Uncategorized Archives - Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching

Watching Steen-Johnsen on “Concern and enthusiasm for AI across the globe: the role of trust”

October 27, 2025

I recently watched a really interesting seminar by Kari Steen-Johnsen (UiO), who is working on the impact of digitalization on democracy. She gave an AI Lund online seminar on “Concern…

Currently reading Hoan et al. (2025) on “With or Without You? People Feel Less Autonomous During Social Interactions, Except With Close Others”

October 20, 2025

This is quite an intriguing article! Feeling more related (more belonging?) might make us feel less autonomous (except with people we are super close with)? If, motivated by self-determination theory,…

On “effective authenticity”, inspired by a Squiggly Careers podcast episode

October 11, 2025

I just listened to episode 500 of “Squiggly Careers” on “Why Bringing Your Authentic Self to Work Is Bad Advice“. They explore the concept of “effective authenticity […] where you…

Follow-up on a course meeting in “Teaching for Sustainability”

September 17, 2025

Yesterday, we had the third meeting of our “Teaching for Sustainability” course, where participants present their early work on the projects they will develop throughout the rest of the course,…

A “Poetry for Sustainability” lunch

September 10, 2025

Today, we tried a new format of our “Transformation Thursdays” (come-as-you-are informal lunch meetings where colleagues who are interested in Teaching for Sustainability can join me and Terese to chat…

Currently reading Jeffery et al. (2025): “Autistic voices in higher education: lessons from UK geoscience students to inform inclusive practices for neurodiverse learners”

September 7, 2025

This is a really interesting article, both because of the recommendations they give and because of the “asynchronous, anonymous, and discussion-focused” method they use, “tailored to best fit the needs…

Testing an online course on Sustainability Education by teff

August 29, 2025

I’m always scanning the horizon on teaching for sustainability courses online to make sure I a) keep myself up-to-date with the state of the art, and b) don’t re-invent the…

Academic Developers and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (according to the Talking Learning and Teaching podcast)

August 23, 2025

Talking Learning and Teaching is quickly becoming one of my favourite podcasts! This morning, I really enjoyed the episode with Erik Brogt on “Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the Third Space”.…

A “Teaching for Sustainability” Bingo

August 6, 2025

Yesterday I posted a first draft, today I have a much more finished version for my upcoming course…

More thoughts on teaching consultations menus

July 26, 2025

academic development

When I first put together my Teaching Consultations Menu (see below; inspired by Noah (2025)’s awesome book), I discussed how I really liked the menu because of how easily it…

Such an easy way to make people feel welcome and seen

July 3, 2025

inclusion

In Hamburg, there is a “ship greeting station” called Willkomm-Höft (“welcome point”), where every ship is greeted going in and out of the port. I have always loved that place…

A little Sunday freediving & wave watching

June 28, 2025

freediving

Last Sunday, we went diving at Ön in Malmö again and it was so beautiful!

There is a Liberating Structures app!

June 21, 2025

Liberating Structures

I only found out recently that there is a Liberating Structures app! I like it! Nice to be able to browse on the bus or for quick inspiration in a…

On opposable and defendable propositions as a teaching tool

June 21, 2025

I recently watched the TED talk “Dare to disagree” by Margaret Heffernan. It is brilliant in itself and the message to “dare to disagree” is super important, but what especially…

Guest post by Kirsty Dunnett: “Disembodied Science: On why the abstract is difficult to grasp, and some thoughts on the imperceptibility of impending(?) climate disaster”

June 5, 2025

My most faithful guest blogger Kirsty writes about why things that are far outside of our direct experience are so hard to imagine and thus so hard to understand (and…

Watching the presentation “accessibility and inclusion in digital learning” by Marie Leijon

May 28, 2025

I was super excited to get the notification that a recording of the presentation “Accessibility and inclusion in digital learning” by Marie Leijon had been uploaded to our Learning Management…

Favourite podcast “Teaching in Higher Ed” on “teaching for integrity in the age of AI”

May 16, 2025

On one of my favourite podcasts, Teaching in Higher Ed, Tricia Bertram Gallant and David Rettinger talk with host Bonni Stachowiak about “teaching for integrity in the age of AI“.

Teaching THROUGH Sustainability

May 15, 2025

I recently wrote about the framework of Teaching about, with, in, through, for Sustainability (which I had found in a bluesky post by Kyle Bartlett and then adapted to my…

Reflections on the workshop “How to deal with climate anxiety as teachers and researchers?”

