• Welcome to "Critical Thinking for Earth Scientists"
    I have created this course to help Earth Scientists learn the critical thinking skills they need to succeed in their chosen Earth Science professions.  From my own personal experience at college and after 30 or more years of consultancy in the petroleum industry and teaching university and professional geoscience courses, I have come to realise that critical thinking skills are not explicitly taught on most college courses. Of course, some people gathered the skills along the way and excelled, but a great many more struggled to get through their college education and continue(d) to struggle in their early professions (myself included!), for lack of a clear understanding of critical thinking.

    Critical Thinking is one of those things that "Critical Thinkers" take for granted, and assume everybody must understand (this is a classic bias called the Dunning-Kruger effect - but more of that later!).  They don't "know that they know" how to think critically, or spend any time "thinking about how they think".  They just think and solve problems, and assume everybody else must be doing the same.

    I have realised now that years ago, when I was an employer in the Earth Science service industry, what I was looking for during an interview was evidence of critical thinking skills.  The ability to frame and solve the problem, even outside your area of expertise.  I graduated with a PhD in Sedimentology and Diagenesis, but one of the first jobs I did was logging and modelling fractures in core, which I had never done in my life!  I had to learn fast!

    You have to be able to prioritise what has to be done and do the best job in the shortest time.  Domain "knowledge and expertise" is worthless without these other skills.  In many cases, these skills were enough, even without "domain-specific knowledge and expertise".  Some of our most creative and productive employees didn't have relevant domain expertise, but they were great learners and problem solvers.  Conversely, some with shining academic records had limited ability to apply themselves to anything outside their comfort zone.

    Being a Critical Thinker is what will give you an edge in this increasingly competitive and diverse Earth Science employment market.  That is why the course culminates with a review of your skills portfolio. Hopefully in this course I can guide you to upgrading your "Earth Science Mindware", and give you the edge that you need to succeed as an Earth Science "problem solver".

    Follow The Road Map Below

    There are many ways we could go about this.  To get a clear picture of how I have decided to go about it please watch the introductory videos and read through the top-level descriptions of the all the course chapters below.  This will give you the big picture.   You can then expand each chapter with the "down arrow" symbol in the top-right of each chapter description, to see the detailed descriptions of the videos and other activities in each chapter.  They should follow a logic and build the story within each chapter.  Access to the details in each chapter require completion of the previous chapter.

    There are thematic forum discussion activities throughout the course, but if you have any general queries or comments to discuss, please use the General Discussion Forum below.  If anybody else is online at the same time, you should be able to use the Live Chat to say Hello and see what they are up to.  Have Fun!


    Dr. Greg Samways
    Teacher