Teaching

Courses, classes and field trips

Rocks and Minerals - Adults

10-week course. Classes meet at 7-9 pm on Tuesday evenings, starting 21 May 2024. Suitable for students aged 12 to 100!

Fees - pay for whole course in advance OR pay for each session separately

(1) £120 for full 10-week course (incl. £10 deposit)

(2) £13 per class, paid online in advance - you choose which sessions to go to (see schedule below)

This 10-week course is held at St Johns Church in Kingston upon Thames, London. To book your place go to the "Book Online" page, where you will also find further details on venue location, specific dates and times, fees and payment methods.

In this sequence of classes students will learn the techniques used to identify many of the common rocks and minerals found in Britain, and the world! This includes the chalk and flint of the Chilterns and Downs, the slates of Wales, the granites and gneiss of Scotland, or the limestones of Yorkshire and the Cotswolds.

The classes are intentionally very hands-on, and students will work through the identification of a large set of minerals and rocks. Minerals include, quartz, calcite, halite (rock salt) and pyrite, commonly called fools gold! Students will learn all about how rocks are formed, and the three main rock groups...igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.

The course will finish with a discussion about why certain rocks are found in particular places, how mountain ranges like the Himalayas and Alps are formed, and how the modern map of continents was formed..it's all about Plate Tectonics!

Students will leave this class with a genuine appreciation and understanding of the rocks beneath their feet and around them and will have the skills to identify most rock types in the British Isles.

CLASS SCHEDULE
Tuesday 21 May - Minerals 1
Tuesday 28 May - Minerals 2 (practical)
Tuesday 4 June - Igneous rocks 1
Tuesday 11 June - Igneous rocks 2 (practical)
Tuesday 18 June - Sedimentary rocks 1
Tuesday 25 June - Sedimentary rocks 2 (practical)
Tuesday 2 July - Metamorphic rocks 1
Tuesday 9 July - Metamorphic rocks 2 (practical)
Tuesday 16 July - Plate Tectonics
Tuesday 23 July - All the rocks! (practical)

Rocks and Minerals - Kids

10-week course. Classes meet at 5:00-6:30 pm on Tuesday evenings, starting 21 May 2024. Suitable for young learners aged 7 to 11 yrs old (KS2).

Fees - pay for whole course in advance OR pay for each session separately

(1) £100 for full 10-week course (incl. £10 deposit)

(2) £11 per class, paid online in advance - you choose which sessions to go to (see schedule below)

This 10-week course is held at St Johns Church in Kingston upon Thames, London. To book your place go to the "Book Online" page, where you will also find further details on venue location, specific dates and times, fees and payment methods.

In this sequence of classes students will learn the techniques used to identify many of the common rocks and minerals found in Britain, and the world! This includes the chalk and flint of the Chilterns and Downs, the slates of Wales, the granites and gneiss of Scotland, or the limestones of Yorkshire and the Cotswolds.

The classes are intentionally very hands-on, and students will work through the identification of a large set of minerals and rocks. Minerals include, quartz, calcite, halite (rock salt) and pyrite, commonly called fools gold! Students will learn all about how rocks are formed, and the three main rock groups...igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.

The course will finish with a discussion about why certain rocks are found in particular places, how mountain ranges like the Himalayas and Alps are formed, and how the modern map of continents was formed..it's all about Plate Tectonics!

Students will leave this class with a genuine appreciation and understanding of the rocks beneath their feet and around them and will have the skills to identify most rock types in the British Isles.

CLASS SCHEDULE

Tuesday 21 May - Minerals 1

Tuesday 28 May - Minerals 2 (practical)

Tuesday 4 June - Igneous rocks 1

Tuesday 11 June - Igneous rocks 2 (practical)

Tuesday 18 June - Sedimentary rocks 1

Tuesday 25 June - Sedimentary rocks 2 (practical)

Tuesday 2 July - Metamorphic rocks 1

Tuesday 9 July - Metamorphic rocks 2 (practical)

Tuesday 16 July - Plate Tectonics

Tuesday 23 July - All the rocks! (practical)

Fossils and the History of Life on Earth

10 week course

Next course - DATES TO BE CONFIRMED

Fees - pay for whole course in advance OR pay for each session separately

(1) £120 for full 10-week course (incl. £10 deposit)

(2) £13 per class, paid online in advance - you choose which sessions to go to

This 10-week course is held in Kingston upon Thames, London. To book your place go to the "Book Online" page, where you will also find further details on venue location, specific dates and times, fees and payment methods.

Students will investigate many of the fossil groups that make up the record of life on our planet. This will include many hands-on sessions where students get to look at a large range of fossil specimens, from the wonderful trilobite, to sea urchins (echinoids), to ammonites, to name but a few.

Practical sessions will also focus on the sedimentary rocks that fossils are found in, and what clues can be found in them about the environment that the organism once lived. Was it living in a deep ocean basin, a lake, or on the banks of an ancient river?

Students will also learn about the evolution of animals and plants on our planet, from the earliest single celled creatures, to the emergence and explosion of larger life in the world's oceans 550 million years ago. The story of life and evolution will then include discussion of the emergence of land plants, insects, amphibians, and then the age of dinosaurs and how they ruled the world before meeting their demise 65 million years ago.

The story will continue with a look at the Ice Age fauna and flora, when woolly mammoths roamed the British landscape during colder "glacial" periods, and lions and hippopotamus made the Thames valley their home during warmer "interglacial" stages. This Ice Age world only ended a mere 10,000 years ago! Finally, we will learn about the rise of hominids and modern humans, and how they quickly became master of their environment.

Natural Disasters: Geology vs Hollywood

10 week course

Next course - DATES TO BE CONFIRMED

Fees - pay for whole course in advance OR pay for each session separately

(1) £120 for full 10-week course (incl. £10 deposit)

(2) £13 per class, paid online in advance - you choose which sessions to go to

This course can be taken in Kingston upon Thames, London. To book your place go to the "Book Online" page, where you will also find further details on venue location, dates and times, fees and payment methods.

Investigate a range of Natural Disasters, from volcanoes to hurricanes on this 10 class course. What causes them, how do we predict them, and how do we prepare? These classes are open to all, you don't need any prior knowledge of geology, just a desire to learn about the Earth!

Clips from Hollywood disaster movies will drive our inquiry into geologic phenomena and natural disasters. Can you really drive over a lava flow in a jeep? (Dante's Peak) Are we foolish not to prepare for a major earthquake in New York City? (Aftershock) Could global warming melt the polar ice caps turning "dry land" into a myth? (Waterworld) Would the impact of an asteroid the "size of Texas" kill half the Earth by heat and freeze the remainder in a nuclear winter? (Armageddon)

This course is not all about watching cheesy movies! You will learn some real earth science. You will investigate an array of natural disasters and geologic hazards...including volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunami, tornadoes..and even the risk of an asteroid impact! They do happen, this is what killed off the dinosaurs!

You will learn the fundamentals of plate tectonics, how magma properties control volcanic explosivity, how to calculate earthquake locations from seismic data, and prepare a disaster readiness plan for a major wold city. By the end of the course you should have acquired the background to understand the story behind disasters in the news and the role of the science in shaping disaster planning policy.

PREREQUISITES: Undeniable weakness for B movies!

Geology of Southeast England: the Making of a Landscape

5 week course

DATES TO BE CONFIRMED.

Further details on this course will be posted soon.

For more in-depth course descriptions, feel free to reach out.