This year we have a strong subtheme in practices which support collaborative, peer-based, and interdisciplinary learning in geoscience and sustainability, across educational levels—from bachelor's and master's to doctoral programmes, and early-career development.
Our intent with this session is to foster international discourse on common challenges and strategies for educators within the broader field of Earth Sciences - let's share, discuss, reflect and develop effective practice and educational scholarship.
Orals: Thu, 7 May, 08:30–12:30 | Room -2.93
Graduates entering policy and political fields face complex, real-world sustainability challenges. Effective education must therefore bridge disciplines, foster collaborative learning, and cultivate systemic thinking. This contribution presents a game-based simulation designed to immerse students and future decision-makers in the intricate realities of land management, climate change, and economic policy across five West African countries.
Within this transformative teaching approach, participants assume leadership roles, making strategic decisions within a dynamic scenario. The simulation is designed to confront participants with complex situations and setbacks, allowing them to explore possibilities and experience the cascading consequences of their choices within their assigned roles. It reveals how abstract concepts, like policy trade-offs, cross-sectoral interdependencies, and long-term climatic feedback manifests in tangible, often unforeseen outcomes. This tool illuminates the hidden complexity behind seemingly straightforward political choices, challenging participants' assumptions and fostering essential interdisciplinary thinking.
We discuss this as an effective and engaging practice for interdisciplinary education. The game facilitates peer learning and collaborative problem-solving in a compelling environment, aligning it with teaching methodologies like problem-based learning. It is supposed to equip learners with competencies to tackle complex sustainability problems. This paper focuses on the pedagogical benefits and participant learning outcomes. It further contributes to actionable insights to the repertoire of modalities for interdisciplinary geoscience and sustainability education, emphasizing the value of simulated experience for professional preparation.
How to cite: Bendzko, T. and Turgut, E.: Learning Through Simulated Governance: A Game-Based Approach to Interdisciplinary Sustainability Education, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13631, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13631, 2026.
We present our experience developing an interdisciplinary undergraduate Hydrology Research Experience funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Geopaths Education Program. Our goal is to remove barriers to entry and build a robust geoscience workforce by recruiting and retaining diverse students early in their college career to engage in student-led research. We used a year-long learning community model, where cohorts of students developed both scientific and professional skills including field data collection, data analysis and interpretation, teamwork, science communication, career planning, resume and cover letter preparation, and internship applications. Students worked in small interdisciplinary groups to develop research proposals and complete research projects based on data collected during an immersive 10-day field experience. The field experience took place at the Eel River Critical Zone Observatory located in California’s Angelo Coast Range Reserve, a site with a rich history of hydrology research where students can connect their projects with previous and ongoing science.
Our program was based at California State University Sacramento and San Diego State University, both of which are minority serving institutions. Students were recruited from various disciplines including geology, geography, biology, engineering, and environmental studies, and the program required no previous experience in hydrology or outdoor fieldwork. Students were supported at both institutions by faculty, graduate students, and peer-mentors from past cohorts. Students developed their professional networks by interacting with researchers and US Forest Service partners at the field site and presenting their findings at several scientific conferences.
Results from an external evaluation show the Hydrology Research Experience had a positive impact on students that we expect to carry over into their future academic and professional careers. Participants reported successes leveraging skills and materials they developed in the program to obtain geoscience internships, jobs, scholarships, and positions in graduate degree programs. Participants reported statistically significant increases in seeing themselves as a scientist, in their abilities as a scientist, and in their feelings of connection to other students in their field of study. Finally, participants felt strongly that they were welcomed in their chosen field of study and saw themselves pursuing a career in that field.
How to cite: McMillan, H., Vankeuren, A., and Oshun, J.: Training Geoscientists: Three cohorts of a Year-long Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Hydrology Research Experience in a California Coast Range watershed, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-7921, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-7921, 2026.
Solar radio emissions from the photosphere and corona represent a well-known source of interference for satellite communication systems, particularly during Sun transit events, when the Sun aligns with the line of sight between a ground receiver and a geostationary satellite. While these phenomena are typically studied using large, high-gain research antennas, they also offer a valuable opportunity for higher education, demonstrating how meaningful space physics measurements can be carried out using simple and widely available instrumentation.
This contribution shows that reasonably accurate measurements of solar noise can be obtained using commercial satellite TV receiving systems, such as Direct-To-Home (DTH) Ku-band antennas and low-cost receivers, commonly employed for satellite broadcasting. These systems are inexpensive, easy to deploy, and familiar to students, making them particularly suitable for educational activities that bridge undergraduate teaching, laboratory work, and applied research.
The work is based on long-term measurements originally collected in the context of rainfall opportunistic sensing (ROS) experiments, which continuously monitor the received signal strength from geostationary broadcast satellites using small parabolic dishes (0.6–1.5 m diameter). During Sun transit events, these datasets naturally include characteristic signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) degradations caused by solar radio emission entering the antenna beam. By exploiting these events, students can learn how to extract physical information—such as equivalent solar noise temperature—directly from real-world measurements.
A key educational aspect addressed in this study is the role of antenna beam geometry. Commercial Ku-band antennas have beamwidths of approximately 1.5–3°, significantly larger than the apparent solar disk (~0.53°). As a consequence, the received signal integrates emissions from the entire solar disk and part of the surrounding corona. This effect is discussed and compared, for reference, with measurements from high-gain X-band antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network, which provide much narrower beams and spatially selective observations. Such comparisons help students understand fundamental concepts in antenna theory, radiometry, and measurement uncertainty.
Experimental results from a multi-year campaign (2018–2023), conducted in northern Tuscany using a 0.8 m dish pointed at a GEO broadcast satellite, are presented as an example of how Sun transit measurements can be incorporated into teaching laboratories and student projects. The apparent solar trajectory across the antenna beam is reconstructed using solar ephemerides, enabling a direct connection between theoretical models and observed data.
Overall, this contribution demonstrates that low-cost satellite TV equipment can serve as an effective educational and research tool for introducing students to solar radio physics, satellite communications, and experimental data analysis, fostering hands-on learning while producing scientifically meaningful results.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the following projects: Space It Up, funded by Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) – Contract 2024-5-E.0 - CUP I53D24000060005; FoReLab (Departments of Excellence), funded by MUR.
How to cite: Giannetti, F. and Sapienza, F.: Teaching and Research Opportunities in Solar Noise Measurements Using Low-Cost Satellite TV Receiving Systems, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13471, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13471, 2026.
Writing scientific papers is a key skill for researchers, and increasingly also for professionals in geoscience and engineering. It is very time-intensive and challenging, especially for PhD candidates or master's students doing it for the first time. In interdisciplinary contexts, the process can be tough even for seasoned professionals. Courses and other resources on academic writing help, but they might leave the actual process – from ideation and data collection to editing and publishing – quite unfamiliar. Some educators have made losing the research paper virginity easier by facilitating co-writing of real-life papers together in short timeframes through courses or workshops. This process can be a win-win for everyone involved: academic staff can finally develop that lingering research idea into a paper with the help of others, and early-career researchers can complete the usually daunting first paper much earlier than they otherwise would. Additionally, scientific writing and incorporating multidisciplinary perspectives becomes much easier once you have experienced the process once.
Unfortunately, scientific works or other materials on such hands-on writing processes are difficult to find. In this presentation, we hope to showcase one way of facilitating such a student co-writing process from start to finish. This process was piloted as part of Aalto University’s Sustainable Global Technologies Studio course in 2024, where multidisciplinary master’s student teams tackle real-life problem-based learning cases with the help of mentors and stakeholders. As part of this course, students travel abroad to work on their case. In this instance, students explored a small Mexican artisan village, studying artisan practices and changes in their environment that impact their livelihood. After returning to Finland, the mentor facilitated a systematic writing process to produce a qualitative academic paper on the students’ work. In short, the team first analyzed the interview data with a coding guide, wrote results into representative sections guided by academic frameworks, and after lengthy albeit educative editing, the paper was submitted to a journal.
