I was invited to on-site interview for the position “Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography (Education track)” at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore (NUS).
One part of the two-day job audition was a teaching seminar. So, in the tabs below, you can find some more info on the preparation for this teaching seminar, the final presentation I gave, and the handouts.
The title of my teaching seminar was “Groundwater”, but maybe a more precise one would be “Groundwater resources”.
It was meant to be an introductory lecture on groundwater resources from a global perspective. The target audience for this presentation was undergrad or grad students with no background in hydrology or hydrogeology.
My initial idea was to start with the big picture: how does groundwater fit into the water cycle & why do we care about groundwater. This was supposed to lead to the groundwater use and groundwater availability globally. Then I had to introduce what is groundwater, where is it… what is an aquifer, what type of aquifers are there etc. After that, I wanted to talk about groundwater and drinking water quality. And, I wanted to end with two case-studies: Arsenic and Fluoride in groundwater.
When I started planning this presentation, I imagined that I have only 40-50 min to introduce everything about groundwater. I wanted to cover different topics, so students with different background would hopefully find something interesting. Also, I though it would be nice if I can cover the questions that are really important. But which are the really important questions? For me, these would be: (sustainable, smart) groundwater management and groundwater quality (and health).
The presentation ended up being a little bit too loaded with information. I realized this while I was half through the slide preparation. At that point it was too late to change the concept drastically, so I tried to exclude some details, instead of starting over.
I practiced this presentation in front of the members of GUSH (Graduate and Undergraduate Students in Hydrology, which is a Recognized Student Organisation at University of Wyoming) and got a lot of comments and suggestions on how to improve it. I think I incorporated most of them into the final version of this presentation. It is, however, an ongoing effort to improve my presentation skills. I’ve been told I don’t sound excited enough. I’m trying 🙂
Anyhow, I see this (and everything else I do) as a learning experience. Which means, I really like getting feedback on how to do things better. It is hard to evaluate your own performance objectively. So, don’t be shy and leave a comment, I appreciate it.
The handout file (click the button below) includes: the summary figure, list with definitions, literature sources for the presentation.
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