ED41A-0242 0800h
Instructional Practices in Introductory Geoscience Courses: Results of a National Faculty Survey
The NAGT professional development program "On the Cutting Edge" recently surveyed 7000 geoscience faculty in the United States to develop a snapshot of current instructional practices in undergraduate geoscience courses, faculty strategies for learning new content and new teaching approaches, and faculty involvement in the geoscience education community. Over 2200 faculty responded to the survey which was conducted by the American Institute of Physics. Results for introductory courses (814 responses) indicate that lecture is the most common teaching strategy used in courses of all sizes. Many faculty incorporate some interactive activities in their courses. Most commonly, they use questioning, demonstrations, discussions, and in-class exercises. Less common, but not rare, are small group discussion or think-pair-share and classroom debates or role-playing. Activities involving problem solving, using quantitative skills, working with data and primarily literature, and structured collaboration are incorporated by many faculty in introductory courses, suggesting efforts to teach the process of science. Activities in which students address a problem of national or local interest, analyze their own data, or address problems of their own design are less common but not rare. Field experiences are common but not ubiquitous for students in introductory courses. A wide variety of assessment strategies are used in introductory courses of all sizes, including exams, quizzes, problem sets, papers, oral presentations, and portfolios. While papers are used for assessment more extensively in small classes, a significant number of faculty use papers in large classes (greater than 81 students). A majority of faculty use rubrics in grading. Faculty report that in the past two years, approximately one-third have made changes in the content of their introductory courses while just under half have changed the teaching methods they use. While faculty learn about both new content and teaching methods from a wide variety of sources, they rely more heavily on discussions with their colleagues for information about teaching methods. This description of current teaching practices provides a benchmark against which we can monitor how instruction in introductory courses responds to increased understanding of student learning as well as to broad sharing of expertise among geoscience faculty through professional meetings, publications, workshops, and new on-line resources.
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops
ED41A-0243 0800h
{\it On the Cutting Edge} Workshop on Effective and Innovative Course Design: A Model for Designing Rigorous Introductory Courses
As part of a professional development program for faculty in the geosciences, the NSF-funded program {\it On the Cutting Edge} (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/) has developed and offered workshops for geoscience faculty that guide participants through a stimulating process designed to help faculty members articulate goals and design effective and innovative courses that both meet those goals and assess outcomes. Of approximately 150 faculty members who have participated in the workshops, more than 120 have designed introductory courses in topics ranging from physical geology to Earth systems to historical geology to oceanography. The method of course design taught through these workshops leads to the development of rigorous, student-centered introductory courses. Our method of course design begins, not with a list of content items, but with setting goals by answering the question, "What do I want my students to be able to do on their own when they are done with my class?", rather than the question, "What do I want my students to know in this subject?" Focusing on what faculty members want {\it students} to be able to do, rather than on what topics should be covered by the faculty member, promotes designing courses in which students are actively engaged in {\it doing} geoscience. This course design method emphasizes setting goals for students involving higher order thinking skills (e.g., analysis, synthesis, design, formulation, prediction, interpretation, evaluation), rather than lower order thinking skills (e.g., identification, description, recognition, classification). For example, the goal of having students be able to evaluate the geologic hazards in an unfamiliar region involves higher order thinking skills and engages the student in deeper analysis than simply asking students to recall and describe examples of geologic hazards covered in class. This goal also has imbedded in it many lower order thinking skills tasks (e.g., identification, description). Rigor comes in having the {\it students} involved in doing significant and meaningful geologic tasks. Long-term value comes from improving students' abilities for future challenges, rather focusing on having students pass the final exam. Goals for courses of many different types can be found in the {\it Cutting Edge} goals/syllabus database at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/browse.html. The workshop also introduces participants to a wide range of teaching and assessment tools so that faculty members will leave the workshop with a larger toolbox of techniques to choose from when deciding how to give students practice during the semester in tasks relevant to the goals of the course and how to evaluate students' progress toward the goals. Most of the techniques emphasize student engagement, which promotes development of more rigorous courses. Over 100 institutions now have introductory geoscience courses designed by faculty members who have participated in our course design workshops. Participants have stated repeatedly in evaluations that the workshop transformed their views of the course design process and that they will carry the focus on goals, student engagement, and rigor into designing other courses and assessing curricula in their departments. {\it On the Cutting Edge} is in the process of developing a web-based course design workshop so that faculty who cannot attend our face-to-face workshops can go through our course design process.
