Paleonet: Quick survey on paleontology courses in undergraduatecurricula

[Scott Ishman]

Phil,  I hope this is a useful contribution.

 

1. What college/university/institution are you providing information on?
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
2. Does this department confer an undergraduate geology (or similar
geoscience) degree? BS in Geology
3. Does this department primarily teach undergraduates? Even mix of
undergraduate and graduate
4. Is paleontology (or a content-similar course) a REQUIRED course in this
degree? No
5. Do you offer any paleontology-content ELECTIVES in your degree?  If so,
which one(s)? Yes, Invertebrate Paleontology,  and Paleoecology
6. Do you offer any deep-time/historical geology-related ELECTIVES in your
degree?  If so, which one(s)? Yes, Historical Geology
7. Do you offer a majors course(s) on geological resources/economic
geology/mining?  If so, is it an elective or required course for the major?
Economic Geology; Petroleum Geology; Both electives.
8. If your program has changed paleontology from a required course to an
elective in the past, how do you think this change has impacted your
program? Yes this did happen.  It decreased the enrollment numbers in
Invertebrate Paleo.  I am on a crusade to have Invertebrate Paleo back in
the Core Curriculum for majors.  Taught the right way this course is more
than a "how to in fossil collecting and identification" but provides the
students with a fundamental understanding of biostratigraphy and
paleoenvironmental reconstructions that are useful at a higher level
particularly in the areas of basin analysis and resource geology.



Scott

 

-----Original Message-----
From: paleonet-bounces at nhm.ac.uk [mailto:paleonet-bounces at nhm.ac.uk] On
Behalf Of Phil Novack-Gottshall
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 1:42 PM
To: paleonet at nhm.ac.uk
Subject: Paleonet: Quick survey on paleontology courses in
undergraduatecurricula

 

Dear Paleonet community:

Our department is evaluating some curriculum changes and I was hoping the
Paleonet community would be willing to contribute some broader perspective.
Specifically, there is discussion of whether to switch Paleontology from a
REQUIRED course in the Core major curriculum to a majors ELECTIVE (and
replacing the required Core course with one on Geologic Resources).  If you
are so inclined (and especially if you teach in or have recent direct
knowledge of undergraduate-only geology programs), would you mind taking a
few seconds to answer the following questions?  Yes/no (or similarly brief)
answers are fine, but you are welcome to provide additional information if
you wish.  (I recognize that this is not a proper statistical survey; I'm
just looking for some rough numbers and anecdotal information to enlighten
our discussions.  If you're aware of any formal studies, I'd especially
appreciate a reference.)

Many thanks,
Phil


1. What college/university/institution are you providing information on?
2. Does this department confer an undergraduate geology (or similar
geoscience) degree?
3. Does this department primarily teach undergraduates?
4. Is paleontology (or a content-similar course) a REQUIRED course in this
degree?
5. Do you offer any paleontology-content ELECTIVES in your degree?  If so,
which one(s)?
6. Do you offer any deep-time/historical geology-related ELECTIVES in your
degree?  If so, which one(s)?
7. Do you offer a majors course(s) on geological resources/economic
geology/mining?  If so, is it an elective or required course for the major?
8. If your program has changed paleontology from a required course to an
elective in the past, how do you think this change has impacted your
program?







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Phil Novack-Gottshall                        pnovackg at westga.edu

  
  Assistant Professor                         
  Department of Geosciences
  University of West Georgia
  Carrollton, GA 30118-3100
  Phone: 678-839-4061
  Fax: 678-839-4071
  http://www.westga.edu/~pnovackg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.paleonet.org/pipermail/paleonet/attachments/20090424/a3450307/attachment.htm>