The initial five weeks during which students participated in the writing worked well, and progress was speedy. This intense writing process with clear responsibility division, weekly deadlines, and progress meetings yielded the desired outcome – an article draft. Finalizing the paper took longer than expected, but the paper was submitted at the end of 2025. Here, we hope to present one way of facilitating such a process and discuss the lessons learned.
Our experience is that such a systematic approach has high potential to effectively teach both master’s and PhD students about scientific writing and to produce interdisciplinary papers effectively in different kinds of teams. Furthermore, our experience illustrates the potential of project courses in generating impactful outcomes beyond the course itself, which can be of interest for educators interested in practical approaches that deepen the professional relevance of such courses.
How to cite: Juvakoski, A., Chen, X., Sundman, J., Muhonen, M., Taka, M., and Varis, O.: Writing a Scientific Paper with Master’s Students in Five Weeks — One Example of How It Can Be Done & Lessons Learned, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-17381, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-17381, 2026.
Higher education faces three interconnected pressures for change. First, modern societies and work environments demand new competencies and flexible ways of working that challenge traditional academic structures. Experts must not only master their disciplines but also develop transferable skills and adaptive mindsets to co-create knowledge. Second, increasing student diversity and enrollment call for collaborative and agile teaching approaches to ensure sustainability of resources and educator well-being. Third, competitive and individualistic academic cultures potentially undermine efforts toward interdisciplinary education.
Interdisciplinary teaching is widely recognized as essential for addressing complex sustainability challenges, yet it frequently rests on the shoulders of individual instructors. These educators must navigate disciplinary boundaries, balance leadership duties, and innovate without systemic support, making such efforts difficult to sustain or scale. Drawing on relational pedagogy and partnership models, we argue that co-construction is not a supplementary innovation but a structural necessity. Co-construction (Bovill, 2020) involves collaborative design and delivery of curricula by educators, students, institutions, and external stakeholders. This approach redistributes responsibility, fosters epistemic pluralism, and creates enabling conditions for long-term success. Epistemic pluralism refers to the recognition and integration of multiple ways of knowing, including scientific, Indigenous, and experiential perspectives, which is essential for addressing complex and contested issues such as climate change.
Our contribution builds on a case study of an interdisciplinary climate change course developed through co-construction. The course integrated expert-led modules, reflective assessments, and asynchronous discussion forums to promote critical thinking and knowledge co-creation. Topics ranged from Indigenous knowledge and environmental history to sustainable engineering and mental health, challenging disciplinary silos and traditional hierarchies of expertise. This design aligns with democratic education principles and supports intellectual adaptability, agency, and resilience among learners (Whalen and Paez, 2021).
Importantly, co-constructed models provide early-career researchers with opportunities to participate in curriculum design and teaching innovation under mentorship, strengthening academic identity and career development. These models also enable responsiveness to evolving scientific, social, and political contexts, ensuring that curricula remain relevant and dynamic.
This session seeks to collect and synthesize best practices for interdisciplinary education across bachelor, graduate, and early-career stages. By exchanging experiences and identifying structural enablers, we aim to build a foundation for scalable, sustainable interdisciplinary programs in geosciences and beyond. The targeted outcome is a set of articles synthesizing approaches and frameworks that support co-construction. Ultimately, our goal is to advance sustainability and geoscience education through shared innovation and systemic support, empowering educators and learners to tackle the “wicked” sustainability challenges of our time.
Whalen, Kate, and Antonio Paez, ‘Student Perceptions of Reflection and the Acquisition of Higher-Order Thinking Skills in a University Sustainability Course’, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 45.1 (2021), pp. 108–27, doi:10.1080/03098265.2020.1804843
Bovill, Catherine, Co-Creating Learning and Teaching: Towards Relational Pedagogy in Higher Education, Critical Practice in Higher Education (Critical Publishing, 2020)
How to cite: Maclachlan, J. and Maclachlan, A.: From Solo to Shared: Building Resilient Interdisciplinary Teaching Through Co-Construction, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-21955, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21955, 2026.
Publishing in a peer-reviewed scientific publication is considered an asset when applying for scholarships and working positions.
It is however unlikely that students will get to get first-hand experience in writing a real paper until their master´s degrees or PhDs, even though they are often asked to carry out literature reviews as part of their learning.
At the University of Innsbruck, students attending the Bachelor of Geography and the Bachelor of education with a minor in Geography are required to attend seminars in Physical Geography.
Such seminars aim to teach students how to read literature about different geomorphic processes critically, usually with the aim of writing a report and presenting their findings.
This project aimed to additionally provide them with first-hand experience in writing a scientific article intended for international publication. This was goal was achieved by channelling their efforts into writing a review on the visualisation techniques that have been employed in literature to showcase the changes in the landscape brought on by different geomorphic processes.
Both the geomorphic processes and the visualisation techniques to be investigated were selected in advance. For the first part of the semester, the students were split into groups and each assigned a geomorphic process between: a) water erosion and deposition, b) creep, c) debris flows, d) glacial erosion and deposition, e) physical and chemical weathering, f) rockfalls, g) shallow landslides.
While each group carried out their main task of writing a group report, they were additionally asked to keep track of any visualisation technique they came across by compiling a standardised table.
Each person was additionally asked to focus on one specific visualisation technique, which they also described in their report, among: a) 2D renderings, b) 3D renderings, c) topographic approaches, d) videos, e) charts and graphs and g) analogue representations.
During the latter half of the semester, the students were then asked to regroup on the basis of the visualisation technique and to prepare a presentation detailing how the same technique was applied differently, if at all, among different geomorphic processes.
At the end of the semester, all of the students´ findings and observations were collected and their efforts (report, presentation, homework) graded using a traditional approach.
The last class was a non-mandatory one, exclusively attended by the students who were interested in writing the review.
The students were assigned small writing tasks on the basis of their respective reports to write portions of the review, while keeping the overall goal in sight.
All of the students were asked to review their peers´ work and the overall draft.
The review is currently in the works and is to be submitted featuring all of the students who took part in the writing of it as co-authors. Students will additionally be involved in the revision process of the review.
How to cite: Giarola, A. and Temme, A.: Making published authors out of bachelor students , EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-17811, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-17811, 2026.
The world today is changing at an ever-increasing pace, and higher education is under pressure to keep up with the latest trends in science and the labor market. Currently, attention is increasingly shifting to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration, which is essential for tackling urgent and complex tasks. Therefore, educating experts who can effectively transfer knowledge and collaborate across disciplines is crucial.
This contribution discusses and evaluates individual components of a practice-based hybrid model developed and implemented in university-level geoscience seminars. The model is grounded in Supervisor-PhD-Student knowledge exchange process combining traditional lectures, practised-based research-oriented tasks, one-to-one supervision and interactive workshops.
The module simulates work in a scientific environment in which students:
- Develop their critical thinking skills through research reviews and the identification of research gaps.
- Train themselves to be able to provide explanations to those who do not have the same background as them by collaborative research exercises.
- Gain knowledge and practise-based skills by receiving input from tutors and working on partial research projects.
We present the structure of the hybrid model, examples of implemented activities, and reflections on student engagement and learning outcomes. The experience highlights how hybrid teaching formats can enhance motivation, critical thinking, and sustainability awareness. The presented model offers a transferable framework for interdisciplinary geoscience education aligned with the goals of educating future sustainability professionals.
How to cite: Zvara, E. and Zielhofer, C.: Implementing and evaluating a practice-based hybrid teaching model for geoscience education: Lessons from university seminars, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-19390, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-19390, 2026.
