, not only within their studies, but also to the wider academic community, industry partners and the public.

For more information about the EGU Higher Education grants or if you have questions, please contact: uni-education@egu.eu.

• EGU support for higher education geoscience teaching