Teaching Complexity: How John Chermak uses poster sessions for his Pathways students

For a university professor, John Chermak in Virginia Tech’s Geosciences Department has led an unconventional career.  

In addition to teaching at Virginia Tech for more than 15 years, Chermak has worked in the mining and energy industries on projects in 14 states and nine countries. They’ve ranged from permitting a gold and copper mine in Peru’s northern highlands to studying nuclear waste storage at the University of Bern in Switzerland.  

It’s that experience Chermak tries to impart on his students in the Pathways course, Earth Resources, Society, and the Environment.  

“My teaching is all about trying to explain to students the complexity of the real world,” said Chermak. “As scientists, we collect data to understand systems, but our work is never done in isolation. We also have to be as environmentally and socially responsible as possible, which is why this field is so interesting.”

For example, consider Virginia Tech’s Climate Action Commitment, which Chermak is involved with as a member of the renewable energy working group.

The initiative aims for carbon neutrality by 2030, which will mean wide-reaching changes for the community, like retrofitting existing building for efficiency, switching the power source for the university’s steam plant, limiting the number of cars on campus, and purchasing renewable energy credits, a marketplace that allows the purchaser to offset their emissions by supporting sustainable projects.

Reaching the goals set in the university’s climate commitment will require collaboration between university, local, and state officials while interpreting proposals on emissions, economics, and construction from a range of stakeholders.  

The question, Chermak says, is how to get students to engage and retain similarly challenging concepts?

“I’ve worked with the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and its director Kim Filer, and what they have taught me is that in order for students to learn, we as educators need to understand that students need to process information in order to retain it,” said Chermak. “In short, for learning to happen, we need to get students to do stuff.”

That has meant students preparing and presenting material at poster sessions, a recurring project for his students, which he says are valuable for several reasons.

The prompt for the assignment asks students to follow an energy source from extraction, to use, environmental and social impacts, and waste management. Or students can research a country and examine the natural resources, economy, environment, population, culture, and opportunities for sustainable development.  

The class is then divided into teams of approximately four students, and once a semester, they present their posters in the Commonwealth Ballroom in the Squires Student Center to fellow students as well as other faculty and staff. Students also have to conduct at least two peer evaluations of other teams’ posters.

“Presentation skills are a challenge for a lot of students and I found having to answer unanticipated questions a really valuable experience,” said Wyatt George, a second-year student in the Virginia Tech Corp of Cadets majoring in political science. George was part of a team that presented a poster on Lebanon during the fall 2021 semester.  

“The subject isn’t part of what I usually study but I came away with a greater understanding of environmental issues, which has led to other classes outside my major.” he said. “Also, I’m 50 percent Lebanese, so this assignment - along with an Arab culture course I took last semester - meant a lot to be able to learn more about where my extended family lives and came from.”

The presentations, and the work to prepare posters, also encourage students to develop skills that are valuable to employers.  

“Coming from the private sector, you realize everything is done in teams,” said Chermak. “And the poster sessions reinforce all the skills needed for working with a group, like communication, delegating tasks, meeting deadlines, and collaboration.”

At it’s best, the poster sessions (and the university’s Pathways to General Education program) creates a valuable feedback loop between the specific, technical training students get in their majors and the broader societal and global context for their future careers.  

“The issue of sustainability is applicable to any field in engineering. As a materials engineer, it’s a topic I know I’ll be returning to in my classes in the future,” said Keshav Chandran, a second-year pre-med student majoring in materials science engineering. “This class, which looks at real-world issues from different perspectives, presents the problems that I take back to my classes and try to look for solutions.”  

These poster sessions are applicable to a range of courses and topics that could be adapted by other faculty.   

“We created the course with the title ‘Earth Resources, Society, and the Environment’ and it’s this balance between those three issues that I want them to grapple with when looking at an issue,” said Chermak. “And the poster sessions are a great way to make that happen.”