The rapid expansion of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) offers unprecedented opportunities to support higher education, particularly in data-intensive scientific disciplines. In undergraduate water sciences programmes—such as the BSc in Water Resources from Rey Juan Carlos University (Spain)—students are required to interpret hydrometeorological datasets, understand the dynamics of the hydrological cycle, and apply analytical methods to real environmental problems. However, many students face persistent barriers when working with programming languages such as R (R Core Team, 2023), which are essential for exploring, processing, and visualizing hydrometeorological data. These limitations hinder their ability to achieve key learning outcomes related to data literacy, problem‑solving, and digital competence. To address these challenges, an educational innovation project was implemented in the core Hydrometeorology course (2nd year) using a structured pedagogical strategy that integrates GAI as a learning support tool. The initiative combines: (1) teacher training through institutional AI‑literacy programs; (2) the redesign of practical activities to incorporate AI-mediated code generation; (3) explicit instruction on ethical, critical, and responsible AI use and correct prompt writing; and (4) the deployment of student surveys and performance analytics to evaluate effectiveness.
All the students completed the AI ethics training module and were also taught how to craft effective prompts, including strategies for specifying context, defining constraints, and iterating queries, to obtain accurate, reproducible, and pedagogically relevant outputs from GAI tools. AI tools—primarily Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft, 2025; https://copilot.microsoft.com/)—were used to scaffold R programming tasks linked to open hydrometeorological datasets from the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET; opendata.aemet.es). This enabled students to focus on conceptual understanding rather than syntactic details. Student perceptions were assessed through structured surveys, and academic performance was contextualized by comparison with by comparison with repeat students who had previously taken the course without AI support. Preliminary results from two structured student surveys (N=12) indicate positive perceived impacts. Among first‑time students, 7/9 reported increased autonomy in hydrometeorological data analysis, 8/9 found the AI support pedagogically useful, and 8/9 recommended its continued use. Recurrent students who had previously taken the course without AI reported reduced perceived difficulty and improved performance, with all of them acknowledging higher confidence when working with data and code.
This project provides empirical evidence on how GAI acts as a pedagogical scaffold to reduce programming barriers, foster inclusive learning, and enhance motivation. By improving data analysis competencies, it supports Sustainable Development Goals on education, water management, and climate action, while informing future curricular innovations in Earth and Environmental Sciences programmes. The authors acknowledge the support of the Vice-Rectorate for Academic Innovation of Rey Juan Carlos University through the 2025 Teaching Innovation Project Call, which made this initiative possible.
How to cite: Izquierdo, T. and Jiménez-Díaz, A.: Bridging the programming gap: Integrating AI-mediated coding tools to strengthen hydrometeorological data analysis competencies in undergraduate water science students, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-12245, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-12245, 2026.
Global change is increasingly pressing continental water systems through climate variability, accentuated extreme events, ecosystem degradation, urbanisation, and shifting and unpredictable socio-political conditions. These drivers interact across scales and sectors, generating complex and often unforeseen systems responses. Addressing such challenges requires professionals who are able to think beyond disciplinary boundaries, work with uncertainty, and co-develop solutions with diverse actors rather than applying predefined technical recipes. These challenges are especially relevant in the field of geoscience, and water sciences in particular, calling for educational approaches that go beyond codified knowledge, explicitly fostering creativity, collaboration, and confidence in interdisciplinary and multicultural contexts.
This contribution presents a new educational approach starting in September 2026, offered by the consortium EUCOR – the European Campus and the Ecohydrology Programme by UNESCO, an international 2-year Master Course on Continental Water Sustainability (https://switch.unistra.fr/formation/master-cws/) to train young talents in transdisciplinary and sustainable management of inland water socio-ecosystems, at the intersection of natural sciences, social sciences, and engineering. Crossing borders, the Master Course CWS will provide a double-degree jointly offered by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) and the University of Strasbourg in cooperation with ENGEES (France).
The training programme will bring together academic experts and experienced practitioners to train small, interactive groups of students in problem-solving in hydrosystem management. Practical work includes the harmonization of human use and nature's needs for water, nature-based solutions (NBS), climate-change urban and landscape adaptation, modelling and planning, ecopsychology and technological innovation. We aim at graduating so-called “hydro-nexialists”, professionals specialized in water-related content, but who are able to see connections between disciplines, are skilled in conflict resolution, and are able to solve complex problems by employing an evolutive project design. While the first year introduces our students to novel learning techniques and approaches to navigate in complex themes, the second year almost exclusively consists of practical courses with relevant stakeholders to prepare for professional success and efficiency in socio-environmental problem-solving. The course, delivered in English, is open to all students having a BSc in Natural and Engineering Sciences related to water and the environment.
The programme is used here as a case study to reflect on how education in water sciences can be adapted to better prepare students for global change. We argue that this educational model supports the development of professionals capable of navigating complexity and uncertainty in water systems and offers transferable insights for geoscience education more broadly.
How to cite: Franca, M. J., Wittmann, F., Marchant, V., Mohrlok, U., Payraudeau, S., Scherer, U., Imfeld, G., Kappes, B. A., Schmitt, L., and Wantzen, K. M.: Educating transdisciplinary water professionals for global change: the joint European Master’s programme in Continental Water Sustainability, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-12639, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-12639, 2026.
The fundamental competencies of an effective civil engineer can be represented by the metaphor of a bird’s wings. One wing embodies technically-centered competencies, while the other embodies equity-centered competencies. This bird, representing an engineer working in water resources and other civil engineering contexts, needs both wings to fly.
Traditional civil engineering education in Canada, and we suspect elsewhere, has asymmetrically developed and prioritized technically-centered competencies over equity-centered ones. This pedagogical miscalibration undermines the ability of future engineers to fulfill their fundamental responsibility to work in the interest of the public good, which includes the safeguarding of human life, welfare, and the environment. The implications of this miscalibration are evident in the history of civil engineering, which is filled with technically excellent and often well-intentioned designs that have contributed to unjust, unsustainable, and racist outcomes.
To respond to this need to elevate equity-centred competencies as foundational in the training of civil engineers, we undertook a bottom-up, program-wide initiative with the goal of systematically embedding equity-centred competencies, goals, and knowledge systems across the undergraduate civil engineering program at the University of Victoria (Canada). This initiative integrated and sequenced modules on environmental justice, sustainability science, anti-racism, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), linked through the unifying principle of “equity”. Yet, we recognize the potential limitation that linking these efforts may flatten important differences across these distinct intellectual traditions (sustainability, environmental justice, EDI).
Through initial successes in 3rd and 4th year water resource and groundwater hydrology courses, this initiative expanded by iteratively consulting with interested departmental faculty members and through voluntary curriculum development supported by an initiative-dedicated teaching assistant. In total, 23 lecture slide decks and 8 in-class activities were developed and are now embedded within multiple core courses, ensuring every student in our program is now directly exposed to these concepts. We have made all resources openly available on our ‘Learn and Teach Green, People-Centered Civil Engineering’ initiative website (https://oac.uvic.ca/civelearningandteaching/).
Our goal in describing this initiative is to inspire or enable similar initiatives by documenting our motivations, conceptual framings, curriculum development process and outcomes, and reflections on lessons learned through this process.
How to cite: Huggins, X. and Gleeson, T.: Strengthening our wings of equity to help civil engineering students navigate and soar in our challenging world: successes and lessons from a bottom-up curriculum initiative in Canada, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-12952, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-12952, 2026.
From November 20th to 23rd, 2025, the University of Latvia Institute of Astronomy held the first edition of the workshop "Colours and Life in the Universe" (CLU25). This four-day workshop focused on spectroscopy and the spectral information contained in various objects on Earth and in space, as well as the signatures of life found in them.