April 29, 2025

On Thursday, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the workshop “How to deal with climate anxiety as teachers and researchers?” co-organised by the Environmental Politics Research Group (EPRG)…

Gert Biesta on 3D chess and the importance of asking ourselves what we are going to do with our freedom

April 2, 2025

Last night, I watched Gert Biesta on the Talking Teaching podcast (youtube video embedded below, above some wave watching pics! ;-)) and it is giving me language and images to…

Megagames demo with Ola Leifler

March 21, 2025

27 curious teachers joined Ola Leifler‘s demonstration of large-scale social simulations (“Megagames”) yesterday. Can you imagine playing a game with 180 people in individual roles for a full day? Me…

Walking the talk, slowing down, cold dipping

March 20, 2025

As I am writing the summary of the second part of “becoming an everyday changemaker” (summary of Part I here), I am trying to apply what I am reading, and…

Podcast recommendation: The Broken Copier!

February 2, 2025

Some time at the end of last year, I came across something on Marcus Luther’s BlueSky that stuck with me. It was something related to his slow reading of “Becoming…

My learning diary for the MOOC “Paths of transformation: sustainability in higher education”

January 30, 2025

When my friend Robert sent me the link to a MOOC on “Paths of Transformation: Sustainability in Higher Education” (in German only, sorry!) yesterday, I jumped at the opportunity to…

Developing “principles for quality education” to guide course development. Where does one even start?

January 23, 2025

quality

I’ve been feeling inspired by Karolinska Institutet’s “Principles for Quality Education“, and I would like to develop something similar for my own work, and the group I work in. I…

Some thoughts on yesterday’s Grand Seminar “Exploring the complexities and potentials of environmental communication”

January 23, 2025

Yesterday, I attended the Grand Seminar on “Exploring the complexities and potentials of environmental communication” organised by LU Sustainability Forum, BECC and MERGE at Lund University that my friend Terese…

Project presentations in the “Inclusive Classroom” course today

January 15, 2025

I am just coming home after the final presentations in the course “The Inclusive Classroom – UDL”, and this afternoon was the absolutely perfect example of why Lund University needs…

Teaching about, with, in, through, for sustainability?

January 8, 2025

This morning on the bus I was browsing bluesky, and came across a post by Kyle Bartlett, suggesting a framework for how to think about Education for Sustainable Development with,…

Thinking about neuropsychiatric disabilities and inclusive teaching after a seminar today

September 25, 2024

In today’s third meeting of the “Inclusive Lund University” course, Linda Stjernholm talked about “neuropsychiatric disabilities and inclusive teaching”.

“The importance of the room” — thoughts on a presentation by Marie Leijon today

September 24, 2024

Today, I spent my lunch break in an online presentation on “the importance of the room” given by Marie Leijon from Malmö University as part of the “Accessibility Tuesday” series…

Rethinking student belonging and well-being at universities

September 11, 2024

belonging

A couple of days ago, I attended the workshop “Rethinking student belonging and well-being at universities” (recording available here) organised by the Erasmus+ project BELONG. Here are some thoughts!

My summary of a seminar about learning support for students with disabilities at LU

September 11, 2024

This afternoon, we had the second seminar in the “Inclusive Classroom” course, this time on “learning support for students with disabilities at LU”. Emma Carlsson and Philip Johansson visited us…

Taking the course “Climate Activism 101”

August 29, 2024

I am taking the open “Climate Activism 101” course, organised by Robert Kordts for Scientist Rebellion Bergen. Here, I am summarising my impressions and take-aways from the first meeting today!

Kick-off of “Inclusive Classroom (UDL)” course

August 28, 2024

New academic year, new courses starting! Today, the “Inclusive Classroom (UDL)” course, that I am involved with together with Lotta Åbjörnsson and Håkan Eftring. My role is mostly to give…

Using Kate Raworth’s “doughnut of social and planetary boundaries” to kickstart sustainability conversations?

August 23, 2024

teaching for sustainability

I am really late to the party of “doughnut economics”, but I just discovered this great conversation starter on sustainability!

#WaveWatchingWednesday

July 17, 2024

Here comes the recap of two very exciting trips: To the 31nd AIDA World Championship in Pool Freediving, and to Kreidesee in Germany, where we did some freediving ourselves. Enjoy!

Reflections on “How do I cultivate a sense of joy, passion, and purpose in my teaching, and how do I share that with my students?”

