Integrating Computing Across a Geosciences Curriculum Through an Applications Course
Michelle Kathleen Hall-Wallace · Journal of Geoscience Education · 1999
Computer technology has changed the way we communicate, calculate and perform many daily tasks. Likewise it provides new opportunities for teaching and learning that can more effectively prepare our students for the careers that lie ahead. This paper describes the process my department used to integrate computer technology across our curriculum and documents some of the impacts technology has had on our teaching. I developed a course in computer applications for our undergraduate geoscience majors to introduce them to a wide variety of computing skills. The foundation provided by the course facilitates integrating computer applications across the curriculum. In the course, students develop the basic skills needed for solving a variety of problems with a computer. Faculty can then assume that the students have a common background in computing when they make laboratory or homework assignments. A major factor in our success was the development of a dedicated facility for teaching with computers, which has broken down many barriers to implementing change in the classroom. Computer applications are used effectively as a supplement to more traditional lab activities and to introduce modern methods of scientific analysis. The power of the technology is in visualization of three-dimensional geologic structures, simulation of time-dependent processes, and modeling and analysis of complex systems.