The program was set to have a good balance between theory and hands-on activities. This was achieved by offering four different projects, of which each team conducted one, with an expert assigned to each project. For the project "Colours and Life on Earth and Moons" the expert was Prof. Bernard Foing, project "Colours of galaxies and beyond" expert - Dr. Mojtaba Raouf, project "Dangerous asteroids and exotic stars" expert - Dr. Ilgmārs Eglītis, and project "Colourful Earth from Space" - Prof. Gulin Dede. The first two days were theory focused to obtain the baseline knowledge about spectroscopy, and its applications. The program included lectures, as well as panel discussions from experts across various fields within spectroscopy. The last two days took place at Baldone Observatory and were project-oriented, allowing teams to pursue their interests within the project themes under expert guidance.
The teams had access to the Baldone Schmidt telescope with 1.2 meter mirror and prism spectroscopy, 55 cm Cassegrain telescope with fiber spectroscopy, and other smaller telescopes. After instructions on how to use the telescopes, they could choose the targets and operate the telescopes by themselves with guidance from experts during the whole night.
In the last day, each team presented its project to three experts, who spanned both the space and ground spectroscopy and commercialization aspects. Each team was awarded in a specific category, with options to have funded participation in conferences with their projects, along with other astronomy based activities.
The feedback on the workshop was excellent, as the participants learned the most by applying their newly obtained knowledge to real astronomy problems. It sparked their interest in the field, and a significant portion of the participants are engaged in continuing their projects after the workshop. Some teams even produced novel results, such as getting the spectra of an asteroid for the first time with the Baldone Schmidt telescope, which provided direct benefits for senior researchers.
Due to the success of the event, the workshop will be held annually to popularize the astronomy field in Latvia. Additionally, the workshop workflow can be adapted for other countries and represents a relevant activity for the EGU capacity building. The workshop was organized within the ERDF project No. 1.1.1.5/2/24/A/004.
Invited speakers included: Salim Ansari, Mojtaba Raouf, Gulin Dede, Vilma Puriene, Jara Pascual, Karlis Pukitis, Kalvis Salmins, Andris Slavinskis, Varis Karitans, and Lev Lapkis.
How to cite: Nagainis, K., Foing, B., Atvars, A., Ubelis, A., and Eglitis, I.: Successes and lessons: workshop “Colours and Life in the Universe 2025” at the University of Latvia, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-21062, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21062, 2026.
Open science is a collaborative culture, enabled by technology, that empowers the open sharing of data, information, and knowledge within the scientific community and the wider public. The practice of open science accelerates scientific research and understanding by encouraging researchers to harness new technologies and collaborative practices, enabling access to information and expertise that may otherwise be out of reach. In order to build an open science community, NASA has developed two courses, Open Science Essentials and Open Science 101, designed to teach researchers, students, and the general public about the principles and practice of open science. Open Science Essentials provides introductory knowledge of the principles, practices, and tools necessary to conduct open science. This knowledge empowers learners to make their research more transparent, reproducible, and available to all. The course covers key topics such as open data, open peer review, and collaborative research practices and takes about 2 hours to complete.The Open Science 101 curriculum provides a deeper, foundational knowledge of the principles and best practices for conducting open science. The 12 hour, 5-module course provides researchers, students, and the general public with a solid foundation on the principles of open science; how to plan, conduct, and participate in open science research projects; legal and ethical considerations when planning open science projects; and open science best practices. Both trainings are available to learners anywhere in the world through free online courses. Additionally, a slide deck is available to educators to facilitate incorporating the Open Science Essentials course into their own curriculums. This presentation will share information about NASA’s open science courses, how aspects of the courses could be incorporated into curricula and how these courses help build scholarship capabilities in higher education students.
How to cite: Bugbee, K., Kepner, F., Ressler, B., Stursma, J., Johnson, C., Blanchette, K., Fanourakis, S., Higgins, M., and Ormsby, S.: NASA’s Open Science Trainings as a Resource in the Higher Education Community, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-21827, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21827, 2026.
It is widely recognised that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) are essential tools for landscape and environmental analysis in a rapidly changing world. Across the public and private sectors, geospatial data and competence are seen as strategically essential for addressing societal challenges and for decision-making.
We reviewed the biology curricula at the six major universities in Norway (UiB, UiO, UiT, UiS, UNIS, and NTNU) and identified a shortage of courses integrating geospatial competence with key biological topics. Most courses in GIS or RS are aimed at students in geology, geography and engineering, missing the opportunity for biology student to learn to apply geospatial methods and tools to ecological data and models. At the same time, biodiversity and ecological mapping, spatial planning, and sustainable economic development have been identified as priority areas in the National Geospatial Strategy 2018.
To tackle this gap, we developed the ECO-SPACE project at the University of Bergen that applies GIS and RS tools and analyses to biogeography and global change ecology through self-paced, universal design modules that combine conceptual theory with hands-on work. At the same time, we established international and interdisciplinary collaborations with several European institutions already experienced in applying GIS and RS to biological topics. We also involved Earth Science departments, where advanced geospatial methods are more fully embedded, and public- and industry-based stakeholders in Norway engaged in biodiversity monitoring, spatial planning, and environmental management.
Our modules are designed to bridge academic and applied perspectives, ensuring that they reflect both scientific advances and the real-world geospatial competencies demanded by the labour market. They address topics such as spatiotemporal dynamics of biome distributions and extents, biodiversity assessments, and climate–ecosystem interactions. Our approach aims to foster spatial critical-thinking skills to interpret biological phenomena in complex landscapes, building practical competence in GIS and RS tools, and enabling students to apply spatial analyses to real-world ecological and biogeographical research.
How to cite: Lima, A. C., Wein, T., van Hecke, M., and Flantua, S. G. A.: ECO-SPACE: Geospatial Competence and Education in Biosciences, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-21271, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21271, 2026.
Andean societies are expected to face increasing climate risks due to intensifying hydroclimatic extremes, long-term warming, and high exposure of livelihoods and infrastructure across complex topography. While climate datasets and analytical methods are rapidly expanding, translating climate information into actionable decisions remains constrained by persistent gaps in usability, institutional interfaces, and workforce competencies. EMPOANDES is a newly initiated Erasmus+ CBHE multi-country capacity-building initiative that will address these challenges by strengthening the regional climate services ecosystem through coordinated higher-education modernisation, applied training, and stakeholder co-definition of educational needs.
The project will follow a staged, needs-led implementation pathway to strengthen climate-services education and training across the participating countries and at the regional Andean scale. First, EMPOANDES will conduct a co-definition of education and skills needs with universities, national meteorological and hydrological services, and key sectoral users, combining country-level assessments with a regional synthesis to identify common capacity gaps and priority thematic areas. Second, these findings will be translated into a structured portfolio of courses to be developed or updated, specifying learning outcomes, target audiences, delivery formats, and linkages to sectoral decision contexts. Third, EMPOANDES will develop competency guidelines for climate service provision to harmonise expectations across institutions and to provide the reference framework for curriculum design. Fourth, the project will create and/or revise the selected courses and their associated teaching materials, ensuring coherence across modules and comparability across countries. Finally, a train-the-trainers programme will be implemented to build instructional capacity and ensure sustainable delivery, complemented by pilot roll-out and iterative refinement based on learner feedback and stakeholder validation.
This contribution will present the planned implementation architecture (partner roles across universities, national meteorological and hydrological services, and sectoral actors), the competency-to-curriculum mapping strategy, and the project monitoring framework (training coverage, prototype maturity, and adoption pathways). EMPOANDES is expected to deliver an operational portfolio of educational assets and early-stage climate service prototypes with defined pathways to impact, thereby contributing to sustained regional capacity for climate-informed adaptation planning in Andean mountain contexts.
