TC306 Geo-education

Geo-engineering Education

Host Member Society: Greece
 
Short name:  Geo-education  (TC306)

TC306 focuses on the fundamentals of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, i.e. topics typically covered in undergraduate curricula. Its primary, but not exclusive, audience is currently active, past and future geotechnical engineering educators. The goal guiding TC306's efforts is the establishment of an active and welcoming geotechnical engineering education community that provides support and resources to all geotechnical engineering educators.

Dissemination venues

Updated information on the activities of TC306, besides being reported in this web portal hosted by ISSMGE, is also available in the following online venues.

TC306 GeoWorld website: web repository and forum for discussions

ISSMGE Online Library: online access to proceedings of TC306 conferences

TC306 YouTube channel: official channel for the dissemination of videos

Work Method

TC306 work is accomplished through meetings, working groups and task forces.

MEETINGS

Meetings take place at ICSMGE and ECSMGE conferences, via e-mail and online meeting platforms (minutes are produced for all kinds of meetings).

WORKING GROUP

Organization of Conferences & Workshops (coordinator: TC306 chair)

TASK FORCES

Webinars & Elearning (leader: Michele Calvello)

Pedagogical Knowledge of Geotechnical Engineering (leader: Marina Pantazidou)

 


Treat yourself to 12 hours of "Learning how to learn"

Learning how to learn is a Coursera Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and one of the most popular MOOCs of all times. As of Feb. 5, 2024, 3,704,657 students have enrolled.

The course provides lots of new information for college students. For more seasoned, independent learners



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A TALE OF TWO EXPLANATIONS

The attached file is a summary of the paper accompanying the 3rd Blight Honor Lecture delivered by Alonso (2023) at the 8th UNSAT, titled "The positive history of an error. Modelling the heave of a nuclear power station". The summary is meant to play the role of a guide



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Teaching material samples for Environmental Geotechnics: The collection is growing!

In the context of the collaboration between TC215 (Environmental Geotechnics), which organizes the 9th Int. Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (9ICEG) in June 25-28, 2023, in Chania, Greece, and TC306 (Geo-Education), creators of any kind of educational material about which th



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Invitation to participate in continuing TC106 (Unsaturated Soils) - TC306 interactions

At the PanAm UNSAT 2021 preconference webinar "Teaching unsaturated soil mechanics at the undergraduate level" (Del Fredlund, Bernardo Caicedo, John McCartney, Katia Bicalho, Gilson Gitirana),  we heard about how specialists teach unsaturated soil mechanics in thei



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CALL FOR NOMINATION FOR THE 3rd JOHN BURLAND LECTURE

Announcement

The ISSMGE and the Technical Committee TC306 on Geo-engineering Education have established the John Burland Lecture in recognition of Professor Burland's outstanding impact on Geotechnical Engineering Education. Starting in 1987 with his landmark Nash Lecture



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Waldemar Coelho Hachich (1950-2022)

TC306 will miss dearly Waldemar Coelho Hachich, Professor of  Geotechnical and Structural Engineering (PEF) at  Polytechnic School, University of São Paulo, Brazil, past TC306  chair (2013-2017) and always active member. For TC306, the legacy of Waldemar Hac



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Second TC306 Geotechnical Engineering Education post

A new GEE post (GEE = Geotechnical Engineering Education) has been uploaded on TC306's website (menu item: GEE posts).

The post reviews online educational material (3-5 minute videos), named geo-engineering pop-quizzes by their originator, Prof. Tim Stark.&nb



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Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Formally recognized by ASEE

The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) amended its Constitution and added a Vice President for Scholarship to the Board, as voted by the ASEE Board of Directors in February 2022 and approved by the members in a ballot that took place in April-May 2022. According to



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Geotechnical Engineering Education “Time Capsule” Report

The contribution of TC306 to the Time Capsule Project has been uploaded under the tab "Reports" of the TC306 webpage. The contents of the TC306 Time Capsule Report were discussed at the committee meeting of April 2021 and the country-specific contributions were provided



