New Curriculum Opens Doors to the Geosciences

December 8, 2024

The path that Jackson School of Geosciences students take to complete their bachelor’s degree became more welcoming, unified, and holistic this fall as the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences rolled out its revised undergraduate curriculum.

“It’s three things,” said Department Chair Danny Stockli. “We have a much bigger aperture of taking students in. We want to give them more fundamental basic skills. And then we want to expose them to the breadth of geosciences before they decide on their major.”

For decades, undergraduate students would enter the Jackson School as general geology majors, and from there decide if they wanted to switch to a different major within the school. Now, students start their education in the geosciences by choosing an introductory course that piques their interest. It could be Dinosaurs, National Parks, Earth in 2100, or Physical Geology, for example. This is meant to cast a much wider net to attract students with a diverse range of interests to the geosciences.

From there, students will take courses that strengthen their skills in computational literacy, geospatial tools, data analysis, and machine learning. Importantly, all students will take the same three required foundational courses from all three programmatic subject areas of the geosciences: lithosphere and deep earth; subsurface, surface, and life; and water, climate, and the environment. This means that all students will graduate with an understanding of key geoscientific concepts, from the rock cycle to climate change.

“This is structured as a holistic educational experience,” Stockli said. “Students are going to be better prepared for whatever (geosciences) major they choose down the road.”