Earth and Environmental Science – Week 9

The end of the course is just one week away, and the UNSW Earth and Environmental Science students are finalising their investigation of Sydney soil lead pollution. Three weeks ago they sampled soils from around Sydney, two weeks ago they analysed them using x-ray fluorescence analysis, and last week they decided on some hypotheses, and collected the necessary data to test them.

http://andy-baker.org/2024/04/12/earth-and-environmental-science-week-9/

@michcampbell #science #academia #environmentalscience #lead #pollution #datascience #urbanpollution #teaching #UNSW #GEOS1211

Earth and Environmental Science – week 8

It is week 8 in the UNSW Earth and Environmental Science course, and the class is working towards writing a lab report on Sydney soil lead pollution. Last week, students used a portable x-ray fluorescence analyser to test soil samples that they had collected from their homes or across UNSW campus. This week the focus of the class was hypothesis testing.

#academia #teaching #education #pollution #soils #environmentalscience #earthscience #science #scientificmethod #Sydney #UNSW #GEOS1211

http://andy-baker.org/2024/04/04/earth-and-environmental-sciences-week-8/

Earth and Environmental Science – week 7

After a mid trimester break, the UNSW Earth and Environmental Science class is back. To finish the term, we are investigating Sydney's soil lead pollution. X-ray fluorescence analysis being explained Each of the one hundred students is invited to bring a soil sample from home. For those living in campus or in apartments, they get to sample soils on campus.

http://andy-baker.org/2024/03/29/earth-and-environmental-science-week-7/

#academia #pollution #science #soilscience #lead #environmentalscience #environment #UNSW #GEOS1211 #teaching

Earth and Environmental Science week 4 – groundwater

This week was groundwater week, and Sydney turned on the fine weather. The UNSW students had previously investigated the local geology and the soil hydrology. Now to tie it all together with an investigation of the local aquifer and groundwater hydrology. Sydney's Centennial Parklands is a wonderful place to do this.

http://andy-baker.org/2024/03/06/earth-and-environmental-science-week-4-groundwater/

#earthscience #environmentalscience #hydrology #groundwater #UNSW #GEOS1211 #academia #Sydney

Earth and Environmental Science – week 3

It is week 3 already, and this week one hundred Earth and Environmental Science students learnt about hydrology. Soil hydrology in the lab The group got to explore the Australian Water Outlook model and to determine the near surface soil moisture that was forecast from the model. They then went out on campus to measure the actual soil moisture and learn about sampling strategies and hypothesis testing.

http://andy-baker.org/2024/02/28/earth-and-environmental-science-week-3/

#science #environmentalscience #academia #soilscience #hydrology #UNSW #GEOS1211

Earth and Environmental Science week 2

It is week 2 of term at UNSW Sydney. This week, one hundred first year Earth and Environmental Science class had an Earth and Environmental campus tour. They got to understand the geology of the Sydney campus, and how the geology allows groundwater replenishment. This is important for the university to be able to have a stormwater harvesting system which then allows sustainable groundwater extraction.

http://andy-baker.org/2024/02/21/earth-and-environmental-science-week-2/

#science #earthscience #education #environmentalscience #academia #UNSW #GEOS1211

Bags of soil are starting to arrive in the lab

This time last year our UNSW first year Earth and Environmental Science students collected soil samples from their homes for analysis for their lead (Pb) concentration. The resulting database was analysed to understand what determines soil lead concentrations in the Sydney region.

The term starts again here in just over a week, and we are running the project again. This time we have invited staff in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences to bring in samples from home for our free soil testing sevice. The trolley is starting to fill up.

More on this and some results at the end of term. #science #soilscience #urbanpollution #unsw #environmentalscience #lead #GEOS1211

http://andy-baker.org/2024/02/01/bags-of-soil-are-starting-to-arrive-in-the-lab/

A photo from today's UNSW Earth and Environmental Sciences class. 100+ students brought in 100+ soil samples for analysis for lead concentration. Thanks to the speed and ease of use of portable x-ray fluorescence analysers, 100+ samples is no problem.

Next week the students will develop hypotheses and start to analyse the data, before writing a report on Sydney soil lead concentrations.

Historically, lead in city soil comes from traffic pollution, lead paint and lead solder, and this persists in the environment today.

Some samples had high lead concentrations, we will retest those and offer advice.

#environment #earthscience #xray #envionmentalscience #geoscience #SciComms #science #academia #HigherEd #UNSW #lead #soilscience #soils #pollution #citylife #GEOS1211 @unsw

Teaching and educating can be fun and rewarding, and today it was my favourite class of the year.

#UNSW #GEOS1211 Earth and Environmental Science students took part in 'The Sandstone City' field class. An exploration of the Triassic Hawkesbury Sandstone, how it formed, and why it makes such a great building and decorative stone.

Thanks to my fellow educators Dr Indrani Mukherjee and Di Li Qian.

#sandstone #geology #earthscience #geologyrocks #sedimentology #geoscience #buildings #iron #geochemistry #sydney #academia #science #SciComms

It was groundwater week with the UNSW Earth and Environmental Sciences team. The GEOS1211 explorers investigated ground water recharge processes, spring discharge and groundwater contamination. And there was time for a labyrinth too....

#earthscience #environmentalscience #UNSW #GEOS1211 #academia #groundwater #sustainability #scicomm

Today's #UNSW Earth and Environmental Science class were taught hands-on soil hydrology measurements. Students and staff brought soil samples from home for analysis. That's a lot of sandy loam soils from across the #sydney basin.

Now over 100 students with some new skills relevant to agriculture, environmental science and hydrology. Some 'before' and 'during' photos are below.

#earthscience #soilscience #geoscience #hydrology #groundwater #agriculture #irrigation #academia #GEOS1211

How many undergraduates can you fit in a radiocarbon dating laboratory?

About 60 Earth and Environmental Science students it seems.

And a fish-eye lens helps

#UNSW #chronos #radiocarbon #environment #earthscience #radiocarbondating #academia #scicomm #GEOS1211

Yesterday I asked my first year, first term class of #UNSW #GEOS1211 Earth and Environmental Science class (n=108) about what they knew about generative AI / large language models (ChatGPT, etc.).

55% had heard of generative AI, 17% had used it, and 1% (1 person) had received training in how to use it.

Now I am now looking for some resources to recommend to the students that I teach. I like the look and content here:
https://learnprompting.org/
and would appreciate more suggestions / recommendations.

#HigherEd #academia #education #ChatGPT #generativeAI #science #earthscience #geology #environment #AI

Week one of term one at #UNSW. The #GEOS1211 Earth and Environmental Science students enjoyed some ice-breaker activities, an introduction to the course and teaching staff, welcomes from our wonderful library liaison staff, a questionnaire and Q&A session about generative AI, and more. Here, Dr Indrani Mukherjee leads a discussion on women in science.

#highered #geology #earthscience #environmentalscience #AI #chatgpt #scicomm #academia

The #UNSW #earthscience teaching lab is all set up for start of term.

We have a new 'cave animal' poster on display for 2023 - this year it is the glow worm. Thanks to the 'Australian Cave Animal of the Year'. We have hundreds of free stickers for the students.

And an isotope analyser is analysing the #carbondioxide and #methane of the air in the lab. In a couple of weeks, students will be collecting air quality data from all over #sydney for their project.

#academia #scicomm #envionment #geology #atmosphericscience #GEOS2291 #GEOS1211 #picarro