Panoramic view across a sunny bay from the cliffs on one side of it, looking at the cliffs on the other side, with a sandy beach on the left to a blue-green sea on the right. The cliffs are flat-topped, green-grey on the left, becoming maroon red in the middle, before turning yellow near the low tide mark, and eventually black in colour towards the headland.

Teaching

Overview

I teach modules in micropalaeontology, palaeoenvironments, and field geology in the Ghent University Master of Science in Geology degree and in the Oceans and Lakes Master of Science joint degree between Ghent University, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the University of Antwerp. My classroom teaching focuses on the biology and ecology of pre-Mesozoic micro-organisms and what they can tell us about ancient environments. I also teach field courses in the Boulonnais Basin, northern France, and the Welsh Basin, UK. Before I joined Ghent University, I was a demonstrator on various modules on the undergraduate and master's natural science and geology courses at the University of Leicester, which included teaching laboratory practicals in a range of geoscience subjects and field courses across the UK and in Europe.

Panoramic view looking from the sea towards a cliff section Greyscale close-up photograph of the dendroid graptolite Dictyoneam, showing net-like pattern of the graptolite's stipes connected to each other by small bars of periderm.
Panorama of the southeast end of Marloes Sands, south Wales, showing the Silurian Gray Stone Group and Old Red Sandstone.

Innovation in teaching

I am very keen that geoscience teaching should be practical and discovery-led. I am also keen to ensure that practical geoscience teaching is as accessible as possible. In pursuit of both of these aims I led development of the Ghent University Rock Garden - an on-campus field skills teaching resource. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, we had to quickly switch our field teaching for parts of 2020 and 2021 to virtual or classroom-based activities. To mitigate for this, I developed a virtual field course in the Welsh Basin including using drone photogrammetry to make virtual outcrops of some of the key field sites, as well as making sure students and teachers got some walking exercise between outcrops (in a safe and socially distanced manner).

Three people are positioning a large block of grey stone at a 45 degree angle in a trench. One person is driving a digger from which the rock is suspended by a green strap. The other two people are standing and crouching by the block adjusting its angle. There is a fourth person, presumably supervising, standing between the digger and the trench, watching proceedings.
Installing blocks of dark limestone for the Rock Garden. The technical staff of the DGFB were invaluable in making this installation entirely painless and very efficient. We were very fortunate with the weather throughout the installation process.