Geology

Introduction movie

The features of the Earth Studies course are presented in this video.

Overview

?Geology is a field of study that clarifies the past and present state of the Earth and provides information necessary for considering our irreplaceable planet and our future.

?We are expanding from traditional geological science to geology with the aim of learning more broadly and deeply about the workings of the Earth from multiple perspectives, dealing with volcanoes, earthquakes, typhoons, droughts, heat waves, floods, and other disasters.

?Today's society needs to increase its knowledge of the Earth in order to address global issues such as securing necessary resources and preserving the environment. Minerals, rocks, strata, and fossils that record the past are used as teaching and research materials in the Earth Studies course.

Education

"Learning" in Geology Course
?Nagano Prefecture, where Shinshu University is located, is in one of the most volatile regions in Japan, with its steep topography, active uplift of the Northern Alps, volcanoes that are still active, and the Fossa Magna, where crustal movements over the past 15 million years have been recorded, making it an ideal location for studying earth science.

?To take advantage of this natural environment, the curriculum of this course is organized with an emphasis on outdoor training. For example, students can actually visit areas such as the Northern and Southern Alps to study on the spot.
Curriculum Features - Education with emphasis on practical training
?Our primary educational policy is to emphasize practical training in order to properly understand nature.

?From the first year, students have the opportunity to experience actual nature through freshman seminars, lectures, and practical training.

?In the second and third years, students participate in numerous lectures and field trips to learn the fundamentals of geology. Among these, field trips and geological field trips are conducted for more than 50 days in the second and third years, and students are required to go outdoors almost every week during the spring, summer, and fall class periods.

?Mastery of these areas will provide students with the ability to address the practical challenges that geosciences must fulfill.
Research
?Areas of research being pursued in the geology course include crustal deformation, active faults, paleontology, volcanology, rocks, minerals, resources, strata, and paleoenvironment.

?Furthermore, by actively responding to social demands for lifelong education for working people and environmental disaster prevention issues, we are developing our research and educational content and disseminating our research results to society.
Student voice
?Students are assigned to a laboratory in their senior year. In the laboratory, students work with faculty, graduate students, and classmates on a single topic of interest over the course of a year.

?Students may go overseas to conduct research or borrow equipment from domestic research institutions to conduct analysis, increasing their involvement with researchers and students from other universities and research institutions. At the end of the course, students write a graduation thesis on their own theme and present the results of their research.
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