May 11, 2024

Mark Carrigan recently asked quesions for a reflective teaching practice on his blog, and one really resonated with me: “How do I cultivate a sense of joy, passion, and purpose…

Reflections on a seminar on “Introducing Sustainability Competencies”

May 7, 2024

This morning, I participated in an online seminar on “Introducing Sustainability Competencies”, run by my awesome colleagues Steven Curtis and Terese Thoni. Here are my reflections (and if you are…

The paradoxes we are confronted with when teaching for sustainability, and attempts at dealing with them, using Liberating Structures

May 7, 2024

Today, I tried two new “liberating structures” in my “teaching for sustainability” course: First the “Wicked Questions“, where we surfaced some “opposing-yet-complimentary” strategies that we need to pursue simultaneously to…

Exploring another serious game for teaching for sustainability

April 12, 2024

Yesterday evening I joined a group of 14 teachers who met up to learn from, and support, our colleague, Ester Barinaga, who wanted to try a new game for teaching…

Thinking about presents?

November 19, 2023

How about giving books about waves or the ocean to your loved ones? We have an illustrated book about waves specifically for kids, or a photo guide to wave watching…

An office as an analogy to explain the three brain functions

September 29, 2023

In last week’s seminar on inclusive teaching, Louise Morreau, psychologist at the student health services at Lund University, gave an inspiring presentation and used such a great image to talk…

Recommended watching: The myth of average (Todd Rose)

September 21, 2023

I recently watched “the myth of average” by Todd Rose, and he makes the most convincing argument for not designing teaching for “the average student” in hopes of that making…

Very preliminary thoughts on AI tools and teaching

August 31, 2023

AI

This morning, I attended Rachel Forsyth’s presentation on “Handling the impact of AI tools: LU working group recommendations”, and here are some notes.

10 years of “Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching”!

August 28, 2023

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of my blog, “Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching”! This blog is a pretty detailed documentation of my development as a teacher over the last…

Dive camp bingo

August 21, 2023

While on the Bingo trip to nudge people (see here for example for fieldwork activities for students, or Universal Design for Learning for teachers), why not make one for the…

About my “Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching“

January 17, 2023

Welcome to my blog, where I mostly write about Interesting ideas on learning and teaching: I write about my own ideas and experiences, but also about literature, conversations, conferences, … that…

Learning and Teaching

June 29, 2021

For all of you who don’t fancy wading though wave watching and kitchen oceanography blog posts in search of those posts on teaching and learning in higher education (I usually…

MPOWIR webinar on “career pathways combining education with oceanography”

May 11, 2021

For all of you who prefer reading a short-ish blogpost over listening to a nervous Mirjam on a recorded video call on “Career pathways combining education with oceanography“: Read the…

[photo] Picture of Mirjam smiling in the camera to show how happy it would make me if this showed up on Twitter

Testing alt text in featured image

December 2, 2020

Exciting life update! Joining GFI as adj assoc prof! :-)

November 26, 2020

It’s been in the making for a while, but I am super excited to announce that I will be joining the Geophysical Institute at the University of Bergen as an…

Pop-up beach walk

February 10, 2020

Strong west winds aren’t the best for traditional wave watching on the east coast, but we got beaches in places where we usually don’t have them! Pretty exciting, especially since…

#DryTheory2JuicyReality featured in our university’s newspaper!

January 30, 2020

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks at #DryTheory2JuicyReality with our new rotating table, our seminar presentation last week, attending BOOT in Düsseldorf, and more, all in the name of…

Happy #CTDAppreciationDay!

January 22, 2020

For #CTDAppreciationDay, I am re-sharing a video that Sindre Skrede (find him on twitter or vimeo for many more exciting pictures and movies!) and I made in 2011 (!!). I am still super…

Burning soap bubbles

November 20, 2019

The other day I was thinking about fun experiments to do on a Birthday party for kids (won’t spoiler here whose kid that might be, and also, coincidentally, it was…

Networking event for online science communicators tomorrow!

September 6, 2019

Anticipation is rising, just one more sleep and then it’s finally here! The networking event for online science communicators that Alice (see her blog, twitter, Instagram — see, we are serious…

#DropPhotography. Art or physics? Art AND physics!

