After the final exam for a required bachelor’s-level course on book Collecting, Processing, and Presentation, a small group of students approached me with an intriguing request. They wanted to know if I would teach another course within the bachelor’s program. I was taken aback by their enthusiasm and asked, “Would you like another course, or would it be better not to?”
To my surprise, they responded with a resounding “Yes, we’d love to continue!” Initially, I had to decline due to my overwhelming workload in teaching, research, and administration. However, when a master’s course was canceled due to a lack of participants, I revisited the request and found five highly motivated students who were eager to join.
To create a more engaging learning environment, we decided to hold the course in a conference room instead of a traditional classroom. This change helped us avoid the monotony of a traditional lecture and fostered a more interactive atmosphere. I personally participated in the course, which allowed us to bring in Matthias Zimmermann from the university’s press office and Ryan DeLaney, the proofreader of my books. These guest speakers added valuable insights and expertise to the course.
As a part of the course, I selected some of the problems myself and invited the students to share their thoughts and suggestions on my proposed solutions. This collaborative approach encouraged critical thinking and fostered a sense of ownership among the participants. Interestingly, some of the participants took the course voluntarily, without the opportunity to earn academic credit. Despite this, we managed to officially schedule the course thanks to the efforts of our course scheduler and the administration.
To make the course more accessible and engaging, we deliberately limited ourselves to writing very short texts, primarily in the style of press releases. We also focused on creating short presentations that were easy for everyone to understand. During our meeting on Monday, we conducted a session that was well-received, where R. DeLaney led the English-language portion of the course via Zoom, which could be better described as a workshop.
The primary objective of the course was to teach the students how to write press releases on major topics in the geosciences. We explored topics such as plate tectonics and its role in shaping the Earth’s surface, as well as the Croll-Milankovitch theory on the origin of ice ages. The students were encouraged to approach these topics as if they had just been discovered, fostering a sense of excitement and curiosity.
In addition to writing and presenting, the idea of also delving into theoretical scientific concepts on the side was too ambitious. There simply wasn’t enough time to tackle even texts that were only a few pages long, such as those by J.W. von Goethe, K. Popper, R. Feynman, J. Brockman, and C.F. von Weizsäcker. The same applied to the final topic of the workshop—planning an academic career—with the idea of inviting successful graduates to the course.
Of course, the topic of artificial intelligence played a significant role, and we didn’t rule it out. The use of AI was explicitly intended, but the course had a very human touch. Most participants attended in person, even though a Zoom option was available, not least because there was always delicious Ethiopian coffee on hand.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the instructors involved really enjoyed it as well. We may expand this course in the future, perhaps for interested small or large teams, master classes, or graduate programs. Please get in touch if you’re interested!
AI Statement
The text was written by M.H. Trauth but was edited for language, spelling, and grammar using Apple Intelligence. The illustrative image was created using ChatGPT on 7 May 2026.
References
Trauth, M.H., Sillmann, E. (2026) Collecting, Processing and Presenting Geoscientific Information with Python – First Edition. Springer International Publishing, in press.
Trauth, M.H., Sillmann, E. (2026) Collecting, Processing and Presenting Geoscientific Information with MATLAB® – Third Edition. Springer International Publishing, in press.