Magmatic processes in the field
In 2022 Léon Frey and Prof. Dr. Olivier Bachmann created and published videos for the lecture “Dynamische Erde I”. In 2024, together with Dr. Iwan Stössel, Léon published a series of videos for the lecture “Geologie der Schweiz”. And in 2025, again with Prof. Dr. Olivier Bachmann, Léon published a new series on magmatism for the lecture “Magmatismus und Metamorphose I”
You created already the third video series for a lecture in Earth Sciences. What did you film this time and how will the videos be used as part of the lecture?
For the lecture “Magmatismus und Metamorphose I”, we received an innovedum grant to produce videos for the magmatism part of the lecture. Some videos I filmed at ETH – these are videos that are mainly on phase diagrams. Since this is a very complex aspect of the lecture, I focussed on a step-by-step explanation in an easy-to-understand way. Other videos I filmed in the field to show magmatic processes first hand. Through some very lucky coincidences, I had the opportunity to film in very special places: For one video, I filmed a volcanic eruption in Iceland – I flied with my drone over the erupting volcanic cone and got awesome footage that I combined with other shots in Iceland. Since another job got me to Antarctica and the Aleutian Islands (Alaska), I was also able to film in these remote places and bring them closer to our students.
Most videos explain the basics in the field of magmatism. The students will watch those video before the lecture, allowing them to learn the basics at their own pace. Thus, in the face-to-face lecture, all students are on the same level and we build on this in the sense of a ‘flipped classroom’. Other videos are field examples the students can watch after a face-to-face lecture. In this case, the face-to-face lecture explores a certain topic and after that the students watch the videos to see a specific field example related to the topic – in some way like a virtual excursion.
What are the advantages of these videos that motivated you to produce them?
I see two main advantages: First, videos are useful to explain complex aspects of a lecture. When writing the script, I have a lot of time to think about how to present a complex aspect in the most easy-to-understand way. I have much more time to think than a lecturer that has to explain something live in front of students. After the ‘easy-to-understand’ video is published, students can watch it at a slower speed if they wish and they can watch it as many times as they want. In a ‘live’ lecture, they hear the explanations just once and at the speed that the lecturer talks. There is no stop-button nor a replay-button in a live lecture. If the students miss something, it is more difficult to ‘retrieve’ this missing piece of information than when they miss something in the video.
The second advantage is that I can bring the field aspects very close to the students using video. Of course, in a face-to-face lecture diagrams and photographs can be shown, but video footage is much more suitable to show the field conditions – especially when using a drone for example. In this way, I can show the students the ‘real world’, almost like a virtual excursion. And in my opinion, showing the students drone footage of an erupting volcano or penguins on a volcano in Antarctica is just cool and I hope this will motivate them even more for the course!