How to cite: Olano Pozo, J. X., Aguilar, E., Boqué-Ciurana, A., Cimolai, C., Sigró, J., and Domenech, A.: EMPOANDES: Capacity-building for climate services development in the Andes through a multi-country HEI-NHMS-stakeholder partnership, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-9847, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-9847, 2026.
The gap between the demand and supply of specific skills in the field of Earth Observation from Space has been recognized even by the European Commission as one of the main limiting factors for the development of the aerospace sector and, in particular, for the insufficient growth of the European market for products and services based on EO techniques. The lack of a university curriculum covering the entire value chain — from the design of platforms and sensors to the development of systems, applications, and services based on the processing of EO data from space — represents today still a significant gap. Companies operating in the sector have repeatedly expressed difficulty in finding personnel with such expertise, capable of responding and actively anticipating future market demands in a continuously evolving field like Earth Observation applications from space. Following the guidelines of the EU and leveraging the synergies made possible by the Copernicus Academy Network, a new academic program has been proposed which aims to train professionals with all the fundamental and specialized skills needed for the development of the entire value chain — from the design and operation of remote sensing platforms and instruments to the analysis and interpretation of remote sensing data for the development of advanced applications and services. At present all these skills are already offered, separately, albeit in a disorganized manner and with varying intensity and educational objectives, in multiple University curricula, such as Aerospace Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, etc. However, there is still no one single University curriculum that combines all the foundational knowledge needed to envision new services and applications of EO from Space, starting from the design of appropriate platforms and tools, rather than solely relying on the existing EO data. To fill this educational gap, has already been recognized as one of the paramount objectives of the Copernicus User Uptake strategy of the European Commission. Actually there is nothing in the European skills catalogue ESCO (European Skills/Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) that alludes to such professional figures. The EO-SAT project funded by the MUR (the Italian Ministry of University and Research) with its new international Master program in "Earth Observations from Space: Advanced Technologies and Applications (EO-SAT), aims to fill this gap by training new professional figures who will be able to find employment in companies operating in the aerospace sector and in ICT, as well as in public administrations. In this paper the long lasting preparation efforts - which include the unique Body of Knowledge for Earth Observation and GIS developed within the EO4GEO project – as well as the main results achieved after the first year of the Master implementation will be presented and discussed.
How to cite: Tramutoli, V., Colonna, R., Lisi, M., Mancusi, I., and Nayak, K.: Toward a new Academic Curriculum in Eart’s Observations from Space., EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-19773, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-19773, 2026.
As global challenges become more complex, higher education teaching is increasingly expected to contribute to societal impact through collaboration with actors beyond academia. Such arrangements offer threefold benefits: students simultaneously develop their personal, disciplinary, and professional competencies; educators gain experience in facilitating learning in complex environments; societal actors benefit from knowledge exchange and co-creation with academia. Capitalizing this potential requires careful course design and implementation.
In this contribution, we introduce a framework for academia–society collaborations that invites reflection on how to strengthen cross-disciplinary and -sectoral learning and impact. The framework stands on four pillars: study project design, stakeholder roles, student selection, and teachers’ roles and practices. We showcase this framework through the Sustainable Global Technologies (SGT) Studio course at Aalto University, which, for twenty years, has developed interdisciplinary education through global academia-society collaborations. In SGT, interdisciplinary student teams work on real-world challenges in collaboration with external partners, typically based in the Global South (e.g., NGOs, businesses, governmental organizations). Throughout the course, each student team is mentored by an appointed teacher – commonly a practitioner with topical expertise, master’s students, doctoral researchers, or postdoctoral researchers – to guide the students’ learning process.
Through the case study of SGT, we examine the implications of different design configurations (across past, present, and future of the course). Firstly, we show how study project designs can evolve from local desk studies to transdisciplinary and international project cases in response to changing societal needs and gradual development of pedagogical capacity. The degree of openness and disciplinary breadth impacts students’ ability to identify and recognize the connections between technology, innovation, design, entrepreneurship, and social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
To further support this, the selection and role definition of stakeholders is key in how students contextualize their theoretical knowledge in real-world settings. By engaging with stakeholders, students get to discuss and negotiate diverse perspectives, including value conflicts and forms of knowledge beyond academia.
At the same time, strategically composing student teams by aligning diverse backgrounds with the nature of project is central in enabling boundary-crossing dialogue and broadening students’ understanding of their disciplinary contributions to societal challenges.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we discuss how teachers’ roles have transformed from supporting individual student teams toward establishing and sustaining structures through various research- and practice-based educational initiatives. These structures enable peer learning and cross-teaching among educators from different disciplines, cultures, and institutions.
Taken together, our contribution exemplifies how course design choices influence transdisciplinary learning and generate impact across multiple actors. The proposed framework acts as a practical tool that supports educators seeking to strengthen interdisciplinary and impactful education. Importantly, SGT shows that there is no fixed recipe for designing learning that remains relevant forever. By presenting a course developed over 20 years, we illustrate how interdisciplinary education adapts to a changing world and raises questions about the future direction of academia-society collaborations, and what is needed to support these directions to maintain meaningful and societally relevant education.
How to cite: Muhonen, M. and Sundman, J.: Supporting Transdisciplinary Learning Through Global Academia–Society Collaborations: A Four-Pillar Framework, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-14227, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-14227, 2026.
Soils are central to environmental sustainability and human well-being, yet they remain underrepresented in higher education and insufficiently addressed in societal awareness. With more than 60% of European soils affected by degradation, there is an urgent need for educational strategies to help reverse this trend. Within this context, the CURIOSOIL (URL: curiosoil.eu) project implements an integrated educational approach built on the Soil Literacy Assessment Framework (SLAF), which conceptualises soil literacy across four domains of knowledge, attitudes, and skills, operationalised through defined subdomains, descriptors, and learning outcomes. The SLAF provides a common structure for both the design of educational resources and the assessment of learning processes. Guided by this framework, a range of educational resources is being developed across different educational levels.
For higher education, CURIOSOIL will implement four complementary approaches: (1) ready-to-use lesson plans for higher education teaching, including discipline-targeted materials to support integration of soil topics into non-soil standard curricula (2) a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) as a scalable learning environment designed to raise soil awareness and strengthen soil knowledge in higher education; (3) challenge-based learning activities that engage learners in authentic, societally relevant soil-health challenges; and (4) short online micro-credentials designed to deepen soil health knowledge. Together, these approaches address complementary dimensions of science communication, spanning soil knowledge acquisition, reflection, participation, and action-oriented learning.
These activities are guided by CURIOSOIL’s Theory of Change (ToC), which defines long-term goals for assessing change in soil literacy and articulates how targeted educational resources and learning activities are expected to contribute to societal changes towards caring for soil and produce impact.
The main goal of this study is to analyse how different higher education learning environments, designed under the Soil Literacy Assessment Framework and CURIOSOIL’s Theory of Change, contribute to improving soil literacy and fostering responsible soil stewardship among higher education students. In this presentation we will discuss the impact of the four complementary educational approaches of CURIOSOIL to identify which approaches are most effective for specific dimensions of soil literacy. We will investigate how scalable (MOOCs), immersive (CBL), and modular (micro-credentials) learning environments support distinct but complementary soil literacy processes and discuss how these could facilitate the integration of soil topics into non-soil-focused degree programmes. This study is expected to generate data-driven insights into how soil literacy can be designed, measured, and scaled in higher education.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge co-funding from the European Union under the Horizon Europe Programme, through the project CURIOSOIL Grant Agreement No. 101112875 and the financial support of CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020+LA/P/0094/2020) by FCT/MCTES, through national funds. We also thank project partners for their contributions.
