Tomorrow our Master course (Field Studies in Geological Sciences) starts, which will have a clear focus on Applied Geology and will be almost completely different compared to last year’s course. We are very lucky that we could recruit an adjunct teacher from the industry to teach with us and I really hope that the students will appreciate all the preparatory work that has been put into the course. The course will mix lectures, practicals, fieldwork and report writing and the newly designed projects will give the students a good flavor of how it is to work in the industry and under time pressure.
Until last summer, when Scandivanadium entered by life, I had very little interest in the world that exists outside of academia. I was so focused on my own little ivory tower. But thanks to Scandivanadium this has changed and I began to realize how large the world is around us and how much more important it is to use one’s knowledge in a much wider sense. It made me also realize that our education is far too much focused on pure research without connecting the knowledge to societal needs. And – most of all, I understood that we university teachers have for the most part lost the link to the world in which our students later will find work (I hope those who have a link to the outer world do not feel offended!).
The revamped course is a first step in a different direction and thanks to our new adjunct teacher we will be able to make a small change to the current curriculum.
In one of my course lectures I plan to use Scandivanadium and its search for Vanadium in the Alum Shale of Skåne as a case study. This will provide a good opportunity to show how small foreign prospecting companies can profit from Sweden’s liberal mineral legislation and from the wealth of available data sets (see my previous blogs) and what type of glorious pictures they can paint to attract investors. It will also provide a good opportunity to talk about the growing resistance to new mines in Sweden and especially about the strong movement in Skåne, VetoNu., which has been very active in providing communities with open and relevant information and support.
Barbara Wohlfarth 