Increase in take up of Geoscience and Geology Degrees
UCAS says that there was a 13.8 % increase in the take up of Geoscience places this year. read the UCAS press release here.
The GEES (Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences) Subject Centre
The GEES (Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences) Subject Centre is based at the University of Plymouth and it works in collaboration with relevant professional bodies and committees to promote and disseminate good practice in discipline-based learning and teaching at tertiary level.
The GEES Subject Centre is becoming a major UK and international hub in the exchange of knowledge on learning and teaching across the three disciplines. Particular emphasis is given to the ways of enhancing the quality of the students' learning experience. This includes: promoting subject-based and key skills as the foundation for life-long learning; encouraging the pedagogical use of C&IT, and providing guidance for the professional development of teaching and support staff.
In addition, the Centre provides opportunities for the professional development of teaching and support staff through a wide-ranging series of workshops and annual conferences run throughout the UK. For further information contact:
The GEES Subject Centre
Buckland House
University of Plymouth
Plymouth
PL4 8AA
Tel: 01752 233 530
E-mail:
info@gees.ac.uk
Website:
www.gees.ac.uk
Recent work · GEES Subject Centre Departmental Workshop Programme 2009
The GEES Subject Centre's programme of departmental workshops, designed to support the GEES communities' learning, teaching and assessment needs has now begun its 2009 cycle. Over the past six years we have co-ordinated and funded over 225 workshops in GEES departments on subjects such as fieldwork, assessment, key skills, work-based learning, linking teaching and research and e-learning. The workshop programme will run from January to July 2009.
For further information, please contact Project Co-ordinator Sharon Gedye on 01752 233560 and at: sharon.gedye@plymouth.ac.uk.
Small-Scale Learning & Teaching Project Funding 2009
The GEES Subject Centre Small-scale Learning & Teaching Project Funding 2009 has been disseminated to 6 projects within the GEES disciplines. The funding was awarded by open competition to projects that aimed at enhancing student learning and / or enriching the learning and teaching research literature. The following projects have been funded for 2009:
· David Simm, Department of Geography, Bath Spa University, ‘Supporting Foundation degree students in higher education’
· Dawn Nicholson, Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, ‘Geography Undergraduate dissertations in the UK: a review of assessment schemes and procedures’
· Simon Haslett, CELT, University of Wales, Newport, ‘Google Earth as a learning resource in sustainable development’
· Jackie Pates, Department of Environmental Science, University of Lancaster, ‘Completing the cycle: an investigation of structured reflection as a tool to encourage student engagement with feedback’
· Anne-Marie Nuttall, School of Biological and Earth Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, ‘Developing numeracy skills amongst GEES undergraduates via Blackboard quizzes’
· Jennifer Hill, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, UWE, ‘Video podcasts as a learning support resource for geography’
·
More information about our Small-scale Learning & Teaching Project Funding and on all projects can be found on our GEES web page at: http://gees.ac.uk/projtheme/smalproj.htm.
New Web Pages on the GEES Subject Centre and Geological Society Website
The web page for the Earth Science activity of the GEES Subject Centre is now live at: http://www.gees.ac.uk/home/discearth.htm
·The GEES Subject Centre Departmental Change
Event, September 2009
The
Event
The Geography, Earth and Environmental Science (GEES) Subject Centre intends to hold a Departmental Change event, involving a 48-hour retreat over three days from the 7-9th Sept., venue to be confirmed. The event will enable departmental or school teams to learn from one another by working alongside other teams on a project/initiative about the development of learning and teaching. These projects can be based on issues or opportunities confronting you in your own institution, such as designing the curriculum for a new degree programme, embedding enquiry-based learning throughout the degree, revising the department’s fieldwork programme, enhancing the transition from school to university, and so on.
Expert support
Facilitators will provide input about change, creativity, team development and engaging others, as well as advice on your team’s particular projects. Professor Michael Bradford (Manchester) and Professor Mick Healey (Gloucestershire, and our Geography Senior Advisor) will lead the facilitators, with support from Professor Brian Chalkley (Plymouth) and Professor Carolyn Roberts (Gloucestershire). All the facilitators have experience of strategic planning within universities and have undertaken roles as heads of departments and directors of national teaching and learning programmes.
Your team
Ideally, your team should consist of staff at different levels and with different roles in the department/school, and may also include a student. We have the capacity for 24 people in six teams. So, teams should normally comprise of four people (with the possibility of one extra if another team is accepted with the minimum of three people).
Preparation and support
Your team leader will be supported in selecting an appropriate team, preparation to make the best use of the three days, and developments after the event.
Benefits
The event is intensive, and its success depends on the full commitment by all members of the team to the whole programme. The intended benefits are:
· rapid advancement in the development of a project and a team
· personal development of a set of individuals in understanding and leading change
· experience of working effectively in a team
· networking with others within the GEES disciplines and experts in departmental change issues
Costs
This event will be significantly subsidised by the GEES Subject Centre, to minimise the registration costs to the teams. More details will be available during the formal application process in December/January.
