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 health and wellbeing 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, sedimentology, geochemistry and palaeoecology). I combine these disciplines to reconstruct past environmental change at a high resolution, in order to better understand present-day climate change.
My current geoscience research interests / collaborations include:
Reconstructing ice-sheet dynamics via the geomorphic and sedimentary imprint of past ice sheets (The Minch, NW Scotland).
Palaeoenvironmental change (offshore) reconstructed through multiproxy analysis of marine sediment cores.
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:
Undergraduate: ENVU1BP (Building Planet Earth) SCIU3FS (Field Skills for Sustainable Solutions) GEOU9SP (Geographical Information Systems) ENVU2LV (Landscape Evolution) GEOU9GL (Glaciers & Landscape) GEOU4ER (Environmental Resilience) ENVU6SP (Sustainable Landscapes)
Postgraduate: EPLPPG1 (Fundamentals of Remote Sensing) EPLPPG2 (Applications of Remote Sensing) EPLPPG3 (Planetary Exploration)