A conversation with Scott Linneman

Western Washington University's Scott Linneman, professor of Geology and Science Education, is the 2013 Washington Professor of the Year, awarded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Whenever he can, Linneman teaches geology out in the field instead of the classroom; his students have observed geologic processes first hand on the area's rivers, beaches, glaciers and landslides and gone on overnight trips to national parks.

In this video, Linneman is taking his students to observe an ongoing landslide on Sumas Mountain near the U.S. border with Canada.

Linneman is involved inside and outside of Western, from running workshops for teachers in the Bellingham community to helping geoscience professors all over the country. As part of his professorial duties, he is a member of Western's Science, Math and Technology Education program, assisting in the training of future science teachers. He was the president of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers which promotes teaching of Earth science and was recently awarded the association's Robert Christman Distinguished Service Award. In 2001, he held a Senior Fulbright fellowship to conduct teacher training and research on science teachers in South Africa. In 2011, he was named Washington State's Higher Education Science Teacher of the Year by the Washington Science Teachers Association.

Linneman received his bachelor's degree from Carleton College and his doctorate from the University of Wyoming.