Paleonet: Quick survey on paleontology courses in undergraduate curricula

[Hermann Pfefferkorn]

Hello,

My answers follow your questions.

Regards,

Hermann




>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?

Univ. of Pennsylvania, Research University, private, Ivy League

>2. Does this department confer an undergraduate geology (or similar 
>geoscience) degree?

Geology and Paleobiology (as a special track in Geology)

>3. Does this department primarily teach undergraduates?

(a) Undergraduates including general requirement courses, (b) Ph.D. 
graduate students, and (c) professional M.S. students in Env. Studies 
and Applied Geosciences

>4. Is paleontology (or a content-similar course) a REQUIRED course 
>in this degree?

Yes, for all Geology undergraduate majors

>5. Do you offer any paleontology-content ELECTIVES in your degree? 
>If so, which one(s)?

Paleobotany, Vertebrate Paleontology, Paleoecology

>6. Do you offer any deep-time/historical geology-related ELECTIVES 
>in your degree?  If so, which one(s)?

Yes, the ones mentioned under 5.

>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?

Not at the present time.  However, these topics are addressed in 
intro and mid-level environmental studies courses that are taken by 
many geology students

>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?


Not applicable

>
>
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>   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
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>_______________________________________________
>Paleonet mailing list
>Paleonet at nhm.ac.uk
>http://mailman.nhm.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/paleonet


-- 
*************************************************************

Hermann W. Pfefferkorn
Professor of Earth and Environmental Science
Department of Earth and Environmental Science
University of Pennsylvania
240 S. 33rd St.		     Phone: 215-898-5156
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6316        Fax:   215-898-0964	    
U.S.A.		   
e-mail:hpfeffer at sas.upenn.edu
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/earth/pfefferk.html

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