# Discussion Section Design ```{admonition} About This Section :class: tip Design guide and session plans for the weekly 50-minute discussion section that accompanies the 10-week introduction to geophysics. Structured to build curiosity, provide mentoring, connect foundational methods to urgent global problems, and inspire independent learning — without becoming a fourth lecture. ``` ::::{grid} 2 2 4 4 :gutter: 3 :::{grid-item-card} Guest visits **3 of 10** Near-peer · industry · boundary-crosser ::: :::{grid-item-card} Sci-comm practice **2 of 10** Weeks 4 (concept) + 10 (capstone pitch) ::: :::{grid-item-card} Real-world relevance **Every week** Hazard · climate/energy · basic science ::: :::{grid-item-card} "Go deeper" pointers **10 total** 1 per session · never assigned ::: :::: ## Design Principles The 50-minute slot sits alongside 3 lectures and a lab. It earns its place only if it does something the other formats structurally cannot: put students in the role of **generating ideas, asking questions, and making connections** — not receiving information. ```{warning} **The core constraint:** If the discussion section feels like a fourth lecture, it has failed — and students will quietly stop preparing for it. Every session must require that students already know the week's content to participate meaningfully, and must reward curiosity over correct answers. ``` ### What this slot must NOT be - A homework help session - A re-lecture of the week's content by the instructor - A quiz-style review where correct answers are the goal - A passive listening session with Q&A at the end ### Four design pillars 1. **Build curiosity** — end each session with more questions than it started with; the "go deeper" pointer is never assigned, always optional 2. **Provide mentoring** — three guest visits per quarter give students direct access to practitioners; mentoring happens in unscripted conversation, not in lectures 3. **Connect methods to problems** — every session links the week's geophysical method to a real global problem (hazard, climate/energy, or basic science frontier) 4. **Inspire independent learning** — students leave each session with a name, a paper, or a dataset they want to explore on their own ### Standard 50-minute anatomy | Time | Activity | |------|----------| | 0 – 5 min | Hook — a visual, a dataset, or a question; no explanation given | | 5 – 10 min | Pair-share — students exchange initial reactions | | 10 – 40 min | Core activity (format-dependent: discussion, guest Q&A, group work, or sci-comm) | | 40 – 48 min | Full-group synthesis — what did we learn? what questions remain? | | 48 – 50 min | Go-deeper pointer — one resource, one name, one rabbit hole | ```{note} **On timing within the week:** The discussion section works best after at least 2 of the 3 weekly lectures, so students have enough conceptual grounding to engage with applications. If scheduling forces it earlier, reframe it as a forward-looking "why does this week's content matter?" session rather than a backward-looking review. ``` ## Mentoring & Guest Design Mentoring does not happen in a lecture. It happens in unscripted conversation when a student realizes a practicing scientist is a person who was once where they are now. ```{note} **Design principle for guests:** The three guest visits are not talks with Q&A appended. They are conversations with a brief context-setting opening. The guest's job is to be honest, not impressive. Students' job is to ask questions they actually want to know the answers to. ``` ### Week 3 — UW ESS PhD student (near-peer) Before the guest, students write one anonymous question they wish they could ask a grad student but feel awkward asking. The instructor reads 3 aloud as the opening; the guest answers them first, unfiltered. The guest brings one figure from their research and tells the story of making it: what failed first, what the raw data looked like, how long it took. The guest should share their GitHub and one open-source dataset. The near-peer conversation is the most effective format for normalizing a research career path — the psychological distance is small enough that honest questions get honest answers. ### Week 6 — Pacific Northwest industry geophysicist Project a real PNW junior geophysicist job posting before the guest arrives. Ask students: "What on this list do you already know how to do?" Mark the unfamiliar items. The guest spends 10 minutes on one project they're proud of, one early-career mistake, and one skill they use weekly that undergrad didn't prepare them for. Students leave with a concrete mental model of early-career work — one of the most anxiety-reducing things a course can provide. ### Week 8 — Science communicator or policy analyst (boundary-crosser) The guest who crosses the science-society boundary: a science communicator, journalist, policy analyst, or hazard manager. The guest shares one translation success and one failure — moments when science crossed (or failed to cross) into public understanding. Core question: "How do you explain probabilistic hazard to a mayor who needs a yes/no answer?" ### Sustaining curiosity between visits - Each session's "go deeper" pointer names one person (researcher, communicator, practitioner) the student could email or follow - A shared class document collects "questions we couldn't answer" from each session and carries them forward - Encourage students to visit ESS department seminars — the weekly colloquium is free and open - REU application deadlines fall in January; mention them at the right moment (Week 6 guest session) ## Sessions See the individual session pages for full detail on hook, discussion plan, relevance, and go-deeper pointer. - {doc}`session_01` — Why does the Earth make noise? - {doc}`session_02` — Reading the subsurface - {doc}`session_03` — Guest: PhD student's first year - {doc}`session_04` — Explaining geophysics to someone who doesn't care (yet) - {doc}`session_05` — Weighing the Earth: gravity, ice sheets, and CO₂ - {doc}`session_06` — Guest: PNW industry geophysicist - {doc}`session_07` — Inside the planet - {doc}`session_08` — Guest: translating geophysics across the science-society boundary - {doc}`session_09` — The inversion problem and the climate problem - {doc}`session_10` — What have we learned? What's next?