The Solid Earth: A Dynamic Planet (EOSC 110)
Instructors involved in EaSEIL
Brett Gilley (Co-Instructor)
Shandin Pete (Co-Instructor)
Matthew Tarling (Co-Instructor)
Context: Course Description
Level: First year
Credits: 3
Term: WT1 (1 section); WT2 (2 sections)
Capacity: ~75-200 students per section
Additional fees: No
Instructional Team: 1-2 instructors (per section); 1-4 teaching assistants
Additional instructional team members: Laura Lukes, David Sasse, Michael Bostock
Introductory level course for majors and non-majors. Lecture only (1.5 hour class twice a week, or 50 minutes 3 times per week). One optional/accessible/free guided-day trip to visit a series of locations along the Sea-to-Sky Highway is offered to students every term.
Overarching Learning Goals
Introduce students to earth’s origin, composition, structure and natural resources. Global and local examples of plate tectonics as the driving force for volcanism, mountain building, and earthquakes.
As a citizen of the Earth, you make environmental, political, and socio-economic decisions about your life for which knowledge of the solid Earth is relevant. By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1. Describe the dynamic processes that form Earth’s materials, produce its internal structure, and shape its surface features.
2. Appreciate the influence of geologic time on the processes that shape our planet.
3. Apply knowledge of geoscience to environmental, socio-economic, and political concerns.
Activities Summary (2024-2025; same activities across sections):
- Group in-class activities and clicker questions
- 2 midterms and one final exam (multiple choice, two-stage)
- “My place” writing assignments
- A virtual field trip is shared with students in-class
- Optional/accessible/free day trip (on a Saturday in October and March, weather dependent). The day trip is observation-focused, students complete a worksheet (short guide with questions to facilitate student observations, but they don’t submit it), large group discussions in the bus or on site.
Day trips are organized/advertised with student groups (i.e., The G.M. Dawson Club), offered to all first-year and some second-year students enrolled in EOAS classes and with Lindsay Nelson’s support regarding safety protocols. Students complete a registration form where they can share accessibility needs/concerns Brett Gilley coordinates/lead with other members of the instructional team (varies).
Typical Schedule and Activities
Morning
- Meet at UBC Point Grey Campus (EOAS Department) at 8.15 am
- Students receive the worksheet as they board the bus
- Departure at 8.30 am
- Stops* (1) Stanley Park 3rd Beach, (2) Cypress lookout, Highway, (3) Britannia Beach, (5) Mt. Tantalus Range Lookout
Lunch
(4) Squamish (BYO or buy)
Afternoon
- Stops*: Stawamus Chief, (6) Porteau Cove
- Return to UBC Point Grey Campus between 5 and 6 pm (three alternative drop off stops are offered on the way back)
- Students complete a feedback form**
Transportation (chartered school buses) is provided, one instructor and one TA per bus. Bathrooms available at all stops but Mt. Tantalus Range Lookout and Stawamus Chief.
*Stops may vary depending on weather conditions and traffic
**Feedback questions: What parts of this trip helped you to learn? What would you change? Do you have any other comments?
Curricular Development
Goals (G) and Motivation
G1. Continue offering* at least one optional/accessible day trip per term in first year courses as an opportunity for student to contextualize learning and build community (*day trips have been offered on and off since 2014 by Brett Gilley in EOSC 110)
Activity: Five optional/accessible (financially – it is free-, physically) day trips were organized across 6 terms (Oct., 2022; Mar. & Oct. 2023; March 2024; Mar. 2025). Note: Due to weather conditions, the day trip was canceled in Oct. 2024.
G2. Scaffold field-based learning through place-based activities and better prepare students for field experiences
G3. Incorporate Indigenous-related content and context (at the course level and optional day trip) to make more meaningful connection between course subject and Indigenous issues
| Activities | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 (Ongoing) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prior to Day Trip | G3: Land acknowledgement included in syllabus with resource for further reflection | ||
| G2: Provided students detailed information about the daytrip via email including an FAQ document (WT2) | |||
| G3: Shared information about Squamish language signs along the Sea-to-Sky Highway (WT2). BG developed a Squamish pronunciation and resources guide (has not shared with students yet) | |||
| During Day Trip | During Day Trip G3: BG does an extended Land acknowledgement at Stanley Park stop (cultural significance to local Nations); shares examples of impact that environmental disasters can have on local communities (at Britannia Beach stop) | ||
| G3: SP shared Indigenous oral history at Stawamus Chief as Indigenous evidence of geological formation (WT2) | This activity was not included because SP did not join the day trip. | ||
| Across the term | Across the term G2: My Place assignments: a place-based individual independent research project (4 individual written assignments over term that build on each other) in which students investigate and describe course concepts as it applies to the place they chose. | ||
1Photo credits: Silvia Mazabel, 2024
Impact
Students
Total number of students enrolled in the course (Fall 2022-Spring 2025): 954 undergraduate students
Number of students who joined the day trip each year
- 35 students (October 2022)
- 20 students (March 2023)
- 34 students (October 2023) and ~55 students (March 2024)
- 26 students** (March 2025)
*The day trip was canceled in October 2024 due to weather conditions
** including Dawson’s Club students (one in 4th year, others in 2nd year) and 2 friends of students enrolled in EOSC 110. The trip was shorter than usual as two stops were not done (Britannia beach –running late to Squamish for lunch; Mt. Tantalus lookout –it was cloudy)
Instructors’ Reflections
“Overall students love the day trip, sometimes it is the first time they’ve visited those locations.” (Instructor personal communication, Dec. 2024)
Students benefitted by getting to see more Indigenous content in the classes.” (Instructor value and Feedback Survey, 2025)
“I think [the FAQ document was useful]. I suspect people were less stressed about bathrooms for example. Tough to say though. It was a pretty keen group.” (Instructor personal communication, Mar. 2025)
“The trip is intentional about accessibility. And so, as part of the registration form, we have a spot for accessibility concerns, which didn’t have a ton this time. But having the option there is important and .. we advertise it as accessible.” (Instructor reflective interview, May 2024).
“Students are very thankful that they get that opportunity [optional day trip] and many of them articulate how it really crystallizes the framework for them. And that’s what we’re trying to do… we’re taking what’s relatively abstract learning and situating it in the real world… I hear them talk about examples from the trip whenever I do open-ended questions…that is compelling.” (Instructor reflective interview, Aug. 2022)
Key Lessons Learned
- Day trip experiences are excellent opportunities for students to get a taste of what it feels like being on the field, the connections between what they’re learning in class and the real world, and meet people with similar interests.
- Embedding Indigenous knowledges as evidence that explains land processes and presents the human component of science broadens student understanding of their discipline.
- Designing financially and accessible day trips takes time but it is worth it!
Other work by Instructors:
Feig, A. D., Atchison, C., Stokes, A., & Gilley, B. (2019). Achieving Inclusive Field-based Education: Results and Recommendations from an Accessible Geoscience Field Trip. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 19(2), 66-87. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v19i1.23455
Stokes, A., Feig, A. D., Atchison, C. L., & Gilley, B. (2019). Making geoscience fieldwork inclusive and accessible for students with disabilities. Geosphere, 15(6), 1809-1825. https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02006.1
Gilley, B., Atchison, C., Feig, A., & Stokes, A. (2015). Impact of Inclusive Field Trips. Nature Geoscience, 8(8), 579–580. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2500
Pete, S. (2024, October) Indigenous Perspectives in Data, Evidence and Uncertainty in Science [Talk]. Co-hosts: EaSEIL and UBC Skylight Teaching Series. Webinar National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT), Pacific Northwest Section.