Contributed Program: Oral, Poster, and Teaching Demonstration Sessions

Many of us have interests in multiple areas of Earth Science education in addition to our discipline-specific interests, and the Rendezvous is designed to allow exploration of these areas in ways not possible during conventional scientific meetings. The Contributed Program is a critical component to this end, and offers both a venue to present work and an opportunity to see what is going on in the Earth Science education community.

The Rendezvous provides a unique opportunity to present and discuss your work with an audience of Earth Educators. Contributions will be organized under three broad areas, some of which will complement workshop sessions and even dynamically feed into workshop content. Sub-themes will be organized based on abstracts submitted. We encourage attendees to suggest sub-themes, and even organize related presentations as a set.

Please review the Presenter Guidelines before submitting your abstract or activity sheet.

Presenter Guidelines

Oral and Poster Submissions via abstract:

General Themes

  • Education Research and Disciplinary-Based Education Research: research on learning and cognition, investigations of how teaching and learning takes place in an earth science context, and syntheses of previous research, taking into account the particular priorities, practices and worldview of our discipline.
  • Teaching, Curricula and Programs: exploration of the full range of what people are doing in their programs and classrooms. This includes innovative and effective activities, program and course design as well as practices focused on particular subjects such as risk mitigation, climate change, sustainability, and teaching with large data sets.

Cross-cutting Themes

Within the two general themes listed above, we encourage attendees to organize related presentations as a sub-theme set. We have suggested three sub-theme sets below, but encourage participants to communicate with colleagues to submit abstracts that fit a sub-theme of their choice.

  • Broadening Participation: Attracting and supporting all students - Multifaceted approaches to supporting students in STEM majors are the most effective strategies that lead to student success. This session will include presentations on a variety of programs aimed at student success of all students at small to large scale and scope. Programs that increase the success of underrepresented minority students in STEM and those that include students transitioning from 2YC to four year institutions and beyond are especially encouraged.
  • Preparing Students for the Workforce - Many students are not fully aware of the variety of careers supported by majors and programs in geosciences. This session will explore activities, programs and departments that help students prepare for and connect with potential careers and employers and those that support all students from the day 1 through graduation, which can serve as important models for success. Presentations that showcase methods for building students' applied skills, determining workforce needs, and ways to highlight diverse career paths are also encouraged.
  • Teaching Geoscience in a Societal Context - Many students are already well attuned to the difficulty of large, interdisciplinary societal challenges, and are looking for opportunities to take them on. This is a major growth opportunity for geoscience and all STEM programs. This session aims to highlight class room, program and service learning activities that engage students in addresssing problems and finding solutions for issues they find meaningful.
  • Sub-theme of your Choice - As mentioned above, we encourage participants to communicate with colleagues to submit activities that fit a sub-theme of their choice. You have the opportunity to suggest a theme on the abstract contribution form.

The Abstract deadline has passed.

Proposals for Teaching Demonstrations:

  • Active Teaching Demonstrations: we are soliciting proposals for demonstrations of successful activities that could result in "take-homes" for attendees to use in their own teaching. Demonstrations should be an active, e.g. something that audience members participate in, or a video or slide show of students performing the activity. We welcome proposals for activities that are already a part of the On the Cutting Edge collection as well as new submissions. View Guidelines and example.

As with the oral and poster presentations, we encourage attendees to organize related presentations as a sub-theme set. We have suggested three sub-theme sets below, but encourage participants to communicate with colleagues to submit activities that fit a sub-theme of their choice.

a. Activities and Assessments for Large Introductory Classes - Research in STEM disciplines has revealed a suite of empirically validated instructional practices that can contribute to improvements in student learning and a reduction in attrition. Often, such practices seem to be best suited for classrooms with small enrollment, but many instructors incorporate these "active learning" practices in large enrollment classrooms. Presentations will highlight classroom instructional practices, including assessment of student learning, that effectively engage large "lecture" classes.

b. Activities that Promote Metacognition in the Classroom - Metacognition, thinking about one's own cognitive processes, is an important activity that helps students identify the extent of their content learning and helps them recognize study skills that lead to their success. Many faculty use metacognition in a variety of ways. Presentations will showcase activities and instructional practices that help students regulate their own learning, leading to greater self efficacy and success.

c. Using Apps in Geoscience Courses: Hands-on, real-world instruments for K12, 2YCs and beyond - Are phones and other devices that connect students to the world outside the classroom better off banished or embraced? By abandoning the seemingly losing battle of regulating the use of devices in class, innovative classroom activites ask students to use such devices and content-related apps to find information, collect data, interact with other learners, and more. Presentations will showcase positive activities that access information and encourage learning through the use of phones, tablets, clickers and more.

If you are interested in proposing a teaching demonstration, please fill out the proposal form by the March 3 deadline. You will be notified in early April if your demonstration has been accepted, at which point you will be asked to submit a full on-online activity description in the style of an On the Cutting Edge activity, or to update an already existing activity page.

The Teaching Demo Proposal deadline has passed.