What is I’m a Geoscientist?
I’m a Geoscientist is a free online event where your students get to meet and interact with geoscientists. It’s a free game-show-style competition between geoscientists, where your students are the judges.
Students challenge the geoscientists over intense, fast-paced, online live CHATs. Then they ASK the geoscientists all the questions they want to, learning more about them, and letting geoscientists know their opinions. They VOTE for their favourite geoscientist to win €500 to communicate their work to the public.
It takes place online over a two week period and is funded by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). It’s completely free for schools.
When is it?
The event itself lasts for 2 weeks. The site will be online for two weeks beforehand so that you can do some preparation (1-2 hours).
The next I’m a Geoscientist zone will run in Spring 2015 (exact dates TBC).
Who are the geoscientists?
The 5 geoscientists in teach zone will all be members of the European Geosciences Union. They’ll be from all around Europe, and working on all areas of geoscience!
Have a look at the Earth Zone from June 2014 to see the kind of geoscientists your students could talk with.
Which schools are eligible?
I’m a Geoscientist is open to teachers who’ve taken part in (or about to take part in) an EGU Geosciences Information for Teachers (GIFT) workshop. If you’re not a GIFT teacher but are interested in taking part in I’m a Geoscientist and the EGU GIFT workshops, please visit egu.eu/education/gift.
What are the language requirements?
In-class lessons can be conducted in your native language, but all communication related to the event including live-chats with scientists will be in English. We ask all teachers to describe your, and your students’, capability to understand and speak English when you sign up. This is to make sure your students can get the most out of taking part.
Why not team up with your school’s English department and use the event as a language learning exercise as well? If you choose to do this, make sure that the teacher who has been involved with GIFT in the past is the one who formally registers.
How much time?
The event is very flexible. For your students to get the most out of the event we recommend spending 2-3 lessons on it. Teachers will be sent a teacher notes booklet with 3 suggested lesson plans to introduce students to the geoscientists, get them thinking about how they vote for their favourite geoscientists, and planning questions to ask in live chats.
What are the benefits?
Taking part introduces students to the wide world of the geosciences, covering a wide range of topics from discovering oil and other precious natural resources, mining and studying earthquakes, to what the climate was like thousands of years ago, building houses and tunneling to build underground lines.
Students become more enthused about geoscience, are introduced to the wide range of careers within geoscience, and see that geoscientists are normal people. Being online, it gives every student a voice to ask questions and it’s easy (and completely free) for teachers to organise as it’s supported by teacher notes and lesson plans.
How secure is it?
Only students with our registration codes can log in. We only send these out once a teacher has registered. All online content is strictly moderated to protect students’ identities and information.
Teachers’ Resources
Teacher Notes Booklet with Suggested Lesson Plans
This section has the teaching materials that we’ve developed for the event I’m a Geoscientist. They are designed to develop students’ debating and discussion skills.
We believe that information should be free, especially in education, so this part of the site is accessible to everyone. All teachers (and anyone else) are free to use anything we’ve created on the site. This material has been created by Gallomanor (unless otherwise stated) and we have NOT copyrighted it. All material is licensed under a (CC) Creative Commons attribution license.
Teacher Notes
Lesson Resources