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/
ED41A-0244 0800h
Starting Point: Linking Methods and Materials for Introductory Geoscience Courses
Introductory courses are one of the most challenging teaching environments for geoscience faculty. Courses are often large, students have a wide variety of background and skills, and student motivation can include completing a geoscience major, preparing for a career as teacher, fulfilling a distribution requirement, and general interest. The Starting Point site (http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/index.html) provides help for faculty teaching introductory courses by linking together examples of different teaching methods that have been used in entry-level courses with information about how to use the methods and relevant references from the geoscience and education literature. Examples span the content of geoscience courses including the atmosphere, biosphere, climate, Earth surface, energy/material cycles, human dimensions/resources, hydrosphere/cryosphere, ocean, solar system, solid earth and geologic time/earth history. Methods include interactive lecture (e.g think-pair-share, concepTests, and in-class activities and problems), investigative cases, peer review, role playing, Socratic questioning, games, and field labs. A special section of the site devoted to using an Earth System approach provides resources with content information about the various aspects of the Earth system linked to examples of teaching this content. Examples of courses incorporating Earth systems content, and strategies for designing an Earth system course are also included. A similar section on Teaching with an Earth History approach explores geologic history as a vehicle for teaching geoscience concepts and as a framework for course design. The Starting Point site has been authored and reviewed by faculty around the country. Evaluation indicates that faculty find the examples particularly helpful both for direct implementation in their classes and for sparking ideas. The help provided for using different teaching methods makes the examples particularly useful. Examples are chosen from those available on the web and from contributions by faculty and are submitted for review in the DLESE Community Review system. Faculty are invited to contribute to the example collection, participate in site evaluation, propose new additions to the site and/or to volunteer as an author. We particularly encourage faculty to submit reviews of examples they use to the DLESE Community Review system.
http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo
ED41A-0245 0800h
Teaching Quantitative Skills in the Geosciences: Resources for Faculty
Numbers are increasingly a fundamental aspect of our daily environment making the ability to use quantitative skills an important aspect of understanding and successfully inhabiting the world around us. Introductory geoscience courses provide an excellent environment for enhancing students' ability to understand and use quantitative representations. Furthermore, a range of geoscience topics can provide the framework for introduction and development of quantitative skills at both introductory and upper levels. Over the past ten years, four workshops have discussed the importance of teaching quantitative skills in the geosciences and effective methods for doing so. The outcome of these workshops is a collaborative effort to develop and disseminate teaching materials and strategies that link the best practices from the mathematics, education and broader science communities with the experience of geoscience faculty who are leaders in this field. The Teaching Quantitative Skills in the Geosciences website provides a referenced overview of what we mean by quantitative skills and quantitative literacy and their roles in the geosciences; links are provided to methods, activities, and student resources for learning mathematics. A methods section contains examples of how some geoscientists teach certain quantitative skills. Classroom activities cover a wide variety of topics from atmosphere to biosphere to lithosphere and are geared toward both introductory and upper level courses. Students can also review and learn on their own with links to pages developed by mathematics educators addressing particular concepts used in the geosciences. A growing collection of topical pages link strategies for teaching specific quantitative concepts to examples using geoscience context. All of the resources underline the importance of teaching appreciation and understanding of numbers in an increasingly quantitative world and provide a means for both students and educators to become more proficient at quantitative skills.
http://serc.carleton.edu/quantskills/
ED41A-0246 0800h
Developing Effective On-Line Learning Resources in the Geosciences
On-line learning resources provide a new opportunity for geoscience faculty to utilize technology and the web in their classes. Online activities allow faculty to integrate online data, web resources and new assessment techniques in their teaching while easing the management of large classes. Creating high-quality resources gives instructors a valuable opportunity to examine their teaching and activities and it also provides a new avenue for scholarly activity. Online resources are particularly suited to reuse by other faculty and sharing via the web. The On the Cutting Edge website "Developing Effective On-Line Learning Resources in the Geosciences" (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/webdesign/index.html) provides resources and support for faculty creating online resources. The site brings together research from experts in the fields of educational design, website construction and resource reusability to address many of the critical issues in designing new online resources or adapting traditional materials to use on the web. The site has activities to help faculty envision what goals their resource is to achieve, then provides links to best-practice information and exemplary sites to help faculty design resources that achieve these goals. Finally, the site addresses how to structure a new resource to maximize its reusability and appeal to other faculty. This poster will provide faculty the opportunity to explore resources on educational aspects of designing on-line learning resources, technical aspects of usability, accessibility and web-site design, and information on assessment and reusability.
