Home
Department of Earth Science
The Owl Prize 2022

The Owl Prize was awarded to Bjarte Hannisdal

The Owl Prize, UiB's internal award for educational quality, is awarded to Bjarte Hannisdal and the course GEOV114.

Bilde av Pinar Heggernes prorektor UiB, på Realfag UiB sin HMS-dag på VilVite 1.12.22. - overrekkelse av Ugleprisen til Bjarte Hannisdal og utdanningen i GEOV114
The prize was awarded by deputy rector Pinar Heggernes during the HSE seminar for Mat Nat on Thursday 1 December to associate professor Bjarte Hannisdal at department of Earth Science,
Photo:
Atle Rotevatn

Main content

The Owl Prize, UiB's internal award for educational quality, is awarded to Bjarte Hannisdal and the course GEOV114.

The prize was awarded by deputy rector Pinar Heggernes during the HSE seminar for Mat Nat on Thursday 1 December. Bjarte Hannisdal is employed at the Department of Earth Science and associated with the Center for Deep Sea Research, the Bjerknes Center for Climate Research and sits on the board of iEarth - Center for integrated Earth system science education, as head of iEarth focus area 1: Shaping the future

GEO is very happy and proud that the University of Bergen's prize for education quality has been awarded to the Department of Earth Science and course manager Bjarte Hannisdal and the team around him, the study administration and the students for the course GEOV114 - Introduction to geobiology.

It is particularly nice that the award went to Bjarte, who has been a driving force in the systematic work on educational development and quality. Not least, Bjarte has always been central to SFU iEarth.

Bjarte has always been an educational pioneer at our department, says department head Atle Rotevatn, and over time and together with other colleagues has cultivated a cultural change in educational thinking at GEO. There is much we could mention, but we would particularly like to highlight Bjarte's work in involving the students in educational development and quality work.

Many thanks and congratulations to Bjarte, because this award is really well deserved!

And thank you to the University of Bergen for this recognition of the educational quality work at the Department of Geosciences and SFU iEarth, and for your support of this work.


GEOV114

The course GEOV114 Introduction to geobiology was created in 2019 both as a professional innovation and as a pedagogical intervention at bachelor's level. The subject is an ongoing collaboration between academic staff, educators and students. The learning design combines interdisciplinarity and social relevance with active learning and formative assessment, authentic data and problems, as well as scientific practice and reflection. The course has a pronounced focus on generic skills and on sustainability challenges. Assessment criteria are actively used to clarify expectations, shape feedback and improve work. Students and teachers systematically practice giving and receiving feedback and reflecting on the learning process in a continuous learning log. The reflections are used to adjust and make changes to activities, rubrics and the learning environment during the semester. Interviews with students and lecturers are part of both a research-based approach to teaching (SoTL) and educational research. The subject is an example of how teachers and students can dare to take chances and be open to unpredictability, but with an awareness of the educational responsibility.

The following people are or have been involved in the development of the subject:
Employees: Bjarte Hannisdal (subject manager) and Sven Le Moine Bauer.
Fellows (geosciences): Kristian Agasøster Haaga, Tor Einar Møller, Laura de Luca, Renee Hageman and Simon Lefèvere.
Fellows (pedagogy): Isabela Pires Darcie and Dario Blumenschein.
Master's students: Serianna Kvarøy, Ingebjørg Haugland, Øystein Asserson, Sjur Beyer, Erle Birkeland, Alan Kvindesland, Heine Rugland and Lisbeth Vedå.
And not least: All the students in the 5th semester 2019 - 2022!