Andrew Freed
Associate Professor
freed@purdue.edu
Dept of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Purdue University
550 Stadium Mall Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907
ph. (765) 496-3738
Fax (765) 496-1210
Courses Taught
Geosciences in the Cinema is an undergraduate non-major service class covering earth, atmospheric, and some biological sciences (earthquakes, volcanoes, climate, several weather, evolution, impacts). The premise of the course is that today’s undergraduates are visual learners, and are more motivated to engage in the learning of the natural sciences if they can experience a natural process through disaster movies, even if the movie is factually flawed. This motivates the students to wonder if what they just witnessed has any basis in fact, providing an invitation for discussion and learning. Each week begins with a lecture on the science on which the movie is based, followed by an evening screening of the movie, then a lecture/discussion separating science fact from fiction. The objective is not only to help the student develop a foundation in the natural sciences, but to teach them how to view science in the media with a critical eye. The films also enable a discussion ethical issues that scientists and politicians face in there dealing with natural disasters.
This is a graduate course on the fundamentals of identifying grant opportunities and writing effective proposals. Each student writes a complete fellowship proposal through the term of the course. The course is taught in a workshop format where a variety of grant opportunities and proposals are reviewed and discussed and students spend most of their out of class time writing. The experience of both giving and receiving critical reviews, which occupies most of the class time, is perhaps one of the most important skills a perspective scientist must learn if they are to be successful. The course has especially made an impact on newer graduate students, helping them organize their research projects and communicate with their thesis advisors. More than a half dozen fellowships has been awarded based on proposals developed in this course.
This is a graduate course that introduces students to first principals of geophysics (stress/strain, flexure, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, rheology, etc.). Students will develop analytical solutions to a wide variety of plate tectonic problems based on the conservation of energy, mass, and momentum, providing a foundation from which to understand more complex numerical solutions. Working primarily out of the Geodynamics textbook by Turcotte and Schubert, this course is a must for any geology or geophysics graduate student.
© 2011 Purdue University
An equal access/equal opportunity university
Copyright Complaints
Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University
550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA Phone: (765) 494-3258 - Fax: (765) 496-1210
If you have trouble accessing this page because of a disability, please contact webmaster at:
eas-webmaster@purdue.edu