Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 10 | Page 24

24 | JADE
ARTICLE #1 | 25
TRACKING SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPTS IN GEOLOGY AND
EARTH SCIENCE TEACHING AND LEARNING, KEELE UNIVERSITY, UK
STEVEN L. ROGERS, STUART S. EGAN, & IAN G. STIMPSON
the future”, as well as to include “examination of the implications of
sustainability and sustainable development”. The revised version of
ES3 published in 2014 (QAA 2014) places even greater emphasis
on sustainability and sustainable development. The accreditation
requirements of the Geological Society of London also state that
“an awareness of the essential contributions of geoscience to the
economic, environmental and cultural needs of Society” is embedded
within the curricula for all accredited programmes (Geological
Society, 2012). Given all of these drivers, it was considered essential
that geology students at Keele acquire some knowledge of other
disciplines in order to understand the causes of global environmental
change phenomena (e.g. mass extinctions, climate change, etc.) as
well as have an appreciation of the need for the sustainable use of
natural resources so that society can survive into the future. Table
3 summarises the content of the module and how it relates to the
UN’s SDGs.
Student feedback on the module has been very positive with module
evaluation scores of 90% in 2009/10, 97% in 2010/11, 99% in 2011/12
and 100% in 2014/15. Anecdotal evidence from informal discussion
with the module cohort indicates that the students are aware of the
need to broaden their knowledge outside of Geology in order to
understand causes of global environmental change and the need
to mitigate the predicted effects. There are, however, a minority
of students who clearly view this module as “not geology” and,
therefore, it is not worth engaging with, indicating that there is still
progress to be made on embedding sustainability and sustainable
development within the curricula of the Keele Geology programmes.
Week
Topic
Links with
UN SDGs
Examples
Module Introduction
1
Introduction to Earth System
Science (Lecture) 12, 13, 14, 15 The role of Society in causing global
environmental change.
Earth System Interactions:
Modelling Biogeochemical
cycles (Practical) 12, 13 Modelling the effects of Society on the
Carbon cycle.
The Oceans
2
3
4
Structure of the Ocean Floor
(Lecture) 14 Importance of the oceans within the
Earth System.
Ocean Composition (Lecture) 13, 14 Phytoplankton - important role played
in influencing global climate as well as
indicators of oceanic health.
Ocean circulation (Lecture) 1, 2, 13,
14, 15 The El Niño Southern Oscillation and
its effects on the economy of Chile and
Peru.
The World’s Oceans (Practical) 13, 14 The links between climate change and
oceanic circulation and effects on society.
Waves and Tides (Lecture) 14, 15 Coastal erosion.
Coastal and Deep Marine
Dynamics in Response to Sea
Level Change (Online/virtual
Lecture) 13, 14, 15,
11, 13, 14, 15 Effects of sea level rise on coastal
populations.
The Atmosphere
Module ESC-20037, Geoscience and Society
4 Atmospheric Composition
(Lecture) 12, 13, 15 Source of aerosols due to pollution (e.g.
historically associated with combustion
of coal).
5 Atmospheric Energy (Lecture) 13, 15 Anthropogenic radiative forcings
associated with changes in the main
greenhouse gases and aerosols.
Atmospheric Moisture (Lecture) 6, 13 Links between cloud formation and
precipitation and water supply.
Atmospheric Motion (Lecture) 13 Links between climate change and the
jet stream, and possible implications for
air travel.
Climatology and Geoscience
(Lecture) 11, 13, 15 Urban Modification of Climate.
Acquiring meteorological data:
The Keele Weather Station
(Visit) 13 Analysis of meteorological data for
evidence of climate change.
Analysis of Keele weather data:
Global warming – fact or fiction?
(Practical) 13
Putting sustainability in the heart of the geoscience curriculum.
This module was designed to directly address issues of sustainability
from the start. The aim of this module was taken directly from the
accreditation guidelines of the Geological Society of London: “To
develop an awareness of the essential contributions of geoscience
to the economic, environmental and cultural needs of Society"
(GSL 2008), and its Intended Learning Outcomes from the QAA
ES3 benchmarking statement: “to demonstrate, critically evaluate,
communicate effectively and apply awareness and informed
concern of Earth science challenges [in] the exploration for, and
the development and exploitation of, Earth resources, geological
aspects of human impacts on the environment, geohazards and
their impacts on human societies, earth science perspectives on
sustainability and social awareness, environmental challenges [in]
[geo]diversity; demand and scarcity; demand for, and consequences
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