Carol Ormand
Geoscience Education and Research Associate
Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College608-213-1618; cormand@carleton.edu
Download my curriculum vitae (Acrobat (PDF) 144kB Dec18 12)
Projects * Publications * Experience * Education * Hobbies
Overview
I think of my position at SERC as a three-legged stool, with each of the three legs supporting SERC's overall mission: improving science education at the college and university level. For each of the individual projects I work on, I do some combination of:
- Help organize and orchestrate professional development workshops for science faculty;
- Develop websites with resources for science faculty;
- Conduct research on learning in the undergraduate science classroom.
Major Projects
On the Cutting Edge
I started working for SERC in the fall of 2005. I had been a visiting assistant professor at a couple of small liberal arts colleges for the previous five years, so I was well-prepared for my first assignment: developing websites of resources for Early Career Faculty in the Geosciences and for graduate students and postdocs Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences. I also help facilitate the associated Cutting Edge workshops.
Over the years, I have built on this foundation, helping to facilitate workshops and online journal clubs and developing the related Cutting Edge websites on a wide variety of topics. In some cases, I have moved beyond a facilitator role to that of a co-convener. Some of the websites I've developed for this project are about the Role of Metacognition in Learning, Developing Student Understanding of Complex Systems in the Geosciences, and Teaching About Rates and Time.
Building Strong Geoscience Departments
Over time, my responsibilities have expanded to include similar work for other projects, including our Building Strong Geoscience Departments project, on which I am one of the co-PIs. My responsibilities include developing our online collections of resources and facilitating the associated workshops.
- Visiting Workshop Program (2009-present)
- Strengthening Your Geoscience Program: A Practical Workshop with Ideas and Examples (2009)
- Assessing Geoscience Programs: Theory and Practice (2009)
- Strategies for Successful Recruitment of Geoscience Majors: Conceptual Framework and Practical Suggestions (2007)
- Connecting Geoscience Departments to the Future of Science: New Structures for Research and Curriculum (2007)
- The Role of Departments in Preparing Future Geoscience Professionals (2007)
InTeGrate
One project seems to lead to another. We've launched the InTeGrate project, for which I helped facilitate the May 2012 workshop on Programs that Bring Together Geoscience and Sustainability. This workshop built on outcomes from some of the program-level Building Strong Geoscience Departments workshops. I'm also developing web resources on undergraduate program design and development.
Research on Spatial Thinking
Since 2008, I've been involved in research on spatial thinking in the geosciences. I am the lead PI on the Spatial Thinking Workbook project (with co-PIs Cathy Manduca, Basil Tikoff, and Tim Shipley). We are developing curricular materials to improve spatial thinking skills in upper-level undergraduate geoscience courses. The four of us are also involved in research through SILC: the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center. For this project, we are investigating the breadth of spatial thinking skills and characterizing their development in individuals ranging from novices to experts.
Publications and Presentations
Geoscience Education
2013
- Atit, Kinnari, Tilbe Goksun, Carol Ormand, Cathryn A. Manduca, Ilyse Resnick, Thomas F. Shipley, and Basil Tikoff (2013). Spatial Gestures Point the Way: A Broader Understanding of the Gestural Referent (Acrobat (PDF) 245kB Apr30 13): Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Manuscript submitted for publication.
- Ormand, Carol J., Cathryn A. Manduca, Thomas F. Shipley, and Basil Tikoff (2013). Developing and Testing Materials to Improve Spatial Skills in Upper Division Geoscience Courses (Acrobat (PDF) 2.3MB Apr17 13): TUES/CCLI PI Conference (Washington, DC).
2012
- Gagnier, Kristin, Kinnari Atit, Carol Ormand, and Thomas F. Shipley (2012). Teaching Penetrative Thinking via Progressive Alignment and Directed Sketching: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Charlotte, NC). See abstract.
- Gagnier, Kristin, Kinnari Atit, Thomas F. Shipley, and Carol Ormand (2012). Improving Penetrative Thinking Skills for Geoscience Education: inter-Science of Learning Center (iSLC) Conference (San Diego, CA).
- Ormand, Carol (2012). Learning to Think Spatially: In the Trenches, v. 2, n. 2, pp. 10-11.
- Ormand, Carol J., Cathryn A. Manduca, Steven C. Semken, Erica Crespi (2012). Teaching About Rates and Time: Challenges and Resources (Acrobat (PDF) 5.2MB Mar7 13): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Shipley, Thomas F., Kinnari Atit, Cathryn A. Manduca, Carol J. Ormand, Ilyse Resnick, and Basil Tikoff (2012). Understanding geological processes: Visualization of rigid and non-rigid transformations: American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
Jump down to 2010 * 2009 * 2008 * 2007 and prior
2011
- Cervato, Cinzia, Cathryn Manduca, David Mogk, Carol Ormand, Thomas Shipley, and Trisha Smrecak (2011). Rates, Dates, and Geologic Time: A Journal Club Report on Teaching About Temporal Aspects of Geoscience (Acrobat (PDF) 15.2MB Nov9 11): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Minneapolis, MN). See abstract.