How to cite: de Oliveira Brasileiro, L., Machado, A. I., Rodrigues, R., Horgas, J., Lubbers, I., Huber, S., Gruselle, M.-C., Stolte, J., Nyárai, O., Martin, A., Pedrosa, P., Marques, M., Pombo, L., and Morais Rodrigues, S.: Designing Interdisciplinary Soil Education in Higher Education: Planned Interventions and Impact Evaluation, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-21182, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-21182, 2026.
Anxiety is a prevalent and persistent challenge in today's society, may influence an individual’s well-being and self-confidence. In higher education, students are often put in situations of increased stress, such as high-percentage evaluations and time constrained examinations. The anxiety related to these assessments may have direct impact on learning outcomes. This study examines how gender differences may lead to different levels of assessment anxiety, and how this directly relates to students’ academic self-efficacy and final grade outcomes in undergraduate science education.
During Fall 2024, a survey was administered across multiple introductory-level undergraduate science courses at McGill University, including courses relating to Geosciences, such as Natural Disasters, Mathematics, and Physics. For each course, the survey was made available to students the day following their first midterm and remained open for a two-week period. A total of 277 students responded to the survey, representing 13% of the total enrolment. Of these responses, 188 students consented to providing final grades, representing 9% of the total enrolment.
The survey used Likert scale questions to measure state anxiety, trait anxiety and academic self-efficacy. State anxiety is defined here as the situational anxiety experienced in response to a specific evaluative context. This construct captures cognitive worry, emotional strain, and ability to concentrate, making specific reference to the respondent’s recent assessment in the course. Trait anxiety refers to the persistent anxiety experienced across all evaluative situations, and is not tied to one specific assessment. Academic self-efficacy reflects students confidence to successfully perform academic tasks and achieve desired outcomes within a course. The survey also collected demographic information. Of interest to the work presented here, 55% of survey responses identified as female and 42% as male.
To explore potential gender differences in anxiety, and the resulting impact on learning, we analyze the data by gender. Preliminary results indicate a significant difference in descriptive statistics. Women’s self-efficacy scores exhibit a relatively uniform distribution with a lower mode, reflecting greater variability and a larger proportion of lower scores. Men’s scores are more concentrated at the higher end, indicating higher and more consistently reported self-efficacy. Further analysis use multiple regression to examine how these gender-related differences in anxiety and self-efficacy may lead to differences in final grade outcomes. Understanding these differences is critical in geoscience and related fields, as it can inform more effective teaching strategies and support equitable learning experiences for all students. These findings can advance the development of more inclusive curricula and assessment practices. They may also inform instructional training related to assessment design and delivery that aims to promote both student well-being and academic success.
How to cite: Webb, E., Yazdani, A., Brule, V., and Slapcoff, M.: Gender Differences in Assessment and Anxiety in Undergraduate Science Courses , EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-16274, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-16274, 2026.
The increasing availability of geological, environmental, and climate dataset has rendered the traditional analytical approaches insufficient for establishing and interpreting its complex patterns. We currently find ourselves in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which offers the geoscience community an opportunity to identify the non-linear relationships within these datasets, thereby improving the predictive accuracy. However, the adoption of such novel methods comes with its own challenges. In this work, we have identified two primary challenges. First, although it has become increasingly easier to run a basic Machine Learning (ML) algorithm, the lack of understanding of its mathematical foundation and architectural principles poses a challenge to its pragmatic application. Despite the widespread availability of online resources, we have observed that an individual generally finds themselves overwhelmed and unable to translate these methods into practice, largely due to the absence of resources that explains the algorithms directly within the geological context. Second, as a consequence of this limitation, the models are frequently trained in an overly-simplified manner, which leads to compromised results. Careful feature selection, and transformation are critical to deriving meaningful information from complex geo-scientific datasets. Given that such datasets often consist of parameters spanning different scales, failure to appropriately scale and pre-process the data prior to model training has been observed to have significantly impacted the performance metrics.
To address these challenges, the Freiraum project GeoAI is being carried out at Technische Universität Berlin. The objective of this project is to build an e-learning platform that explains the algorithms starting from ML (Supervised and Unsupervised) to Deep Learning methods. These algorithms will be implemented using diverse datasets commonly employed in geo-scientific studies, sourced from reliable and well-known open-source repositories. Example applications include time-series analysis of meteorological and ground water datasets for continuous prediction, as well as cloud image classification, sound data, among others. The overarching aim of this work is to demonstrate mathematically sound data pre-processing workflows and to provide guidance on selecting an appropriate model for specific tasks.
This project seeks to make ML methodologies accessible to individuals interested in applying such techniques efficiently in their work, in a manner that is both comprehensible and mathematically rigorous. The platform also accounts for users who prefer limited engagement with algorithmic theory programming, particularly in Python. To accommodate this, reusable and scalable code implementations will be provided, enabling reproducibility across studies involving similar datasets. Additionally, the project actively incorporates feedback from university-level students who are currently being introduced to these topics as part of their academic curricula.
The anticipated impact of the GeoAI platform is informed by the success of a related initiative, SOGA (Statistics and Geodata Analysis using R and Python), developed at Frei Universität Berlin for geo-statistics education. In strong collaboration with the Freiraum project GEOSTAT (FU Berlin), GeoAI aims to provide a holistic perspective on ML models tailored specifically to the geosciences. The platform is planned for public release by January 2027.
How to cite: Kandwal, A., Hartmann, K., schnaithmann, C., and Rudolph, A.: GeoAI: E-Learning Platform for AI based Geodata Analysis, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-8166, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-8166, 2026.
Climate models are not just physics translated into computer code. They are powerful actors influencing and influenced by humans. This becomes clear for example when considering the values that enter climate models and assessments based on them (Undorf et al., 2022). Thus modelers need to learn and modeling courses need to teach not only the techniques of numerical discretisation and the physical understanding of the climate system. Courses should also treat the underlying motivations, the uncertainties, and the societal embededness of the modelling.
Following a design-based research approach, we have developed a course at Bachelor level that aims to teach students such interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing on texts and learnings from history and philosophy of science as well as science and technology studies. With a reflective open-ended exercise, we elicit students' learning process through challenging climate modeling topics.
We find that the students learn to appreciate the complexity of climate models and the intricacies of scientific practice itself, highlighting for example the role of values in science. The exercise reveals few misconceptions and no major hurdles in the students' learning that may have been expected from the interdisciplinary nature of the material.
We thus conclude that the course is a practice-proven approach to teaching the physical basis of climate modeling as well as its critical reflection. Together with the openly shared material, it supplies an inspiration and practical template for lecturers to include more interdisciplinary content and reflection into their modeling courses.
Undorf, S., Pulkkinen, K., Wikman-Svahn, P., and Bender, F. A.-M.: How do value-judgements enter model-based assessments of climate sensitivity?, Climatic Change, 174, 19, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03435-7, 2022.
How to cite: Proske, U. and Staab, M.: Teaching an interdisciplinary understanding of climate modelling, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-1575, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-1575, 2026.
The number of geophysics students is rapidly declining across Europe, despite the great demand for geophysicists. Many students are interested in quantitative sciences with Earth science applications, but they are often not aware of geophysics as a career option as it is not typically taught in school (Jenkins et al., 2024). Furthermore, the spread of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and anti-scientific movements across Europe have highlighted the need for scientific literacy (Siarova et al., 2019 European Parliament). Now more than ever, there is a need to introduce the general public to the basics of the scientific method and what it means to do research, particularly in geosciences (EGU Barcelona Manifesto for the Teaching of Geosciences, 2023).
We are therefore developing materials for Science Storytellers: scientists who go into their community to engage with students and the general public. Our curiosity-driven teaching materials are based around well-known tales and incorporate elements of narrative, performance, and play. Through this original framework, we provide scientists and teachers with the tools to effectively engage students.
