My research interests include two primary thematic domains - pedagogy (educational theory and practice) and geoscience:
Pedagogy: My current pedagogical research is focused around the secondary to higher education transition and improving student emotional robustness through skills development:
Exploring new methods of facilitating a smooth secondary to higher education transition.
Developing new approaches to skills development in academia and broader society.
Tackling climate anxiety through skills-based learning.
Geoscience: As an interdisciplinary geoscientist, I am interested in global change. I specialise in a number of disciplines (geomorphology, geographical information systems, sedimentology, palaeo-ecology and remote sensing). I combine these disciplines to reconstruct past environmental change at a high resolution, in order to better understand present-day climate change.
My current research interests / collaborations include:
Reconstructing ice-sheet dynamics via the geomorphic and sedimentary imprint of past ice sheets (The Minch, NW Scotland).
Palaeo-environmental change and past oceanographic behaviour, NW Scotland (offshore).
Understanding what sediment records can tell us about past environments at ultra-high resolution.
Non-destructive analysis and characterisation of Quaternary sediments.
Developing a skill-based pedagogical framework for sustainability
PI: Mr Neil McDonald
Funded by: The British Ecological Society
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Article
Automated characterisation of glaciomarine sediments using X-ray computed laminography
McDonald N, Bradwell T, Callard SL, Toney JL, Shreeve B & Shreeve J (2022) Automated characterisation of glaciomarine sediments using X-ray computed laminography. Quaternary Science Advances, 5, Art. No.: 100046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qsa.2021.100046
Article
Bradwell T, Fabel D, Clark CD, Chiverrell RC, Small D, Smedley RK, Saher MH, Moreton SJ, Dove D, Callard SL, Duller GAT, Medialdea A, Bateman MD, Burke MJ & McDonald N (2021) Pattern, style and timing of British-Irish Ice Sheet advance and retreat over the last 45 000 years: evidence from NW Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf. Journal of Quaternary Science, 36 (5), pp. 871-933. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3296
I'm a hugely motivated educator specialising in cooperative and skills-based learning in order to engage and support learners for success in higher education and beyond. I teach across all four years at undergraduate level and masters level in the following modules:
GEOU9SP (Geographical Information Systems) SCIU2PS (Practical Science Skills: Field Skills) ENVU2LV (Landscape Evolution) GEOU9GL (Glaciers & Landscape) GEOU4ER (Environmental Resilience) EPLPPG2 (Applications of Remote Sensing) EPLPPG1 Fundamentals of Remote Sensing) ENVU6SP (Sustainable Landscapes) EPLPPG3 (Planetary Exploration)