Jointly promoted by Prof. Yao Tandong of the ITP and Prof. Lonnie Thompson of the Byrd Polar Research Center, OSU, the virtual class featuring paleoclimotology by Prof. Thompson accomplished on the evening of March 5 after nearly two-month sharing of teaching resources between the Chinese and American young scientific staff.
Started on Jan.6, the class, Paleoclimotology, presented by Prof. Thompson to OSU students were simultaneously shown to Chinese students of the ITP in Beijing through webcam. Over twenty students from the Chinese sides attended the night class. Though quite a number of Chinese students found the class in English hard to comprehend at once, they still value the opportunity of a face-to-face communication with American professors and students. As far as Prof. Thompson’s syllabus goes, young scientists from both sides also shared the inviting lectures to the class, including Prof. Earle Holland‘s ‘communicating science’, and Dr. Paolo Gabrielli’s introduction to polar studies by the EPICA, which broadened the Chinese students understanding of climate study worldwide, and equipped them with basic knowledge to popularize science.
In preparing the talk on ‘What happened ca.5200a BP”, a topic proposed by Prof. Thompson in an effort to look at the tremendous impact of abrupt climate change on human cultures, Chinese students of the ITP were organized into three groups, presenting the possible climate changes in China around that time using such proxies as limnological sedimentation, ice cores, stalagmites, as well as archeological and documentary records in concern. After sharing with the American students in their understanding of possible climate changes in south America, north America, south Africa, and southeast Asia, the ITP students made their presentations to students on both sides on March 5, inviting more note exchanges between Chinese and American young scientists and winning general approvals from both sides.
This form of virtual scientific class not only helps Chinese students practice their English, either orally, or in terms of their listening comprehensions, but also promote international communication in climate change studies, which is the trend in scientific studies. Thus professors from both sides promised to hold more such virtual classes between BPRC and ITP in the future.