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/webdesign/index.html
ED41A-0247 0800h
Earth Systems Science in an Integrated Science Content and Methods Course for Elementary Education Majors
With funding from the National Science Foundation, we have designed an integrated science content and methods course for sophomore-level elementary teacher education (ETE) majors. This course, the Science Semester, is a 15-credit sequence that consists of three science content courses (Earth, Life, and Physical Science) and a science teaching methods course. The goal of this integrated science and education methods curriculum is to foster holistic understandings of science and pedagogy that future elementary teachers need to effectively use inquiry-based approaches in teaching science in their classrooms. During the Science Semester, traditional subject matter boundaries are crossed to stress shared themes that teachers must understand to teach standards-based elementary science. Exemplary approaches that support both learning science and learning how to teach science are used. In the science courses, students work collaboratively on multidisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) activities that place science concepts in authentic contexts and build learning skills. In the methods course, students critically explore the theory and practice of elementary science teaching, drawing on their shared experiences of inquiry learning in the science courses. An earth system science approach is ideally adapted for the integrated, inquiry-based learning that takes place during the Science Semester. The PBL investigations that are the hallmark of the Science Semester provide the backdrop through which fundamental earth system interactions can be studied. For example in the PBL investigation that focuses on energy, the carbon cycle is examined as it relates to fossil fuels. In another PBL investigation centered on kids, cancer, and the environment, the hydrologic cycle with emphasis on surface runoff and ground water contamination is studied. In a PBL investigation that has students learning about the Delaware Bay ecosystem through the story of the horseshoe crab and the biome that swirls around this remarkable arthropod, students are exposed to interactions between the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere and they examine ways in which climate change can affect this ecosystem.
ED41A-0248 0800h
The use of Multiple Representations to Enhance Student Mental Model Development of a Complex Earth System in an Introductory Geoscience Course
Exposing earth system science (ESS) concepts into introductory geoscience courses may present new and unique cognitive learning issues for students including understanding the role of positive and negative feedbacks in system responses to perturbations, spatial heterogeneity, and temporal dynamics, especially when systems exhibit complex behavior. Implicit learning goals of typical introductory undergraduate geoscience courses are more focused on building skill-sets and didactic knowledge in learners than developing a deeper understanding of the dynamics and processes of complex earth systems through authentic inquiry. Didactic teaching coupled with summative assessment of factual knowledge tends to limit student's understanding of the nature of science, their belief in the relevancy of science to their lives, and encourages memorization and regurgitation; this is especially true among the non-science majors who compose the majority of students in introductory courses within the large university setting. Students organize scientific knowledge and reason about earth systems by manipulating internally constructed mental models. This pilot study focuses on characterizing the impact of inquiry-based learning with multiple representations to foster critical thinking and mental model development about authentic environmental issues of coastal systems in an introductory geoscience course. The research was conducted in nine introductory physical geology laboratory sections (N $\sim$ 150) at Texas A&M University as part of research connected with the Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center. Participants were randomly placed into experimental and control groups. Experimental groups were exposed to multiple representations including both web-based learning materials (i.e. technology-supported visualizations and analysis of multiple datasets) and physical models, whereas control groups were provided with the traditional "workbook style" laboratory assignments. Assessment of pre- and post-test results was performed to provide indications of content knowledge and mental model expression improvements between groups. A rubric was used as the assessment instrument to evaluate student products (Cronbach alpha: 0.84 -V 0.98). Characterization of student performance based on a Student's t-test indicates that significant differences (p $<$ 0.05) in pre-post achievement occurred primarily within the experimental group; this illustrates that the use of multiple representations had an impact on student learning of ESS concepts, particularly in regard to mental model constructions. Analysis of variance also suggests that student mental model constructions were significantly different (p $<$ 0.10) between test groups. Factor analysis extracted three principle components (eigenvalue $>$ 1) which show similar clustering of variables that influence cognition, indicating that the cognitive processes driving student understanding of geoscience do not vary among student test groups. Categories of cognition include critical thinking skills (percent variance = 22.16%), understanding of the nature of science (percent variance = 25.16%), and ability to interpret results (percent variance = 28.89%). Lower numbers of students completed all of the required assignments of this research than expected (65.3%), restricting the quality of the results and therefore the ability to make more significant interpretations; this was likely due to the non-supportive learning environment in which the research was implemented.
