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U.S. - Bangladesh trip to Mississippi Delta
The Vanderbilt team taught its TIES:Bangladesh course again in Spring 2014,
being co-taught by Goodbred, science-policy scientist Jonathan Gilligan, and social-justice researcher Brooke Ackerly. PIRE post-doc Carol Wilson and PhD student Jennifer Pickering also contributed to the course. Thirteen students were involved in the course, including 8 PhDs, 2 MS, and 3 undergrads. The course focused on geohazards and human-environment coupling in both the Bengal and Mississippi deltas. Due to political unrest during elections in Bangladesh, the instructors decided that it not safe to take students for the trip to Bangladesh and thus decided to do a comparison with the Mississippi delta, including issues of subsidence, sea-level rise, and tropical storms. To augment the Bangladesh course component, the instructors invited a cohort of Bangladeshi colleagues, 3 faculty and 6 students, from Dhaka and Khulna Universities to join the field trip to the Mississippi delta. The joint trip in the US was an outstanding learning experience for both sides, and US students gained tremendous insights from the Bangladeshi perspective on U.S. deltarelated engineering, hazards, and social issues. |
Columbia undergraduate trip to Bangladesh
For the Spring 2015
semester, M. Steckler again taught a course on hazards in Bangladesh in the
Columbia University undergraduate Sustainable Development program, SDEV 3550,
Bangladesh: Life on a Tectonically-Active Delta. The class included 10 undergraduate
students. The TA was a graduate student
in Southeast Asian Studies with previous experience in Bangladesh. The highlight of the course was an 11 day
trip to Bangladesh during Spring Break.
However, due to the ongoing political violence, it was not possible to
travel between cities safely at the time.
To cope with the situation, the entire trip, outside of Dhaka, was
conducted by boat. We leased the M/V
Kokilmoni, a boat we have previously used for our research. The boat met us at Dhaka and we traveled
through the river system to SW Bangladesh.
In the Southwest, we visited Bhanderkote and the compaction meter we
installed there; Polder 32 recovering from the devastation of being flooded for
3 years by Cyclone Aila; Hiron Point, Katka, Kachikhali, and Bird Island in the
Sundarbans Mangrove Forest; and Moddya Barisal. As before, we were accompanied
by 8 Dhaka University students and 2 professors for the entire trip. The inclusion of a similar size contingent of
Bangladeshi tremendously enhanced the experience. In the villages the students
either interviewed farmers for their land use change project or measured As
levels in drinking water wells, in addition to learning about the region and
contrasts between villages with and without access to fresh water. Having sufficient Bangla speakers to
translate was a key factor in these activities. While our time on the ground
was sometimes limited by the limited pace of boat travel and need to consider
the timing of the tides, it was offset by the greater opportunities for seeing
the country and conversation on the boat. |
Bangladesh video at American Museum of Natural History
A video about our project is now the featured video at the AMNH in the Hall of Planet Earth. It will be on a continuous loop on the main screen for the next 6 months. It is also available for viewing in the AMNH Science Bulletins web page. click here. Plus a set of videos and text in their Curriculum Collection for students click here. |
Field School in Bangladesh
February 21 - March 7, 2014. We are offering a field school for graduate students and postdocs on the sedimentary and tectonic processes, and their interaction in the geologically dynamic Ganges-Brahmaputra River Delta. Review of applications will begin December 1, 2013, with December 20 as the cutoff date for receipt of applications. See Education page for more information http://www.BanglaPIRE.org/education |
GPS Installation
Michael Steckler blogged about installing GPS in Bangladesh in October 2012. ![]() To Comilla and Back Oct. 18, 2012 Khepupara to Kokilmoni Oct. 21, 2012 Polder 32 Oct. 21, 2012 Hiron Point in Sundarbans Oct. 22, 2012 Bharungamari - End of the Road Oct. 24, 2012 |
State of the Planet Blog
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Fieldwork blog for middle schoolers
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Class Trip - to Bangladesh!
This spring, Michael Steckler taught a new course for students in Columbia University's Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development. This course explored the interaction of riverine processes, water and hydrology, sedimentary processes, tectonics, land subsidence and sea level rise, environmental issues, cultural setting, and sustainable development in the world's largest delta. The course explored both the hazards and resources for life in this dynamic environment through lectures, a field trip to Bangladesh during Spring Break and guest lecturers in earth and social sciences. Read Michael's blog posts about their spring break trip to Bangladesh: More information about the course: Information about the final student presentations: |
More Fieldwork in Bangladesh and Meghalaya, and a Blog
Nano Seeber, Ellie Ferguson and Humayun Akhter are in the field again. This time joined by Dhiman Mondal (Dhaka U), Antje Lehnert (Bremen U) and Cecilia McHugh (Queens College). After a week together in Sylhet, northern Bangladesh, most of the team crossed the border to continue their work in India, while Cecilia headed south along the Bangladesh coast with Dhaka University students to search for geologic records of past earthquakes. During the trip, Ellie Ferguson is blogging for her 8th grade Earth Science students. Read it here at msfergusoninthefield |