Synthesis of Research on Thinking and Learning in the Geosciences

KimKastens, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Cathy Manduca, SERC,Carleton College, PIs

Thisproject will synthesize existing knowledge and articulate unansweredquestions in critical areas of research on cognition and learningrelevant to the Geosciences. Geosciences encompass the study of theoceans, atmosphere, and solid earth, plus interactions between thesephysical systems and living systems. Within the domain of geosciencelearning, our study will focus on four themes:

• geological time,
• complex systems of the Earth,
• spatial thinking in Geosciences and
• field-base learning.

Each of these areas plays a central role in how human beings thinkabout the Earth and learn to think about the Earth, and each posessubstantial cognitive challenges. In addition, we seek to understandhow geoscientists integrate these differenttypes of learning in drawing inferences about the Earth.

Thecenterpiece of our work plan is to gather a small group of experts ingeosciences, geoscience education, research on learning, and cognitivescience at an isolated field station for a week-longlearning/brainstorming/writing retreat. The writing retreat will bepreceded by a smaller two-day planning and scoping meeting, at which wearticulate major questions on each of our four themes, and identify asubset that have sufficient research base to be ripe for synthesis. Ourfindings will be disseminated through a suite of papers in a specialissue of the Journal of Geoscience Education, on the widely-used "Teachthe Earth" Web Portal, and in a journal that reaches the learningsciences community. This plan builds on four years of continuing effortto strengthen the cognitive and learning sciences research baseunderpinning geoscience education.