Global Educational Outreach for Science Engineering and Technology
Most educational programmes focus on a particular student cohort, whereas the GEOSET initiative’s paradigm-shifting strategy is to turn the focus of the educational process around.
Aims
GEOSET targets our best teachers and students to capture specific educational objects or concept modules, which they have devised, to infuse real enthusiasm and passion for intellectual knowledge.
GEOSET aims to create a global network of participating sites, catering to the local and global need for much improved SET/STEAM education.
Although the GEOSET site streams many outstanding lectures and courses, a main focus is the creation of an easily accessed cache of specific 'teaching tricks of the trade' which outstanding educators have found through experience.
Until now, the educational genius of a teacher is often lost when he or she retires, unless a student, who also becomes an educator, remembers it and uses it in class. GEOSET (and its more inclusive sister GEOSTEAM, encompassing the arts and mathematics now in preparation) gives our teachers a measure of immortality previously unavailable.
Contributions
The material has been created by faculty and students in universities as well as by high schools, thus guaranteeing a measure of reliability.
An exciting major contribution to GEOSET is being made by students who are not only recording presentations on their projects, but devising novel teaching tricks of the trade of their own.
By dipping into the material on GEOSET, one gets a great perspective on the fantastic promise of this unique programme to improve teaching on a global scale. The material produced by some great young people shows how superb GEOSET is in catalysing innovative creativity in educational outreach by the young.
How to use GEOSET
The GEOSET initiative uses new IT technology to provide imaginative teaching material in modules focused relatively tightly on specific topics. It is a highly flexible medium enabling a wide range of different educational approaches to be explored.
It is particularly useful for SET/STEAM teachers who will find valuable downloadable teaching resource material created by innovative science and technology experts and educators.
Each institution sets up its own streaming node and uploads URLs with associated information to the searchable GEOSET gateway.
Everything can be accessed via the which links to the contributing nodes in the US, UK, Japan, Brazil, Spain, Croatia etc. The majority of the GEOSET presentations have been recorded using a dual-window (synchronised video/data) mode, which makes assessment a pleasure rather than a chore.
View the .
See how effective the project has been in helping students to get jobs, scholarships, awards and post doctorals in the GEOSET Hall of Fame (PDF, 65KB).
Example recordings
Undergraduate student presentations
- Dan Stribling (Florida State University) – What is light?
Graduate student presentations
- Jess Higgins (Sussex) – Organometallic uranium chemistry
High school presentations
View all the .
- King’s School, Canterbury, UK. (Teacher: Christina Astin) - Olber’s paradox: why is the sky dark at night?
- Sebastian Klavinskis-Whiting, King’s School, Canterbury, UK. (Teacher: Christina Astin) - Yeast
Archival interviews
- Jeff Leigh (Sussex professor) interviewed by Jon Hare - Nitrogen fixation unit at Sussex
Science teaching modules
- Jon Hare (Sussex Education Specialist) - Longboard - speedometer
- Jon Hare (Sussex Education Specialist) - The carbon revolution - chemistry of C60