Hi!
I'm Bob Stern and along with my co-authors, we'd like to tell you about a unique course
that we are teaching at the University of Texas at Dallas called Geology, Resources,
and Environment of Latin America . We call it GRELA for short.
We geoscientists need to do a better job teaching undergraduates about the remarkable and increasingly
important region to our south known as Latin America.
We consider Latin America to include all the lands south of the United States, including
the Caribbean islands.
This is a huge region; it is about 6600 miles from Tijuana, Mexico to Tierra del Fuego,
a little more than about a quarter of the way around the Earth.
We have two main motivations for teaching this course.
First, we would like to attract more Hispanic students to be more interested in STEM.
Many organizations and disciplines recognize the importance of increasing diversity in
STEM, and we think that teaching about Latin America is a good way to engage Hispanic students
to want to learn more about science.
Second, we think that all students need to learn more about the lands to the south.
For these reasons, Dr. Ignacio Pujana and I updated a course we developed with NSF support
in the 1990s and taught this to 23 students in Fall 2021.
On the basis of this experience, we recorded and edited the lectures and then put these
on YouTube, along with a video syllabus.
There is no suitable textbook, so the course is based on 23 lectures that are grouped into
4 modules: Geography and Geology; Minerals; Energy and Natural Hazards; and Water and
the Environment.
Because it is so important that students grasp where things are, the course begins with a
lecture on the geography of Latin America: its regions, nations, and important physical
features, followed by an on-line test over this material.
There are no surprises in the test; the students know which 50 features they will be asked
to name and locate and can take as much time as they need to study.
Students must get a score of 90 or better to pass this test, but they can take it as
many times as needed.
Module 1 consists of four lectures that begin by outlining the cultural geography of the
region and then its physical geography and climate.
Because the course is aimed at non-science majors, this module finishes with two lectures
that introduce concepts of plate tectonics and outline the geologic evolution of Latin
America.
The next five lectures comprise the second course module, focused on mining and minerals.
This module also allows us to briefly review the early history of Latin America.
The first lecture explores how and when people came to the region, leading to the great Inca
and Aztec civilizations.
Next, we discuss how metals were used by pre-Columbian people.
This leads us naturally to the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas the collision of civilizations
and then to a lecture on how especially silver mining dominated the colonial economies of
Mexico and Peru.
These 8 lectures are followed by the first midterm, motivating students to review their
notes along with the slide decks, videos, and a study guide that we post on-line.
The first midterm is followed by the last lecture in the minerals and mining module,
which explores nitrate and copper mining in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, and
how exploitation of these deposits led to a 19th century war and a 20th century military
coup.
The next module consists of six lectures that explore Latin American Energy and Natural
Hazards.
This begins with an explanation of geothermal energy, which is especially important for
Mexico and Central America.
Next, we devote two lectures to oil and gas; the first provides some general information
about how oil and natural gas form and where hydrocarbons are found.
The second lecture discusses where hydrocarbons are found in Latin America and some history
about how these deposits were discovered and their effects on the region's development.
The next lecture focuses on increasingly important deposits of lithium, needed for powering electric
cars and battery storage of electricity generated from the Sun and the wind.
Mining dry lake beds or salars for lithium is causing environmental problems and political
unrest.
This exploration of Latin American energy is followed by two lectures on natural hazards,
first about earthquakes and then about volcanic eruptions, both of which are related to the
plate tectonic setting of Latin America, completing the second course module.
This is followed by the second midterm, again motivating students to review their notes,
study guide, slide decks, and videos.
Seven lectures of the last module follow the second midterm.
This module focuses on water and the environment.
First is a lecture on the coupled oceanographic-atmospheric phenomenon known as El Nino, also called the
El Nino Southern Oscillation or ENSO.
This lecture also lets us explore the link between the trade winds, ocean currents, nutrient
supply, and the marine food chain.
Next is a lecture about the glaciers of Latin America.
Alpine glaciers near the equator are particularly interesting because these preserve an excellent
climate record that is rapidly disappearing due to global climate change, hurting especially
nearby farmers who rely on glacial meltwater for their crops.
A lecture about the Amazon River, by far the biggest river in the world, is next.
We discuss not only the river system itself but also explain why it is so large and outline
some of the remarkable animals and plants that depend on it.
Following naturally after this, we lecture about Latin American rainforests, especially
but not exclusively about the Amazon rainforest.
We explore a number of topics, including the climate required to produce rainforests and
their trophic systems and animals.
We also explain why rainforests are important and outline how these are being reduced in
size.
The next lecture explores the coral reefs of Latin America, which are concentrated around
the Caribbean.
We explain that coral reefs are remarkable examples of symbiosis, with photosynthetic
algae living in soft tissues of the coral animal host, and how global warming causes
the algae to leave, leading to coral bleaching and death.
The next two lectures explore things closer to the United States, first discussing the
challenges of sharing the limited water of the Rio Grande and Rio Conchos, which flow
through the Chihuahuan Desert between the US and Mexico.
We explore how population growth in this region is stressing water supplies and the importance
of treaties and bilateral monitoring agencies for sharing this scarce resource between the
two nations.
The final lecture is an overview of the Antilles, where the people of twelve nations and nineteen
dependencies live on many islands on the north, south, and east rim of the Caribbean Sea.
Many people do not consider this to be part of Latin America, but we think it deserves
to be included.
This is followed by the third midterm, again motivating students to review their notes,
study guide, videos, and slide decks.
A comprehensive Final Exam ends the class.
Grades are based 10% on the Geography test and 30% on each of the 3 best of 4 test scores.
One weakness is the lack of opportunity for in-person discussion, so we set up an optional
1-hour companion class for that purpose.
Any student taking the on-line course can sit in on the GRELA seminar, but we encourage
students to enroll; grades are based on attendance and asking at least one question or being
involved in at least one discussion each class period.
50 students enrolled in the course in Fall 2022, 17 with Hispanic surnames. 16 of the
students are Freshmen and Sophomores.
We are happy to share course materials with anybody who is interested.
Just contact one of us by email.
And thanks for listening!