September 5, 2019

drop photography

When I take pictures of drops, they look like the picture below (which I showed in a blogpost yesterday), but I see tons of physics everywhere. Ring-shaped waves! Drops jumping…

Favourite quote by Miriam Goldstein: “The ocean is strong and powerful and it likes to rip things up”

September 4, 2019

#sciart

I am so lazy (or so efficient?) that even my doodles are multi purpose. Like this one, which is one of my three favourite ocean-related quotes I promised to illustrate…

New favourite ocean quote: You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop

September 2, 2019

#sciart

As part of my blog’s 6th Birthday celebration, I asked you to submit your favourite ocean quotes so I could illustrate them for you. This is what Benjamin suggested (and…

Six years of “Adventures in oceanography and teaching” today!

August 28, 2019

Celebrate with me by sending me your favourite ocean-themed quote and I will illustrate my three favourites and mail them to you as postcards! To motivate myself to start sketching…

Vorticity and Rossby waves

August 21, 2019

Usually when we talk about waves on this blog, we talk about surface- or sometimes internal waves, but my waves almost always oscillate vertically. Today, we’ll mix things up a…

New role: Associate Editor at Frontiers for Young Minds!

August 19, 2019

Frontiers for Young Minds

When I meet new people and am asked the compulsory “and what do you do?” question, I sometimes struggle to answer. I am wearing so many different hats! Depending on…

Foggy morning in Kiel and thoughts on the accessibility of the images I post

August 9, 2019

I don’t want to do the actual statistics, but it feels like most of what I post is completely dependent on people being able to see the images I post.…

Understanding ocean physics using different senses: Making waves in a sandpit

August 7, 2019

For me, participating in the Science in Public conference was so inspiring! Not only because of the conference itself, but also because of the people I met there. In a…

Funded! “Ocean currents in a tank: from dry theory to juicy reality”

July 9, 2019

DryTheory2JucyReality

Remember how Joke, Torge and I were working on building an affordable, home-made rotating tank to use in ocean dynamics teaching only last weekend? That session was inspired by a proposal that…

Photo comics for scicomm from the central Greenland ice sheet? Yes, please!

June 26, 2019

comic

Do you remember how I started experimenting with an app that made sketches from photos to see if reading waves might be easier from sketches than from photos? (Btw, approximately…

“Live rich now”: advice by Marie Forleo and David Bach, and how it relates to my life

May 30, 2019

On living the dream — and getting there, through the nightmare (ok, not quite as dramatic, but you get the idea) I’ve been a fan of Marie Forleo‘s for many…

5 years of blogging on “Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching” today!

August 28, 2018

5 years of “Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching”! Today I am celebrating my blog’s 5th Birthday! 5 years of documenting my “Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching”. That feels both like…

Awesome outreach collaboration to continue: We won a Bjerknes Visiting Fellowship 2018!

March 10, 2018

We are excited and grateful for a great opportunity for continued collaboration that has recently presented itself: Elin won a Bjerknes Visiting Fellowship 2018 for me to visit her and…

Volcano tour on Terceira

September 21, 2017

This is neither “oceanography” nor “teaching”, but so much “adventure” that these pictures still deserve their spot on “Adventures in oceanography and teaching”. I did a tour into two (non-active…

Discovering Google Earth Engine

August 14, 2017

Remember we did an expedition learning course in Kiel bight a while ago? I wish I had known about Google Earth Engine then already. Even without signing up (which I will do as soon as…

Huckepack

July 9, 2017

Absolutely fascinating to watch: The German Maritime Search and Rescue Service’s tug driving up on one of their larger vessels. Good thing I volunteered to watch all our equipment at the…

The blogging hiatus

June 22, 2017

You may or may not have noticed that my usually very regular blogging has been sporadic at best for a while, and that currently I am blogging a lot more…

Asymmetric propeller blades

May 6, 2017

On a recent flight to Copenhagen (actually, to Bergen, but that’s another story) I happened to sit with a great view of one of the plane’s propellers. And it struck…

Happy Birthday, dear blog!

August 28, 2016

Wow, three years ago on this day I started this blog, and this blog post is post no 477. Can you believe that! And even though I had planned to take the…

A touristy post about my trip to Heligoland

May 31, 2016

I recently went on a trip to Heligoland, Germany’s only island that is far away from the mainland (70 km in this case). It was a great trip, and I…

Home-Made Geophysical “Globes”

May 19, 2016

Today I am excited to share with you a guest post about a super cool tool for geoscience teaching and outreach that I will definitely be using in the future (if…

Why moist air is lighter than dry air.

May 12, 2016

density

Why is moist air lighter than dry air? This seems pretty counter-intuitive at first, but then really isn’t. I promised to do a post on why moist air is lighter…

If waves spread equally in all directions, then how come we see linear wakes?