http://teamsite.ad.stat.tamu.edu/miller/
ED41A-0249 0800h
Influences of Learning Environment Characteristics on Student Learning During Authentic Science Inquiry in an Introductory Physical Geology Course
Shifts in learning goals in introductory earth science courses to greater emphasis on critical thinking and the nature of science has led to the adoption of new pedagogical techniques, including inquiry-based learning (IBL). IBL is thought to support understanding of the nature of science and foster development of scientific reasoning and critical thinking skills by modeling authentic science inquiry. Implementation of new pedagogical techniques do not occur without influence, instruction and learning occurs in a complex learning environment, referring to the social, physical, mental, and pedagogical contexts. This study characterized the impact of an IBL module verses a traditionally structured laboratory exercise in an introductory physical geology class at Texas A&M University. Student activities in this study included manipulation of large-scale data sets, use of multiple representations, and exposure to ill-constrained problems common to the Texas Gulf Coast system. Formative assessment data collected included an initial survey of self efficacy, student demographics, content knowledge and a pre-mental model expression. Summative data collected included a post-test, post-mental model expression, final laboratory report, and a post-survey on student attitudes toward the module. Mental model expressions and final reports were scored according to a validated rubric instrument (Cronbrach alpha: 0.84-0.98). Nine lab sections were randomized into experimental and control groups. Experimental groups were taught using IBL pedagogical techniques, while the control groups were taught using traditional laboratory "workbook" techniques. Preliminary assessment based on rubric scores for pre-tests using Student's t-test (N $\sim$ 140) indicated that the experimental and control groups were not significantly different ($\rho$ $>$ 0.05), therefore, the learning environment likely impacted student's ability to succeed. A non-supportive learning environment, including student attitudes, teaching assistant attitudes, the lack of scaffolded learning, limited pedagogical content knowledge, and departmental oversight, which were all encountered during this study, can have an affect on the students' attitudes and achievements during the course. Data collected showed an overall improvement in content knowledge (38% increase); while performance effort clearly declined as seen through post-mental model expressions (a decline in performance by 24.8%) and percentage of assignments turned in (39% of all students turned in the required final report). A non-supportive learning environment was also seen through student comments on the final survey, "I think that all the TA's and the professor have forgotten that we are an intro class". A non-supportive environment clearly does not encourage critical thinking and completion of work. This pilot study showed that the complex learning environment can play a significant role in student learning. It also illustrates the need for future studies in IBL with supportive learning environments in order for students to achieve academic excellence and develop scientific reasoning and critical thinking skills.
ED41A-0250 0800h
Teaching with Games: Online Resources and Examples for Entry Level Courses
Using games to teach introductory geoscience can motivate students to enthusiastically learn material that they might otherwise condemn as "boring". A good educational game is one that immerses the players in the material and engages them for as long as it takes to master that material. There are some good geoscience games already available, but instructors can also create their own, suitable to their students and the content that they are teaching. Game-Based Learning is a module on the Starting Point website for faculty teaching entry level geosciences. It assists faculty in using games in their teaching by providing a description of the features of game-based learning, why you would use it, how to use games to teach geoscience, examples, and references. Other issues discussed include the development of video games for teaching, having your students create educational games, what makes a good game, handling competition in the classroom, and grading. The examples include descriptions of and rules for a GPS treasure hunt, a geology quiz show, and an earthquake game, as well as links to several online geological video games, and advice on how to design a paleontology board game. Starting Point is intended to help both experienced faculty and new instructors meet the challenge of teaching introductory geoscience classes, including environmental science and oceanography as well as more traditional geology classes. For many students, these classes are both the first and the last college-level science class that they will ever take. They need to learn enough about the Earth in that one class to sustain them for many decades as voters, consumers, and sometimes even as teachers. Starting Point is produced by a group of authors working with the Science Education Resource Center. It contains dozens of detailed examples categorized by geoscience topic with advice about using them and assessing learning. Each example is linked to one of many modules, such as Game-Based Learning, Interactive Lectures, or Using an Earth History Approach. These modules describe teaching tools and techniques, provide examples and advice about using them in an introductory geoscience class, and give instructors details on how to create their own exercises.
http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/games/index.html