Take A Hike Assignment

Anne Jefferson

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection and has been reviewed by 1 other review process

Hide

This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process.

This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Collection

Resources in this top level collection a) must have scored Exemplary or Very Good in all five review categories, and must also rate as “Exemplary” in at least three of the five categories. The five categories included in the peer review process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

For more information about the peer review process itself, please see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.

This page first made public: May 23, 2008

Summary

Students are assigned to take a hike in a location of their choice and write a concise summary of their observations of Earth Science features and processes. This assignment is used near the end of an Earth Systems Science class to encourage students to apply the concepts and terms learned in lecture to a real world setting.

Used this activity? Share your experiences and modifications

Context

Audience

This activity is used an in an introductory Earth System Science course that is primarily non-majors. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is a suburban campus in a large metropolitan area. Students come from diverse backgrounds.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should have been exposed to concepts and terms related to weather, surface processes, and ecosystems.

How the activity is situated in the course

This assignment is due near the end of the term, and it is intended to help synthesize and apply the topics discussed in class.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Observation and description of Earth Science features and processes

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Observation and application of earth science concepts to real-world situations

Other skills goals for this activity

Writing in a concise and precise fashion

Description of the activity/assignment

Over the course of the semester, the course covers many earth science topics that are easily observable on a casual but attentive walk through a natural area. Because the course does not have linked labs or field trips, this assignment attempts to get students to put their observation skills and content knowledge to the test by taking a hike and describing four Earth Science features or processes that they observe. These features and processes might include things like weather, streams, hillslope erosion, soil horizons, habitats or ecological succession.

When I introduce the assignment I spend 15 minutes discussing different places students might choose to take their hike. I make sure to highlight places near campus that can be reached without a car, as well as county parks that freshmen new to the area might not be aware of. Many students also choose to do the assignment on a weekend visit home to their parents and a favorite park or trail.

Determining whether students have met the goals

I have a detailed set of evaluation criteria which are provided to the students along with an example assignment. These criteria are provided in the activity description below.