EARTH GSI - Winter - Limited Availability; LSA)

Duties will include teaching either two lab sections, three discussions, or two ULWR discussion sections (for a 0.5 appointment), holding office hours, attending lectures and assisting where directed, grading assignments, and general course preparation and administrative tasks. GSIs will need to attend lectures and be available for the requisite number of sections. Please review the course guide for specific times for each course.

GSIs assigned to EARTH 333 or 380, both upper level-writing (ULWR) courses, will be responsible for substantial grading of written materials and first time ULWR GSIs must enroll in WRITING 993.

• This is a limited availability position open only to currently enrolled graduate students in good standing in the College of Literature, Science and Arts at the University of Michigan.
• Possess the ability to effectively teach and evaluate undergraduate students.
• For potential GSIs whose undergraduate medium of instruction was not English, prior satisfactory completion of ELI 994 and the GSI-OET.

• Previous GSI experience with favorable student evaluations.
• Previous coursework in or familiarity with Earth and environmental sciences.
• Previously taken or served as a GSI for the relevant or similar course.
• For EARTH 225, previous experience with GIS.

The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences is looking to hire approximately three GSIs in the winter 2027 term. We expect the students may support the following courses, though specific course needs and fractions may change through the process:

• EARTH 225 - Geology of Michigan and the Great Lakes (one 0.5 GSI)
  • This course is a project-based introductory Earth Science course that focuses on the geologic history of the Great Lakes of North America with an emphasis on the State of Michigan as an example of the processes involved in the formation of these lakes. The goal of the class is to investigate the formation of the Great Lakes Area, the Great Lakes basins, and the current version of the Great Lakes by analyzing the geologic features, rocks, sediments, and mineral, energy, and natural resources available.
  • Lectures TuTh 2:30 - 4:00 PM
• EARTH 331 - Climate and Climate Change

  • This course examines the physical and chemical processes influencing Earth's climate and the methods for quantifying past and present climate change, Emphasis is placed on understanding the mechanisms of climate change from ice ages through the near future. The evidence of human-caused changes in climate is also discussed.

    Specific topics addressed include: (1) solar radiation and the atmosphere; (2) atmospheric and ocean circulation; (3) methods of quantifying past and present climate change; (4) glaciers and climate change; (5) greenhouse and icehouse Earth; (6) long-term (geologic) and short-term (historical) changes in Earth's climate; and (7) humans and climate change. Discussion sections will elaborate on lecture topics, have students work with and quantitatively interpret data related to lecture topics, and solve problem sets related to lectures.

  • Lectures TuTh 1:00 - 2:30 PM, Discussion sections Tu 2:00 - 3:00 PM and Th 3:00 - 4:00 PM.
• EARTH 380 - Natural Resources, Economics, and the Environment (one 0.5 GSI)
  • This course examines the energy and mineral resources on which society depends, and the engineering, environmental, geologic, economic, political and social factors that control our access to them. Students will learn about the geologic processes that form mineral deposits, the politics (local, state, national, and international) that shape regulation and commerce, the environmental footprint of resource extraction and mining, and how all of these issues connect to…