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First TC306 Geotechnical Engineering Education post

TC306 implemented a new "corner" of its website (a new menu on the left, called GEE posts), devoted to Geotechnical Engineering Education posts specifically written for geotechnical engineering instructors . Any GEE post starts as a short contribution written by a



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TC 105 Webinars with Education Focus

Technical Committee TC105, Geomechanics from Micro to Macro, organizes five seminars on "Discrete Element Method (DEM) in geotechnical engineering education", on February 8 (Francois Guillard & Benjy Marks), February 22 (Benjy Marks & Francois Guillard), March 2



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TC306’s GEE conferences indexed in Scopus

We are delighted to announce an important distinction for the community of geotechnical engineering education: our application for Scopus listing was approved for the series of the conference proceedings Geotechnical Engineering Education (ISSN 2732-7256), starting with the GEE 2



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Webinar: Teaching unsaturated soil mechanics at the undergraduate level

The webinar will focus on undergraduate unsaturated soil mechanics teaching, with world-class specialists sharing their views and experiences.

 

Organizer: Pan-American Conference on Unsaturated Soils ABMS - Unsaturated Soils Committee

When: Friday July 16, 2021, 18



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Task Force: Pedagogical Knowledge of Geotechnical Engineering

Most ISSMGE Technical Committees are dedicated to specialized topics within Geotechnical Engineering. TC306 focuses on the key principles and concepts typically covered in undergraduate curricula. Among its aims is to promote the approach of content from a teaching point of view,



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Webinar by Prof. Marina Pantazidou: Teaching Environmental Geotechnics, Behind the Scenes

Prof. Marina Pantazidou, Chair ot TC306, delivered a Geoenvironmental Engineering Webinar on Teaching Environmental Geotechnics: Behind the Scenes, subtitle "Why both students and teachers can benefit from understanding (a little bit) how the brain works".



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TC306 launches Educational Video “What happens when soil compresses”, using best instructional practices

TC306 and its Chair Prof. Marina Pantazidou are pleased to launch an educational video on “What happens when soil compresses” using best instructional practices, and make it available through ISSMGE’s Virtual University platform. Specifically:



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Geo-Congress 2022 includes Special Topic on Geo-Education

The 2022 Geo-Congress (the annual conference of ASCE's Geo-Institute) in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA (March 20-23, 2022) has a special topic on Education:

Advances in Geo-Education: Integrating design and research, industry collaborations, virtual learning, new approach



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A COMPILATION OF VIDEOS USED IN A SOIL MECHANICS CLASS INCLUDING A VOYAGE THROUGH SAND!

Here’s a compilation of educational material that starts with the question “how can I motivate the study of Soil Mechanics topics in my class?” and provides answers with a combination of materials drawn from practice, research and education. One of the best ways



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GEE 2020 teaser video

GEE  2020, the International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering Education is about to start.

Watch this short video invitation by the members of ISSMGE Technical Committee 306
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INmXkCPd8Ls




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Attend GEE 2020 on June 23-25: 3 days (from 50 euros) or partially (for no fee)

The Int. Soc. for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) and its Technical Committee for Geo-Education TC306 offer you open access attendance of the first day of the conference on Geotechnical Engineering Education GEE 2020, on June 23, 2020, through the ISSMGE



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International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering Education (GEE 2020) ONLINE, June 23-25, 2020

Following the unprecedented changes in our personal and professional lives due to Covid-19 and after careful consideration and evaluation of the risks and alternatives, the Organizing Committee of the International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering Education (GEE 2020),



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International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering Education 2020 (GEE2020)

The Conference Geotechnical Engineering Education 2020 (GEE2020) will be held in Athens, Greece, on June 24-25 2020. The Conference is organized by the Technical Committee TC306 for Geo-Engineering Education of the ISSMGE, under the auspices of the Helleni



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A vision for TC306 in Lee Shulman's words: Putting an End to Pedagogical Solitude