April 19, 2016

If waves spread equally in each direction along the water’s surface, then how come ships (or ducks) have wakes that are just those long lines of waves and not circular at…

Using art in your science teaching. The why and the how.

March 24, 2016

Using art in your science teaching. The why and the how. This is a blog post that I wrote for the EGU’s blog’s “educational corner”. Check it out here.

The importance of playing in outreach activities.

March 8, 2016

Some time ago, I wrote two blog posts on the importance of playing in outreach activities for the EGU’s blog’s “educational corner” GeoEd. Both have now been published, check them…

Judging at a youth science competition. Or: Colourful bubbles!!!

February 25, 2016

TUHH

Last week my colleague Uta and I had the pleasure to act as a judges in the largest German youth science competition, “Jugend forscht“. Jugend forscht has been around for…

Producing a MOOC about the ocean

February 23, 2016

MOOC

I’ve recently been lucky enough to be involved in the production of the MOOC “One Planet — One Ocean: From Science to Solutions” by the excellence cluster “Future Ocean” in…

A vision for open door classrooms

February 18, 2016

A vision for open door classrooms. Or maybe a reality in some places already? At the very least something to aspire to! While browsing the materials connected to the #MOOCMOOC, I got…

For the best hands-on outreach experiences, just provide opportunities for playing!

February 8, 2016

For the best hands-on outreach experiences, just provide opportunities for playing! Have you seen my blog post over at GeoEd on four steps to designing and implementing hands-on outreach activities? Go…

Combining the adventures of an Antarctic research cruise with exercises and experiments for school pupils

February 1, 2016

Combining the adventures of an Antarctic research cruise with exercises and experiments for school pupils. Are you still reading Elin’s blog? You definitely should! Many new experiments and exercises up…

Designing and delivering instruction “Gagné-style” #MOOCMOOC

January 26, 2016

Social media

Are you interested in learning how to design instruction? Then there is a MOOC that might be really interesting for you! The “MOOC MOOC: Instructional Design” started yesterday, and for…

On being a multipotentialite (did you know the term even existed?)

November 25, 2015

A slightly different post today to mark the 400th blog post on “adventures in oceanography and teaching” (can you believe it? In words: FOUR HUNDRED!). Since this blog has become…

Why blogging is addictive (for me, at least)

November 23, 2015

As you might know, I never planned on starting a blog. I just started it on a whim one day, and have been hooked ever since. When I re-read the…

Awesome light fixtures – are my favorite, as is – pretty pink lunch box.

October 21, 2015

Sorry guys, I don’t have the time to come up with great hands-on experiments right now. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to discover (and a lot of…

Would you believe it? Two years of “adventures in oceanography and teaching” today!

August 28, 2015

I find it really hard to believe that I have written about my adventures in oceanography and teaching for two years already. And what a journey it has been! It…

Hovmöller diagrams explained

August 5, 2015

Have you ever wondered how to best explain Hovmöller diagrams? You know, those diagrams that have time on one axis and then longitude or latitude on the other, and that show…

What does the awkward silence mean?

July 8, 2015

teaching

I really want to recommend a blog post by Paul T. Corrigan that I recently read on “Teaching and Learning in Higher Ed”: When students don’t answer a question, what…

300 adventures in oceanography and teaching!

April 5, 2015

Because I have a blog! Can you believe that this is post no. 300 on “adventures in oceanography and teaching“? That means more than 25.000 views, consistently more than 50 views…

Design of experiment – why?

April 1, 2015

This is a skill we need to learn a lot more systematically than we currently do! I have recently started working on a small teaching unit on the design of…

Last chance to let me know what ocean/climate demo you would like to see!

December 17, 2014

challenge

Folks, before we are all off to our well-deserved breaks (and I am starting my blogging break early because, you know, life and work and that kind of stuff): Take…

Stages of group development

December 8, 2014

group development

Why you need a good storm in order to perform with a group. We’ve all made the experience of having to work in groups. Sometimes it is fun, sometimes it…

Set me a challenge: What ocean/climate topic would you like to see a demonstration on?

December 1, 2014

challenge

Really! Let me know what demo you would like to see! It’s officially almost Christmas and I am sure you are looking forward to a bit of a break over…

How to plan a course from scratch

November 19, 2014

Where do I even start??? A very helpful concept, which is completely contrary to how most people approach course planning, is “backward design”. Instead of looking at all the cool…

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