Instructor(s): Stephanie L Shepherd, Rachel Prado, Tyler Smith

Description: Led by the team behind the Auburn Summer STEM Institute (AUSSI), this short course introduces participants to strategies for creating meaningful and engaging learning experiences in post-secondary geoscience education. Grounded in D. Fink’s Backward Design framework, the course guides attendees through the process of articulating significant learning goals, aligning assessments, and crafting instructional activities that foster deep student understanding. Participants will leave equipped with tools to implement rich, student-centered learning in their own geoscience courses.

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Instructor(s): David Dryden

Description: Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a technology that uses radio waves to image into the subsurface to detect buried objects and boundaries. It has found widespread use in geology for more than 40 years for mapping geological structure and stratigraphy as well as groundwater and mineral exploration. GPR systems were once complicated to use but newer systems have simpler designs and user interfaces that allow users from many diverse communities to adopt the technology for their particular problems and challenges.

This course covers basic GPR theory, data interpretation, hands-on field work and case studies. The field portion takes the class outside to practice collecting GPR data, including GPR cross sections integrated with GPS. Afterward, we will return to the classroom, and the instructor will transfer the data from the GPR system to the computer and process in the software. GPS integration and displaying data in Google Earth is also covered. A few case studies are presented to expose students to data from other application areas.

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