Expressions of interest
We have already attracted a number of expressions of interest. However, we are still open to hearing from you at events@gees.ac.uk.
More information
In the meantime, if you need further information, please contact Michael Bradford (michael.bradford@manchester.ac.uk) or Mick Healey (mhealey@glos.ac.uk). The event is also supported by the Centre for Active Learning (Geography, Environment and Related Disciplines) at the University of Gloucestershire.
New Publications and ResourcesTwo new GEES Resource Packs The GEES Subject Centre has developed two new resource packs: The New and Aspiring Lecturers resource pack and the Scottish Enhancement Theme resource pack. The New and Aspiring Lecturers resource pack (available now) provides new and aspiring members of staff with examples of resources in ‘learning and teaching’, both generic and discipline-specific. The pack consists of 13 different resource lists covering major learning & teaching topics, such as Curriculum design, Teaching methodology, Key Skills, Pedagogic Research, Employability and Enterprise, and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
The Scottish Enhancement Theme resource pack (available in the new year) accommodates a variety of different learning and teaching resources to further support the work of the Enhancement Theme initiative. This initiative, which has been introduced by the Scottish Higher Education Enhancement Committee (SHEEC), aims to improve the student learning experience in Scottish higher education.
Both resource packs show examples of the range of resources and they are a ‘taster’, a starting point for further consideration. After publication they will be available for download as PDFs from the GEES website at: http://gees.ac.uk/pubs/pubs.htm. Hard copies will be obtainable by contacting info@gees.ac.uk.
Fieldwork Guide - Designing Effective Fieldwork for the Environmental and Natural Sciences – available in the New Year. The GEES Subject Centre has produced a Fieldwork Guide for Environmental Sciences. This publication has been developed in collaboration with John Maskall and Alison Stokes from the University of Plymouth.
A full copy of the guide will be available as PDF from our web page at: [http://gees.ac.uk/pubs/guides/eesguides.htm. Hard copies will be obtainable by contacting info@gees.ac.uk.
Planet Special Edition – available January 2009 The special edition of our bi-annual publication Planet will be released in December, reflecting the outcomes of our residential conference in 2008. The edition will focus on the conference theme Employability, Employer Engagement and Entrepreneurship.After publication copies of the Special Edition number 21 will be available for download as a PDF from the GEES website at: http://gees.ac.uk/pubs/planet/index.htm. Hard copies will be obtainable by contacting info@gees.ac.uk Report on Employer Engagement in Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences: Scoping research into employer engagement in the Earth and Environmental Science disciplines has been completed and is shortly to be joined by Geography. An outline of the research thus far completed will be available in next issue of Planet. A detailed Earth Science report is available at http://www.gees.ac.uk/home/discearth.htm. A full report across the three GEES disciplines will be available on completion of the research in spring 2009.
Upcoming Work Earth Science Recruitment / Outreach Survey 2008 Student recruitment is a key issue for many Earth Science departments in UK higher education. A variety of strategies are employed to attract students both to the discipline and to individual institutions. The GEES Subject Centre is keen to support this work and, in the first instance, has undertaken a survey to identify and promote effective models of practice.
The results of this survey will be made available via the GEES website in the new year.
Evaluation of the Ambassador Outreach Scheme An evaluation into the impact of the various Ambassador outreach schemes in the Earth Sciences will be undertaken early in 2009.
Research into Students’ ‘Sticking Points’ in Learning Geoscience This project aims to pump-prime research which will then form a strong foundation on which to build (and seek funding for) a larger-scale, internationally collaborative project. The outcomes will be threefold:
· A literature review of troublesome concepts in the geosciences;
· Research papers (for Planet and the Journal of Geoscience Education) describing the methodology, findings and conclusions / recommendations arising from the research;
· The development of an international research group on Threshold Concepts in the geosciences (interest has already been expressed by colleagues in the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland and South Africa).
Phase II of ‘Mapping the Landscape’ Project Following on from completion of Phase I of this project (Mapping the Environmental Landscape: An investigation into the state of the environmental science subject in higher education by Jennifer Blumhof and Phil Holmes, March 2008 - http://www.ches.org.uk/Documents/Mapping%20the%20Environmental%20Landscape.doc), the start of Phase 2 (June 2008) involved a group of environmental scientists interrogating the report in order to examine trends and issues and to make recommendations for the evolution and future direction of the discipline. The outcomes of the discussion will be translated into action plans to be taken forward by Jennifer Blumhof, Senior Advisor for Environmental Sciences and the Committee of Heads of Environmental Sciences (CHES) Executive Committee.
Environmental Sciences Careers website The CHES/IES 'Environmental Sciences Careers website', is under continued development with support from the Subject Centre. At this stage the IES is collecting information on 25 environmental science-related degrees. Each career profile will include topical news stories involving that occupation, video of a featured individual in that sector, blogs, fact files and links to HE programmes.
Earth Science Teachers' AssociationHigher Education
