What is Geoscientific Thinking?

This webpage draws on discussion by participants at the 2012 Teaching the Methods of Geoscience Workshop to support faculty in developing students' geoscientific thinking skills.

The methods and ways of thinking that are intrinsic to Earth science differ in important ways from the experimental procedures that are commonly taught in schools as the scientific method. Geoscientists navigate easily within a range of temporal and spatial scales, incorporate the complexity of the Earth system into their reasoning, and develop multiple working hypotheses (Manduca and Kastens, 2012 ). We use the phrase geoscientific thinking to encompass the ideas that describe what makes geoscience unique as a discipline yet still clearly part of science as a whole, including:

The methods of investigation used by geoscientists, which rely on descriptive studies and modeling over experimental techniques;
The habits of mind developed by geoscientists, which describe skills and approaches intrinsic to problem solving in the geosciences, such as spatial and temporal reasoning;
The nature of geoscience, which refers to the theory of knowledge and the values and beliefs behind geoscience: in other words, its philosophical underpinnings.

There is overlap between these ideas, and there are also different ways to convey and describe them. For example:

In An Outsider Looks at Geoscience: Methods, Content, Pedagogy, and Partnerships, George "Pinky" Nelson, former director of AAAS's Project 2061, discusses the role of K-12 science standards in promoting and teaching the methods and processes of science, and where geoscience fits in (or hasn't fit in).
Carol Cleland, a philosopher of science, focuses on the nature of geoscience, debunking the myth that descriptive sciences aren't falsifiable in Common Cause Explanation and the Search for the "Smoking Gun".
Kip Ault, a professor in teacher education, focuses on the importance of time as a unifying concept for understanding the nature of geoscience in Teaching the Geosciences as a Subversive Activity: It's About Time.
Cathy Manduca and Kim Kastens, both geoscientists who became more involved in geoscience education and cognition, describe a common set of perspectives, approaches, and values that characterizes the study of geosciences in Geoscience and Geoscientists: Uniquely equipped to study the Earth .

Geoscientific thinking and scientific literacy

Geoscientific thinking is a key component of scientific literacy. Aspects of it are highlighted in all of the literacy documents developed for Earth, ocean, atmosphere, climate, and energy sciences, reflecting the perception within all of these communities that understanding how we know what we know is essential knowledge.

Show how geoscientific thinking is included in the literacy documents

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Each of the literacy documents includes a big idea or essential principle focused explicitly on how we know what we know, the methods scientists use to collect data about the Earth and its systems, and the nature of our understanding of those systems.

Earth science literacy Big Idea 1: Earth scientists use repeatable observations and testable ideas to understand and explain our planet.
Atmospheric science literacy Essential Principle 6: We seek to understand the past, present, and future behavior of Earth's atmosphere through scientific observation and reasoning.
Climate science literacy Essential Principle 5: Our understanding of the climate system is improved through observations, theoretical studies, and modeling.
Ocean science literacy Essential Principle 7: The ocean is largely unexplored.
Energy literacy Essential Principle 5: Energy decisions are influenced by economic, political, environmental, and social factors.

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