This year, we focus on the classic tale of “The House At Pooh Corner” by A. A. Milne (1928). In this novel, Eeyore is relieved that there has not been an earthquake lately. The book takes place in Sussex (UK), where earthquakes are not typical. Why then, is Eeyore talking about them? We present the science case behind this story in the General Seismology session (SM1.1) and here we show how we developed this research into teaching and outreach material. We developed a set of different questions around the research-project, which naturally arise from the Winnie-the-Pooh premise to encourage children to follow their own curiosity to discover why Eeyore is worried about earthquakes.
With this abstract, we seek feedback from fellow science communicators and teachers and invite everyone along to the try-out of the corresponding "The Science Storyteller" theatre show, which will make its debut on the Friday afternoon of EGU in a dedicated splinter meeting. We hope to reach even more young people and curious minds through this interactive, musical journey through the science story behind Winnie-the-Pooh.
References
Jenkins, J., Gilligan, A., & Bie, L. (2024). Who wants to be a geophysicist?. Astronomy & Geophysics, 65(5).
Siarova, H., Sternadel, D., & Szőnyi, E. (2019). Research for CULT committee–Science and scientific literacy as an educational challenge.
How to cite: van Zelst, I., Lythgoe, K., Gilligan, A., Jenkins, J., Kemp, M., Smith, J. L., Curtis, A., Kotowski, A., Funiciello, F., Erdős, Z., Grima, A. G., Peskens, R., Offer, L., Arnould, M., Crameri, F., Handley, H., and Barosch, J.: The Science Storyteller: Curiosity-driven learning based on narrative, performance, and play to improve geophysical science literacy, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-11769, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-11769, 2026.
The global demand for base and strategic metals (e.g. Cu, Zn, Co) as well as for high-technology elements (e.g., In, Te, Se, Sb) increases in response to the green and digital transitions. In order to secure metal supply for the European industry the EU Commission designed the Critical Raw Materials Act with the goal of achieving at least 10% of the EU’s annual metal consumption by extraction within the community. This goal requires well-trained exploration geologists who have experience in working on potential resources within the EU. The ERASMUS+ ARTeMIS (Action for Research and Teaching Mineral exploration Inclusive School) program is a training-through-research project in mineral exploration at the MSc level. The program brings together Master students from six European partner universities (University of Lorraine, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, NKUA Athens, Univ. of Bratislava, and ELTE Budapest). Within the program lecturers and students learn the basic theory and safe use of portable spectroscopic tools (pXRF, pLIBS, pVNIR-SWIR and pRAMAN) as well as the treatment of data. Additionally, the ARTeMIS program offers classroom instruction in exploration planning, use of GIS data, and mineral resource geochemistry related to porphyry-epithermal metal deposits in the Tethyan Metallogenic Belt. The course is supplemented by a two-week field school in NE Greece (Central Macedonia and Thrace regions) dedicated to the application of portable spectroscopic tools in demanding field work environments. The field training is combined with mapping of porphyry Cu-Mo-Au and epithermal mineralisations and their alteration zones, which are exploration targets for various base, critical and precious metals in Europe.
How to cite: Haase, K., Tarantola, A., Cauzid, J., Melfos, V., Stouraiti, C., Kodera, P., Molnar, F., Hars, E., and Wolf, J.: ARTeMIS_2 - A European training-through-research program for exploration geologists, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-18344, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-18344, 2026.
Since the 1950s, the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) has been engaged in postgraduate education. Over the decades, it has trained numerous specialists in fields such as Geology, Geophysics, Geological Resources and Geological Engineering, Planetary Science, and Marine Geology, many of whom now hold prominent positions in academia, government, and industry.
As the scientific disciplines have advanced and integrated, the backgrounds of the Institute's graduate students have become increasingly diverse. In addition to training students from the aforementioned disciplines of Earth Sciences, the institute also admits undergraduates who are majored in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Life Sciences. Therefore, this shift has made comprehensive field-based instruction essential for bridging the gap between knowledge and practices.
To meet this need, the IGGCAS has developed a series of field teaching programs, including:
(1) Formation and Destruction of the North China Craton: A geological fieldtrip focused on regional tectonic evolution.
(2) Geophysical Field Observation: Practice for data collection and analysis on seismometers.
(3) Space Physics Internship: Field-based course centered on atmospheric and space sciences.
(4) French-Italian-Swiss Alps Fieldtrip: An International Geological Excursion.
These programs are annually conducted in a small-class format led by experts from different disciplines. By combining cutting-edge scientific questions in classic geological sites, these programs can deepen students' understanding of interdisciplinary work and greatly improve their practical research skills.
How to cite: Song, Y.: Field Teaching in Earth and Planetary Sciences Aligned with Disciplinary Development, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-8709, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-8709, 2026.
The “Green & Pink for Sustainable Education” (GPSEducation) project presents an innovative, internationally oriented framework for teaching and learning in higher education, with a specific focus on geoscience education and its connections to societally relevant challenges. The project strengthens cooperation among ten Italian universities and a network of partner institutions across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with the aim of developing advanced, transferable competencies in sustainability, Earth Observation (EO), and digital innovation.
Within GPSEducation, teaching and learning are addressed as drivers of capacity building and educational transformation. The project adopts a transdisciplinary approach that integrates geosciences, socio-economic analysis, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), health, and digital technologies, while explicitly embedding gender equality and inclusiveness as educational principles. This framework responds to key challenges in higher education, including the need to link scientific content to real-world sustainability issues, to enhance critical thinking and decision-making skills, and to adopt innovative digital and blended learning strategies.
A central educational innovation is represented by Work Package 4, dedicated to Advanced Skills Long Life Learning Courses. Five modular courses have been co-designed and delivered through international mobility and hybrid teaching formats, addressing topics such as remote sensing for EO, land degradation and regeneration within the LULUCF framework, NBS for climate change adaptation, carbon accounting, and the use of XR/VR environments for sustainable built and natural systems. These courses combine theoretical foundations with hands-on, data-driven learning, enabling participants to work with satellite time series, cloud-based EO platforms, and scenario-oriented tools. Particular attention is paid to developing self-assessment and problem-solving skills that can be directly transferred to teaching, thesis supervision, and curriculum design in home institutions.
The establishment of an EO Hub at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Rabat (ENSMR) exemplifies a concrete solution to common teaching challenges in geoscience education, such as limited access to data, tools, and interdisciplinary expertise. Conceived as a living educational laboratory, the EO Hub supports collaborative teaching, supervision, and research, linking global EO resources with site-specific case studies on land degradation, ecosystem regeneration, and climate adaptation in Mediterranean and North African contexts. Innovative educational technologies, including cloud-based EO analysis and immersive XR/VR visualizations, are explored both for their pedagogical potential and for a critical assessment of their strengths and limitations in higher education.
By sharing lessons learned, teaching strategies, and educational resources developed within GPSEducation, this contribution aims to foster international dialogue within the EGU community on effective, inclusive, and future-oriented practices in geoscience education. The project offers a replicable model for integrating cutting-edge geoscience research, digital innovation, and societal relevance into higher education teaching and learning.
Acknowledgements
The project TNE23-00012 “Green & Pink for Sustainable Education” (GPSEducation) is funded within the PNRR by Sub-Measure T4 "Transnational Initiatives in Education", Investment 3.4 "University Teaching and Advanced Skills" of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Mission 4 "Education and Research" - Component 1 "Strengthening the Offering of Education Services: From Nursery Schools to University", for the promotion and implementation of transnational educational initiatives (TNE).”, supported by the European Union, NextGenerationEU – CUP D74G23000280006.
How to cite: Genzano, N., Banfi, F., Castaldo, G., Cerati, D., El Moussaoui, T., Gabriele, M., and Brumana, R.: An Earth Observation Hub for Advanced Skills and Sustainable Geoscience Education: The TNE-GPSEducation Experience, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13789, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13789, 2026.
Interdisciplinary geoscience education is increasingly expected to equip students with sustainability competencies that connect scientific knowledge with societal relevance and practical action. However, such approaches often rely on individual teaching initiatives that are difficult to sustain and scale across educational levels.
We present a cyclic educational model that integrates geoscience research, teacher education, school practice, and knowledge dissemination, using soil as an interdisciplinary entry point to sustainability education. University researchers, pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and school students are involved in a shared learning process in which teaching materials are co-developed, tested in practice, and iteratively refined.
The case illustrates how problem-based learning can foster interdisciplinary collaboration while reducing dependence on individual educators through shared resources and open educational materials. We argue that cyclic and collaborative teaching designs provide a scalable pathway for interdisciplinary geoscience education and support the development of sustainability competencies from secondary to higher education.
How to cite: Garcia-Santos, G., Huber, I., Blasge, K., Olsacher, M., and Puff, M.: From soil science to sustainability competencies: a cyclic model for interdisciplinary geoscience education, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-15796, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-15796, 2026.
Geodesy is the science that quite literally makes the world go round. It involves defining coordinate systems, determining Earth's position in space, and mapping Earth's gravity field. Serving as the foundation for all geospatial data, geodesy provides reliable and stable coordinate systems, as well as satellite positioning to acquire coordinates essential for various types of geospatial data. Nowadays, a notable challenge at least in some parts of the world is the decline in dedicated geodesy education, despite the growing significance of understanding geodetic topics and techniques.
To gain insight into the challenges of geodesy education in the Nordic and Baltic countries, the Nordic Geodetic Commission (NKG) is conducting an assessment of geodesy teaching in the region. The aim is to identify the topics covered, the education level at which they're taught, and explore opportunities for collaboration in teaching between geodesy experts and other disciplines, while also increasing public awareness about the field. We present here the results of the geodesy teaching survey and identify the needs of various stakeholders.
How to cite: Nordman, M.: Assessing Geodesy Education in Nordic and Baltic Countries, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-11002, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-11002, 2026.
Increasing diversity in the geosciences and expanding the relevance of the discipline in addressing environmental and societal challenges require transformative approaches that create equitable and inclusive opportunities for student engagement. Previous research has posited that inquiry-based approaches to learning, where students are active participants in asking and answering scientific questions, can increase retention of students with identities historically underrepresented in the sciences and directly affect attitudes towards science.
We present results from a new open-access course in satellite remote sensing of the environment that uses evidence-based, active learning pedagogy to train the next generation of interdisciplinary scientists The course, called Observing Earth from Above, teaches students how to access, visualize, and communicate satellite remote sensing data from NASA’s ECOSTRESS instrument to address a variety of environmental challenges. The resources focus on follow-along tutorials for students and also include recorded lectures and interviews with remote sensing scientists.
The course has now been formally taught by instructors from at least seven different institutions and the website visited >2700 times by >1400 users. We observed significant increases (p < 0.05) in: (i) interest in science (20% increase); (ii) sense of belonging in the sciences (11% increase); (iii) sense of identity in the sciences (9% increase); and (iv) understanding of the course materials (19% increase; n = 59 students). Importantly, these results were robust as a function of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. However, changes were minimal for students who identified as first-generation in their family to attend university (7% increase). We also observed only small changes in an interest in a career in science, which was relatively high from the outset.
Our results indicate that an inquiry-based approach to teaching environmental remote sensing can improve student attitudes and that this can be scaled by making resources available to other instructors. We expect such a model could be replicated for different content knowledge and skill sets to support instructors in implementing evidence-based approaches that empower a diverse new generation of geoscientists.
How to cite: Goldsmith, G. R., Verbeke, M., Forsythe, J., and Fisher, J.: A distributed model for undergraduate education in environmental remote sensing: increased student interest in science and sense of science identity and belonging, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-14351, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-14351, 2026.
The number of students undertaking Geophysics undergraduate degrees in the UK has been in steady decline, mirroring the trends seen in the Geosciences internationally. To understand the scale of the problem, the demand for Geophysics graduates by industry, and the root causes of the low numbers of students, the British Geophysical Association conducted surveys of 4 key groups: geophysics employers (54 responses), students and Geophysics graduates (437 responses), secondary school teachers (83 responses), and 16-18 year old school pupils (68 responses), between February and July 2024
From the employers’ survey, there is a clear demand for Geophysics graduates, with the number of positions expected each year to be at least double the current numbers graduating. Employers predict growth, particularly in sectors related to the energy transition. However, students, teachers, and school pupils highlight a lack of knowledge about career pathways, as well as a broader lack of awareness about the subject of geophysics, as being the main barriers to studying Geophysics at university. Attractive aspects of Geophysics for survey respondents include fieldtrips and the chance to work outside, as well as the opportunity to combine multiple subjects. There is, however, a perception that studying Geophysics would potentially narrow options at too early a stage. Respondents were neutral overall about perceived associations between geophysics and the hydrocarbon industry. Our results indicate that schools are an important way for people to become aware of geophysics; while there is some geophysical content in school curricula, it is not necessarily badged as such. The importance of A-level Mathematics to studying Geophysics is underappreciated by teachers and school pupils.
The results of the surveys can be used to inform marketing by universities’ and the wider community, such as showcasing areas of geophysics that are particularly attractive to potential students, such as field opportunities. Our surveys suggest that both more explicit badging of geophysical content already in school curricula, as well as inclusion of geophysical examples and applications into a wider range of school subjects (e.g. Mathematics and Computing) could be useful in raising the profile of geophysics. We recommend engaging with groups of teachers, e.g. through continuous professional development activities, may be an effective way of raising the profile of geophysics in schools and thus with potential students. The surveys highlight that informing potential students and teachers about the diverse career options that geophysics provides is crucial if more people are to consider it as an option at degree level.
How to cite: Gilligan, A., Jenkins, J., Butcher, S., Colquhoun, R., Bie, L., Nippress, S., Johnson, J., Fraser-Leonhardt, V., and Curtis, A.: UK Geophysics Education: student decline, industry demand, and evidenced-based routes forward, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-20266, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-20266, 2026.
Posters virtual: Fri, 8 May, 14:00–18:00 | vPoster spot 5
EGU26-13848 | Posters virtual | VPS1
Integrating Generative AI into good academic practice: a workshop for PGT students on sourcing, managing and citing information and Generative AIFri, 08 May, 14:00–14:03 (CEST) vPoster spot 5
The capabilities and widespread availability of generative AI are potentially changing ways of working and studying. However, there are a lot of pitfalls and ethical questions to complicate use. Postgraduate taught (PGT) students typically study at the University of Glasgow for 12 months. They come from a wide range of institutions, where rigorous academic citation of information may not have been previously covered. Students have also been falling into the trap of AI hallucinations and losing academic integrity as they don’t realise generative AI can’t be relied upon. With this in mind a workshop was designed and run in Autumn 2025 to discuss finding reliable sources of information, how to manage/store information you find during research (including citation information), how to cite information correctly, and why this is important. The workshop included an explanation of Generative AI and student discussions on generative AI use and ethics. This work will discuss the workshop and reflect on what went well and what could be further improved. We need students to have a solid understanding of what generative AI can and can’t do, and the ethical background to decide if and when to use it, during their studies and in their future careers.
How to cite: Petrie, E.: Integrating Generative AI into good academic practice: a workshop for PGT students on sourcing, managing and citing information and Generative AI, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13848, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13848, 2026.
