Currently I am not teaching any classes, but below are resources for beginning geophysics students.
Real world problems are tough... to tackle them students need a solid theoretical background and to develop a sense of 'geological intuition' to let them put realistic constraints on the problem and recognize answers that are likely inconsistent with reality.
Any scientific investigation is a story... when writing a science paper or communicating research at a conference it is important to realize that your figures and text (especially the figures) should tell a coherent story, though not necessarily in chronological order. Scientists, just like any other audience, need to first be shown the importance of a work. When writing a paper it is often helpful to outline these answers first:
- What questions are you trying to address?
- How will you address them?
- What were the results?
- What do the results mean?
- What step is next?
As a student your job is to learn to think critically... an important transition from basic understanding to advanced understanding is the realization that not all (in fact very few) questions have exact answers. Working with such under-determined problems and doing back of the envelope calculations to constrain your answers will be part of your job, so start now! Any number you obtain from a calculation isn't just a number, it really represents something in the physical/geological world (if it doesn't then consider exactly why are you performing this calculation). Since the number represents something real, always ask if it is a realistic number.
Current Class Resources
There are currently no classes being taught. Check back for updates when I'm teaching or utilize the general resources below.
General/Past Resources
Helpful Hints for Students -A hint sheet for classes
Summary Booklet on Magnetics -Older Book, but still excellent
GPR Processing -from Sensors and Software
GPR Survey Design - from Sensors and Software
Helpful Links/Books
These are websites or books I've found useful as a student and profession on not only science, but presentations and papers.
The Naked Presenter - Garr Reynolds
Presentation Zen - Garr Reynolds
Visualize This - Nathan Yau
Beautiful Visualization - Julie Steele
Field Geophysics - John Milsom
Numerical Methods in Engineering with Python - Jaan Kiusalaas