Welcome to my electronic portfolio!

YNP_GrandCanyon1Hello!  My name is Dr. Laura Guertin (students call me “Dr. G”).  I am a Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences at Penn State Brandywine in Media, PA.

This blog captures my professional accomplishments, both in and out of the classroom.  Here, you can learn about my teaching and mentoring philosophies, explore my use of technology, and view additional activities.

I maintain close ties with the College of Earth & Mineral Sciences at Penn State University Park.  In addition to serving as the College representative at the Brandywine campus, I participate in research and pedagogical projects with faculty, staff and students at University Park. You can also find me currently contributing to the development of Penn State’s Water Consortium as I serve in an elected position on the Penn State Water Council. At Penn State Brandywine, I advise for the intercollege minor on environmental inquiry and Earth sustainability certificate.

My goals for all the courses I teach include increasing student Earth science, information, digital and geographic literacies. I accomplish this by providing students hands-on inquiry-based scientific investigations of their own design, integrating technological tools (from GPS to Penn State’s Media Commons) and authentic data sets, and having students effectively communicate their new content knowledge. I want my students to understand the nature and process of science and scientific inquiry, and most importantly, to be scientifically-literate citizens!  My pedagogical research allows me to develop and integrate new and innovative methods to effectively engage and increase student learning to match my course goals and objectives.  I have served as a councilor-at-large for the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and twice a past president of the Pennsylvania Earth Science Teachers Association.

I have a passion for mentoring undergraduate students in their first two years on inquiry-based projects and independent research.  A number of students have worked with me and presented their findings at conferences and/or co-authored papers for peer-reviewed publications.  I have served as a past chair for the Geoscience Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research and served as an elected councilor for the Geoscience Division for 15 years.

Since 2018, I have expanded my science communication toolkit by using quilts for science storytelling. I have been designing and sewing individual quilt pieces and entire collections, along with blog posts and videos, on different earth science themes. Examples of my collections include Stitching Hope for the Louisiana Coast, Drawing Down Towards Climate Solutions, and my ongoing work documenting my two months at sea on JOIDES Resolution with Stories from the South Atlantic Ocean.

A complete copy of my curriculum vitae can be downloaded as a PDF (updated December 2023). I maintain a blog for my students and anyone else to learn more about my life as a faculty member and to see what I do when I travel to conferences and in the field, and to follow my science storytelling via quilts at Journeys of Dr. G, From 2014-2023, I blogged about geoscience education, education technology, and science communication for the American Geophysical Union (AGU) at GeoEd Trek.


View my ORCID iD page: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2426-8082

View my Google Scholar Profile at: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xYFIJ1QAAAAJ


Email: guertin@psu.edu

Snail mail: Dr. Laura Guertin, Earth Sciences, Penn State Brandywine, 25 Yearsley Mill Road, Media, PA, 19063