- Fox, Sean, Ellen Iverson, Cathryn Manduca, Karin Kirk, John McDaris, Carol Ormand, and Monica Bruckner (2011). Supporting Faculty Learning About Teaching: The On the Cutting Edge Website: American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Iverson, Ellen, Sabra Lee, Carol Ormand, Geoffrey Feiss, Heather Macdonald, Cathryn Manduca, and Randall Richardson (2011). Building Strong Geoscience Departments: Case Studies and Findings from Six Years of Programming: American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Macdonald, Heather, Cathryn Manduca, Carol Ormand, Robyn Dunbar, Rachel Beane, Monica Bruckner, Timothy Bralower, Geoffrey Feiss, Barbara Tewksbury, and Katryn Wiese (2011). Preparing Future Geoscience Professionals: Needs, Strategies, Programs, and Online Resources: American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Manduca, Cathryn, Timothy Bralower, Diane Clemens-Knott, Diane Doser, P. Geoffrey Feiss, R. Heather Macdonald, Carol Ormand, Dallas Rhodes, Randall M. Richardson, and Mary Savina (2011). Bringing Together Design and Evaluation to Understand Student Learning (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 3.9MB Nov7 11): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Minneapolis, MN). See abstract.
- Manduca, Cathryn, David Blockstein, Timothy Bralower, Diane Doser, Anne Egger, P. Geoffrey Feiss, David Gosselin, Pamela Matson, David McConnell, and Carol Ormand (2011). InTeGrate-ing Geoscience Learning in Undergraduate Education: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Minneapolis, MN). See abstract.
- Manduca, Cathryn, David Mogk, Kim Kastens, Basil Tikoff, Thomas Shipley, Carol Ormand, and David McConnell (2011). Geoscience Education Research: The Role of Collaborations with Education Researchers and Cognitive Scientists: American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Murphy, Rachel, Carol Ormand, Laurel Goodwin, Thomas Shipley, Cathryn Manduca, and Basil Tikoff (2011). Improving Students' Visuo-Penetrative Thinking Skills Through Brief, Weekly Practice (Acrobat (PDF) 19.5MB Nov9 11): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Minneapolis, MN). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol, Thomas Shipley, Cathryn Manduca, and Basil Tikoff (2011). Improving Geoscience Students' Spatial Thinking Skills: Applying Cognitive Science Research in the Classroom (Acrobat (PDF) 3.2MB Mar8 12): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Ormand, Carol, Cathryn Manduca, Heather Macdonald, Timothy Bralower, Diane Clemens-Knott, Diane Doser, Geoffrey Feiss, Dallas Rhodes, Randall Richardson, and Mary Savina (2011). Building Strong Geoscience Departments Through the Visiting Workshop Program (Acrobat (PDF) 6.1MB Mar8 12): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Savina, Mary, Cherry Danielson, Deborah Gross, and Carol Ormand (2011). Imagining the "Ideal Student": Helping Faculty Focus on What's Really Important to Assess (Acrobat (PDF) 610kB Mar18 11): Association of American Colleges and Universities meeting on General Education and Assessment 3.0: Next-Level Practices Now (Chicago, IL). (Associated handout (Acrobat (PDF) 117kB Mar18 11).)
- Shipley, Thomas, Cathryn Manduca, Carol Ormand, and Basil Tikoff (2011). Spatiotemporal Thinking in the Geosciences: American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
2010
- Atit, Kinnari R., Cathryn Manduca, Carol Ormand, Ilyse Resnick, Thomas Shipley, and Basil Tikoff (2010). Reasoning About Sequences of Spatial Events: How Do Geologists Know What Happened First?: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Denver, CO). See abstract.
- Jee, Benjamin D., David Uttal, Dedre Gentner, Cathryn Manduca, Thomas Shipley, Brad Sageman, Carol J. Ormand, & Basil Tikoff (2010). Analogical thinking in geoscience education: Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 58, n. 1, pp. 2-13.
- Manduca, Cathryn A., David W. Mogk, Barbara Tewksbury, R. Heather Macdonald, Sean P. Fox, Ellen R. Iverson, Karin Kirk, John McDaris, Carol Ormand, and Monica Bruckner (2010). SPORE: Science Prize for Online Resources in Education: On the Cutting Edge: Teaching Help For Geoscience Faculty: Science, v. 327, no. 5969, pp. 1095-1096.
- Ormand, Carol, Cathryn Manduca, Thomas Shipley, and Basil Tikoff (2010). Students' Spatial Thinking Skills (Acrobat (PDF) 828kB Jun30 10): Structural Geology and Tectonics Forum (Madison, WI).
- Ormand, Carol, Cathryn Manduca, R. Heather Macdonald, Geoffrey Feiss, Randall Richardson, Sabra Lee, and Ellen Iverson (2010). Impacts of the Building Strong Geoscience Departments Visiting Workshop Program (Acrobat (PDF) 4.3MB Nov17 10): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Denver, CO). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol, Cathryn Manduca, Thomas Shipley, and Basil Tikoff (2010). Geoscience Students' Spatial Thinking Skills: Results From Multi-Institutional Classroom Studies (Acrobat (PDF) 24MB Nov17 10): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Denver, CO). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol, Cathryn Manduca, and R. Heather Macdonald (2010). The Role of Geoscience Departments in Preparing Future Geoscience Professionals (PowerPoint 4.1MB Dec14 10): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Richardson, Randall M., Carol Ormand, R. Heather Macdonald, Robyn Wright Dunbar, Richelle Allen-King, Cathryn Manduca (2010). Launching an Academic Career: On the Cutting Edge Resources for Geoscience Graduate Students, Post-doctoral Fellows, and Early Career Faculty: American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
2009
- Harwood, Cara L., Carol Ormand, Cathryn Manduca, and Thomas F. Shipley (2009). Differences in Development of Spatial and Object Visualization Ability in Undergraduate Geoscience Courses: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Portland, OR). See abstract.
- Kirk, Karin, Cathryn Manduca, Carol Ormand, and John McDaris (2009). Resources for Designing, Selecting, and Teaching with Visualizations in the Geoscience Classroom (Acrobat (PDF) 25.8MB Dec22 09): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Manduca, Cathryn, R. Heather Macdonald, Carol J. Ormand, and P. Geoffrey Feiss (2009). Strengthening Geoscience Departments Through Shared Knowledge: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Portland, OR). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol J., Dedre Gentner, Benjamin Jee, Thomas F. Shipley, Basil Tikoff, David Uttal, and Cathryn Manduca (2009). Finding Fault: Laboratory Experiments and Classroom Studies on Identifying Faults in Images (Acrobat (PDF) 16.7MB Oct30 09): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Portland, OR). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol J., Cathryn Manduca, Jenefer Husman, Katrien Kraft, David Mogk, and Karl Wirth (2009). Teaching Metacognition: A Summary of Successful Strategies from the 2008 "On the Cutting Edge" Workshop (Acrobat (PDF) 13.2MB Oct30 09): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Portland, OR). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol J., Cathryn Manduca, and R. Heather Macdonald (2009). New Resources on the Building Strong Geoscience Departments Website (Acrobat (PDF) 8MB Dec15 09): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
- Richardson, Randall M., Carolyn Eyles, and Carol J. Ormand (2009). Recruitment Strategies for Geoscience Majors: Conceptual Framework and Practical Suggestions (Acrobat (PDF) 25.7MB Dec10 09): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA).
2008
- Macdonald, R. Heather, Richelle M. Allen-King, Robyn Wright Dunbar, Cathryn A. Manduca and Carol J. Ormand (2008). A Course of One's Own: Issues, Challenges, and Resources for Graduate Students, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Early Career Faculty: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Houston, TX). See abstract.
- Manduca, Cathryn, R. Heather Macdonald, P. Geoffrey Feiss, Randall M. Richardson, and Carol J. Ormand (2008). Building Strong Geoscience Departments: Resources and Opportunities (Acrobat (PDF) 3.4MB Dec11 08): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA). Eos Trans. AGU, 89 (53), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract ED31A-0577.
- Manduca, Cathryn, R. Heather Macdonald, P. Geoffrey Feiss, Randall M. Richardson, Timothy J. Bralower, Carolyn H. Eyles, and Carol J. Ormand (2008). Geoscience Departments and the Workforce: Bringing Together Student Interests and Industry Needs: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Houston, TX). See abstract.
- Manduca, Cathryn, Dedre Gentner, Mark P. Holden, Carol J. Ormand, Benjamin Jee, Bradley B. Sageman, Thomas F. Shipley, Basil Tikoff and David H. Uttal (2008). Geoscience Perception: Expert and Novice Experience of Graphs, Outcrops, and Landscapes: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Houston, TX). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol, Karin Kirk, R. Heather Macdonald, Cathryn Manduca, and Barbara Tewksbury (2008). NEW Online Resources for Teaching Introductory-Level Geoscience Courses (Acrobat (PDF) 24MB Oct14 08): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Houston, TX). See abstract.
- Richardson, Randall M. and Carol J. Ormand (2008). Survey of Geoscience Departments Finds Shared Goals and Challenges. (Acrobat (PDF) 415kB Oct1 08) Eos, v. 89, n. 27, p. 242-243. Abstract available on the AGU site.
2007 and prior
- Macdonald, R. Heather, Carol J. Ormand, Cathryn Manduca, Robyn Wright-Dunbar, and Richelle Allen-King (2007). Getting Started in Academic Careers: On the Cutting Edge Resources for Graduate Students, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Early Career Faculty (Acrobat (PDF) 3MB Mar3 08): American Geophysical Union fall meeting (San Francisco, CA). Eos Trans. AGU, 88 (52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract ED11B-0475.
- Ormand, Carol J., R. Heather Macdonald, Cathryn Manduca, Geoff Feiss, and Tim Bralower (2007). The Changing Landscape of Geoscience Careers and Education: New Online Resources from Building Strong Geoscience Departments (Acrobat (PDF) 2.4MB Mar3 08): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Denver, CO). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol J., R. