Rebecca Teed

Earth & Environmental Sciences

Wright State University-Main Campus

I’m an associate professor at Wright State University, mostly teaching geology to education majors.  My current research areas include paleoecology and geoscience education.  Fossil diatoms, pollen, and charcoal are buried and preserved in lake sediment every year, and this has been going on for since the latest ice age in many lakes.  These fossils provide continuous records of lake conditions, regional vegetation, and local climate thousands of years long.  In my classes, I’m trying to measure the effectiveness of different teaching techniques.  The greatest learning gains I am seeing are with cooperative problem-based learning and the most transitory are with lecture. 

I have a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Minnesota, and worked as a graduate student and post-doc with the Limnological Research Center there. From 2000-2001, I was a lecturer with the University of Maryland - European Division, teaching general biology, math, and computer science to U.S. military personnel in Turkey, Bosnia, and Bahrain.  As a research associate at Carleton College, I studied pollen records from southeastern Minnesota and western Manitoba, and worked on modules for Starting Point, a website to help people teaching introductory Earth science.  I began teaching at Wright State in 2004.

Workshop Participant, Webinar Participant, Website Contributor

Website Content Contributions

Course Modules (3)

Unit 2: Causes of Mass Extinction part of Changing Biosphere
During Unit 2, students will learn about the causes of two past mass extinctions and discuss the controversies surrounding these causes and the evidence upon which the theories in the debates are based. Before ...

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Unit 1: Introduction to the Geologic Timeline & Mass Extinctions part of Changing Biosphere
In this unit, students will identify mass extinctions as paleontologists have done and recognize and understand the "pull of the recent," that is, the human tendency to know more about events closer to ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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InTeGrate Developed This material was developed and reviewed through the InTeGrate curricular materials development process.
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Unit 3: The Interconnected Nature of the Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, and Biosphere part of Changing Biosphere
Using a systems dynamics approach, students will work in groups to conceptualize and construct a model of the global carbon cycle considering five major Earth systems: atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, ...

On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Collection This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Activities collection.
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InTeGrate Developed This material was developed and reviewed through the InTeGrate curricular materials development process.
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Activities (34)

The Sleeping Mountain part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Role Playing:Examples
In this role-playing scenario, students represent townspeople whose lives and livelihoods are endangered by an active volcano which may or may not erupt in the near future. -

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Teaching Method Modules (4)

Role-Playing Exercises part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Role Playing
Created by Rebecca Teed, SERC, Carleton College "Walk a mile in my shoes" is good advice. Our children will learn to respect others if they are used to imagining themselves in another's place. - ...

Conference Presentations (2)

Measuring Student Learning Gains and attitudes in Earth and Environmental class for pre-service teachers after additional assignment to rocks and mineral identification lab part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Poster Sessions:Tuesday
Our goal as geosciences educators is to increase student learning and facilitate positive attitudes towards Earth science. This study measures the effects of a student project in Earth and Environmental Science ...

Cooperative Learning: Who Benefits the Most? part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
"Concepts in Geology" is an Earth-science class for pre-service K-8 teachers with a number of cooperative-learning elements. The students vary considerably in their initial understanding of Earth science ...

Other Contributions (3)

Changing Biosphere part of Changing Biosphere
This module will give students a series of experiences exploring relationships among changes in the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. By studying a series of historical and current examples of the ...

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Debate Central part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Role Playing
This site focuses on one controversial topic a year (ocean policy for 2003-2004) and collects a list of links for web resources that reflect both sides of the argument. They write arguments for the Libertarian/Republican perspective.

Rebecca Teed: Using Changing Biosphere in Concepts in Earth Science for Middle-Childhood Educators II at Wright State University-Main Campus part of Changing Biosphere
Earth Systems for Pre-service Science Teachers My students are preparing to teach science themselves, and are expected to learn through inquiry. This course is intended to address a number of major themes in middle-grades science standards, and to emphasize approaches and topics that are especially challenging, like systems thinking and Earth history. This module offers an important hook for Earth history: the current mass extinction resulting from multiple modern ecological crises including climate change, invasive species, and habitat destruction. Systems thinking is vital to understanding the chains of cause and effect that drive both ancient and modern mass extinctions. My students were very interested in the similarities between ancient and modern disasters.