The following is a synthesis of excerpts from a short article by Lee Shulman that conforms to the 200 word limit allowed by the publisher for free use. Please check out the article here. Lee Shulman is an educational psychologist, professor emeritus at Stanford Graduate School of



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Prof. Carlo Viggiani delivered the first TC306 case-study webinar

The case-study webinar "Porto Tolle test embankment - A full scale experiment on the consolidation of a thick clay layer" delivered by Prof. Carlo Viggiani, Emeritus Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at University of Naples “Federico II” (Italy), is avai



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Bare Essentials of Soil Mechanics by John Burland – a brief review

Professor John Burland has developed a suite of five short videos (2 to 6 minutes) on the engineering behavior of soil. The emphasis is on the particulate nature of soils and its implications for soil strength. All videos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonComme



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TC306 workshop 19th ICSMGE Seoul

Workshop Theme

GeoEngineering Education: What should graduates be able to do & What and How to teach to enable them to do it

Workshop Presentations

Introduction: Marina Pantazidou PDF, Panelists: Gye-Chun Cho PDF, Carlos Santamarina PDF, Cino Viggiani PDF

Workshop



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First John Burland Lecture delivered

First John Burland Lecture: "Basic Geotechnical Engineering Skills - What Can Graduates Do?"
Delivered by Prof. John Atkinson, on October 20, 2016, on occasion of SFGE 2016 (Shaping the Future of Geotechnical Education), the International Conference on Geo-Engineering



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TC306 focuses on the fundamentals of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, i.e. topics typically covered in undergraduate curricula. Its primary, but not exclusive, audience is currently active, past and future geotechnical engineering educators.

Updated information on the activities of TC306 is reported in this main web portal hosted by ISSMGE. Other dissemination avenues include the following:

1.1) A web repository and forum for discussions (TC306 GeoWorld website);

1.2) Online access to proceedings of the TC306 conferences through the ISSMGE Online Library;

1.3) A series of “Case Study Webinars” (TC306 YouTube channel).

TC306 aims to enrich the toolbox of geotechnical engineering instructors through:

2.1) Debates on challenges of teaching fundamental concepts;

2.2) Recommendations for geotechnical curricula;

2.3) Reviews of: resources for geotechnical laboratory classes; e-learning resources; other transferable/reusable geotechnical education material; useful geotechnical engineering education references.

New material is first announced in the “News” Tab of the TC306 ISSMGE site and then archived in the TC306 GeoWorld website under “Files”.

 

Conference-related activities of TC306 include:

3.1) Organization of the TC306 conference on geotechnical engineering education and theme workshops and specialty sessions in ISSMGE conferences;

3.2) Organization and promotion of the John Burland Honour Lecture (the 1st John Burland Lecture was delivered by Prof. John Atkinson in 2016);

3.3) Collaborations with other ISSMGE Technical Committees (TCs) for promoting and publicizing education sessions in specialty conferences organized by these TCs.

 

TC306 aims to foster industry-academia collaboration to produce results that address two main needs expressed by the following questions:

4.1) “How can academia better tailor the teaching of geotechnical basics to the needs of the industry?” – involvement of industry in curriculum development.

4.2) “How can the industry collaborate with academia to co-produce (a) case study material suitable for undergraduate instruction and (b) geotechnical characterization data suitable for the development of course assignments and projects?” – involvement of industry in the development of educational material.

 

# Type Full Name Country
1 Chair Marina Pantazidou Greece
2 Vice Chair David Airey Australia
3 Secretary Michele Calvello Italy
4 Nominated by TC Chair Susan Burns United States
5 Nominated by TC Chair Rodrigo Salgado United States
6 Nominated by TC Chair Asif Ahmed United States
7 Nominated Member Riccardo Berardi Italy
8 Nominated Member Caterina Di Maio Italy
9 Corresponding Member Brian Byrne Ireland
10 Nominated Member Fayrouz Yasser Egypt
11 Nominated Member Muhsin Rahhal Lebanon
12 Nominated Member Andy Leung Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
13 Nominated Member Jun Yang Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
14 Nominated Member Thomas Shire United Kingdom
15 Nominated Member John Atkinson United Kingdom
16 Nominated Member Manuel Matos Fernandes Portugal
17 Nominated Member Anitha G. Pillai India
18 Corresponding Member Saibaba Reddy India
19 Nominated Member Masrouri Farimah France
20 Nominated Member Mamoru Kikumoto Japan
21 Nominated Member Bryan McCabe Ireland
22 Nominated Member Emil Mejlhede Kinslev Denmark
23 Corresponding Member Giovanna Biscontin United Kingdom
24 Nominated Member Silvana Montoya-Noguera Colombia
25 Nominated Member Gretchen Bohnhoff United States
26 Nominated Member George Anoyatis Belgium
27 Nominated Member Margarida Pinho Lopes Portugal
28 Nominated Member Silvina Echazú Lamas Argentina
29 Corresponding Member Vasiliki Dimitriadi Greece
30 Corresponding Member Polyxeni Kallioglou Greece
31 Nominated Member Vasiliki Xenaki Greece
32 Corresponding Member Mark Jaksa Australia
33 Nominated Member Xia Li China
34 Nominated Member Katia Bicalho Brazil
35 Nominated Member Huabei Liu China
36 Nominated Member M. Rama Rao India
37 Nominated Member Tae-Hyuk Kwon South Korea
38 Nominated Member Tugba Eskişar Tefçi Turkey
39 Corresponding Member Ana Heitor United Kingdom
40 Nominated Member Charles MacRobert South Africa
41 Nominated Member George Fanourakis South Africa
42 Nominated Member Francisco Javier Torrijo Spain
43 Corresponding Member Francisco Javier Manzano Diosdado Spain
44 Corresponding Member Anna Ramón Tarragona Spain
45 Nominated Member Toshifumi Mukunoki Japan
46 Nominated Member Alberto Ledesma Spain
47 Corresponding Member Hideki Ohta Japan
48 Nominated Member Rolando Orense New Zealand
49 Nominated Member Orianne JENCK France
50 Nominated Member Biljana Kovačević Zelić Croatia
51 Nominated Member Liang Cui Canada

REPORTS

Mid-term Report April 2019: TC306Mid-termReport2017-2019.pdf

Administrative Report August 2017: TC306_Administrative_Report_2017.pdf

Administrative Report December 2021: TC306_Administrative_Report_2017-2021.pdf

Publication Policies: TC306_PublicationPolicies.pdf

Time Capsule Report: TimeCapsuleContribution-TC306-April2022.pdf

The “John Burland Lecture” is TC306 Honor lecture.

 

Second John Burland Lecture

"Reflections on Some Contemporary Aspects of Geotechnical Engineering Education – From Critical State to Virtual Immersion"

Delivered by Prof. Mark Jaksa on June 23, 2020, during the online International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering Education, GEE 2020, streamed from Athens, Greece.

 

First John Burland Lecture

"Basic Geotechnical Engineering Skills - What Can Graduates Do?"

Delivered by Prof. John Atkinson, on October 20, 2016, on occasion of SFGE 2016 (Shaping the Future of Geotechnical Education), the International Conference on Geo-Engineering Education, organized by TC306 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Recorded at the Studio of Centro de Apoio à Educação a Distância - CAED/UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Camera: Kellison Vinícius and Belchior Thiago, Production: Ernane Oliveira and Fernanda Rosendo, Editing and finalization: Ernane Oliveira

This is the "corner" of TC306 devoted to Geotechnical Engineering Education posts (GEE posts) specifically written for geotechnical engineering instructors. Any GEE post starts as a short contribution written by a TC306 member. The submission is then discussed within the TC. The final post reflects the result of this interaction (consensus is desired but not a prerequisite). It is expected that, with time, some templates attractive to instructors will emerge.

Published posts

New posts will appear in this section soon. Stay tuned for news.

Contact Technical Committee : Geo-engineering Education

This message will be sent to TC306 Geo-education officers