The actual call is here.
And here is the actual call by Shawn
This is the theme of this months Accretionary Wedge. If you are a geology/geophysics student then write about one or a few courses that you wish were offered at your university. They don't have to be traditional lecture type courses, they can be anything that you can imagine (and that are logical). Professors, feel free to do the same, or more specifically, write about courses that you wish you could teach, or that you have taught that were outside of the normal courses (stratigraphy, structure, mineralogy, etc).
For ideas, see my original post here
Now for my stuff:
First off I have not taken a geology course in quite a few years. More precisely I got my last degree in geology in 1981 and in 1990 I went into a different field and haven't really had a chance to take any courses in geology since then. I would have taken some if there were any I could take but unfortunately I had already taken all the courses that were being offered at the local colleges in my area.
So right now I really am not up to snuff as to whats being offered out there. I do know my one son elected to take a geology intro course when he went off to college thinking it would be an easy course for him since I had exposed him to so much while he grew up. He had a rude awaking and only got a B in it and said -dang that was a hard course!! and chose not take any more. From his intro text book I could tell it was now broken down where more emphasis is place on water and hydrological processes and I was pleasantly pleased to see that. When I was in school you had to wait until you were in grad school to get that type of exposure. I always thought there should be more on hydrology since water is so critical to the world and where humans live - its nice to see others feel the same way I do and more emphasis is being place on it.
When I first got out into the real world, the one thing I realize I was woefully lacking in was business courses. My company encouraged all the engineers and geologist to get their MBA's and were willing to pay for it provided you had completed the course with a decent grade ie B or A. But to be able to get into the MBA program you had to have met their undergraduate requirements which entailed courses like accounting, finance, economics and business law. I had always wished there was a geology course that could have covered those basics so that when I entered into the work force I felt more prepared for understanding income statements and balance sheets. Later after I had taken the accounting courses I felt so much more prepare in understanding the way businesses worked and why even though you may have a good project if it doesn't pay out within a couple of years it just wasn't going to happen until it became economically feasible because it all was based on the price of the commodity you were trying to sell.
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Now that I'm older and been out in the real world for quite awhile, I think the one course that I would have really like to have had would have been one on how to invest in buying gold, gemstones and other mineral interests. I would have liked to have had more information on this so it could help me with my investing in retirement accounts. I've seen the stock market rise and I've seen it fall drastically and when it crashes like that everyone says 'buy gold'. Should I buy gold pieces that have numismatic value or is it better to go with companies that mine gold? Should I invest in an oil well - if so what type of interest should I have? What types of gems make good investments and also have nice intrinsic appeal that are affordable for resale if need be? Should I buy futures and if so what are good future minerals to invest in - salt, sulfur, copper, silver, etc?
Also from the practical point of view - I wished I had a course that taught you how to appraise rocks - gems and minerals. Something that would help you earn certification through the American Gem Society (here's what Wikipedia has to say about the American_Gem_Society ). When I was working on my undergraduate degree I thought if nothing else I could work in a jewelry store until I could get a job that I considered more in line with what I wanted to do with my geology training. I was made aware of how distinctly different jewelers were from geologist when I applied at a local jewelry store and was asked why type of certification I had. All I could say was I had passed mineralogy and optical mineralogy. That wasn't good enough for them. They wanted only trained jewelers and certified gemologist. That was a whole different line of education than what was being offered at where I was going to school. I often wondered why the two couldn't be intermingled since we were both using the same type of equipment.
I do know in later life being a certified gemologist is a good job to have. My brother-in-law was one for many a year and it made a good second career for him. He always was able to keep busy because it seemed like there was always a need for an appraisal of estate jewelry or for insurance reasons by someone. It was good for him because he could work from his home and had flexibility in when he did it so he was freed up to do other things too. And on the side his wife liked to string beads and make jewelry that he would sometimes sell to stores he was doing business with.
Finally there is another course I would have liked to have had too. Recently I just read a book by David R. Montgomery called 'The Rocks Don't Lie - A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood'. I really enjoyed reading it and as I read it I thought this would make a great book to teach from. I liked the way David Montgomery takes you through the history of the way geology evolved and how the church world and the science world split over some very dumb ideas. He did a good job explaining how both can coexist together and there really doesn't have to be such a big rift between the two as there now exists.
Now I muse: I wish colleges weren't so expensive now, because I would have been a professional student if I had enough money to keep on going. I love learning. I do know when I was in school it seemed like I couldn't get enough geology courses and there was always something being offered that I wished I could have taken but due to scheduling just was not able to.
I Muse: I saw were Glacial Till - Ryan Brown was taking a Scanning Electron Microscope course and I was so envious of him. Oh how I wish I could take that course too and am so glad to see it being offered. For my thesis I did some work on one and wished I could have spent more time on it. At the time SEM were relatively new and not much work had been done because they were so extremely expensive to operate. The thought of a whole course on just that one instrument alone is so encouraging to see. The possibilities of the things that will be discovered just boggles my mind.
