In March 2017, I had the pleasure of observing Dr Stuart Sutherland give two consecutive lectures on micropalaeontology. In our pre-lecture meeting, Stuart explained that this is a particularly challenging module for him, both because he has ‘expert syndrome’ of the topic (he did his PhD on it) and also because students are much less interested in microscopic than macroscopic life (as someone who studies bones, I can empathise!). Nonetheless, it is a very important subject, as micropalaeontology provides one of the best ways to determine the absolute age of sedimentary rocks (via biostratigraphy), which is of great importance in the oil and natural gas industries. So, Stuart took it upon himself to guide the students through the subject while pulling many tricks out of his hat to maintain their motivation throughout the two lectures.

At the beginning of the first lecture, Stuart segued into the subject by stating that they were about to ‘leave the macro behind’ and begin to look at ‘good things in little packages.’ Stuart is, in his own words, quite vertically challenged, so he made sure to nod and point at himself when he was saying this. The small bit of humour (pun intended) immediately got the students’ collective attention and broke the ice by making everyone chuckle.

Once everyone was on board, Stuart walked the students through the general outline for the next two lectures. He then put the LOs for the first lecture on the screen and asked the students to read them for themselves. After about a minute and a half, he rephrased the LOs and used his rephrasing to bridge-in to the rest of the lecture. He continued motivating the students with some real-life examples (besides biostratigraphy) of where the organisms we study in micropalaeontology are common in our everyday lives, such as the limestone that composes the Egyptian pyramids. The pyramids are made of a particular limestone that contains lots of a specific type of microfossil, which he used this to deliver information about the different microfossil groups.

He explained each microfossil group to provide the scaffolding for the rest of the lecture(s), then added another motivating ingredient: he exemplified their use in the oil and gas industry (like I explained, above) and how much money you can make as a micropalaeontologist as compared to a vertebrate palaeontologist (somewhat facetiously especially with me in the room, which added to the effect). He then used the framework of ‘benefits of micropalaeontology’ to continue his explanations of the different groupings of microfossils.

After some more information delivery, he used a sequence of slides exemplifying microfossil morphologies and sizes, including many pictures of himself compared to large objects (e.g., the Eiffel Tower) and some more somewhat self-depreciating humour. Then, after the first lecture was almost at a close, he introduced the content of the following lecture with a bit of a cliffhanger approach (and more humour) to try to maintain the students’ motivation until the next session.

Stuart began the second lecture by motivating students from another perspective. Many of the students in the class had already taken a mineralogy course, so he framed the content around biomineralisation and the impacts that life had on mineralogy. Long before life was making its own minerals (biominerals), small organisms began producing oxygen as a by-product. That ‘free oxygen’ in the atmosphere allowed for a diverse range of mineral species to form during what is called the ‘Great Oxidation Event’. After life started making its own minerals, new rocks, such as limestone, became ubiquitous on the earth, and, for a second time, changed the geological landscape. He then exemplified this by showing many examples of important rock features composed of biominerals, like the Cliffs of Dover, and asked the class if they would like to share any other examples they know of, which they did for about 5 minutes.

Throughout both lectures, Stuart continuously pre- and post-tested the students with iClicker questions and, if they were not able to correctly answer them, he took time to draw out the concepts on the board or explain them in more detail. He also broke up his information delivery with 4 videos (two per lecture) of some of modern examples of microfossils (e.g., hagfish slime, don’t ask…) and some that were simply showing their impacts on geology. It provided a good break to the lecturing (bookends), which was necessary, since this course is a requirement for a Professional Geologist certification in British Columbia and we had a specific amount of information to deliver and only limited time to do so. This was one of the few modules in the class that did not have a large activity ( due to both time and content constraints); regardless, I was very impressed by how well Stuart managed the content and the learners’ motivation throughout its entirety. It was an unusual circumstance where we could control neither time nor content, and I learned a lot by watching Stuart work his micropalaeo magic!