UW-Oshkosh
Associate Professor
Science Geology
Dr. Beth Johnson is a professor of geology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Fox Cities Campus. Her areas of interest and expertise include Quaternary Geology, Geoscience Education, the History of Geology, and more recently Women and Geology. She received her Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University, where she studied the extent and distribution of the materials relating to the Savanna Terrace on the Mississippi River, tracing sediments upstream to their glacial sources near Lake Superior and the Des Moines glacial lobe. She is also the creator, contributing author, and editor of the Geological Society of America Memoir 214: Women in Geology: Who Are We, Where Have We Come From, and Where Are We Going? Her dedication to sharing geology and geologic history with her students as well as the public has resulted in receiving two Arthur M. Kaplan awards from the University of Wisconsin Colleges.
Teaching and Learning PhilosopHy
I want to make what I am teaching my students understandable and meaningful to their lives. This can be hard because so few students have had the opportunity to take geology classes prior to registering for mine. In my classes, I try to blend lectures, lab activities, hands-on activities, active learning, and high-impact practices to increase student participation and generate interest. I also want to focus on getting my students out into the field so they can see the geology first-hand and understand the context it is in. They need the opportunity to make observations for themselves, potentially even making mistakes, in order to have a deeper understanding of what they are learning.
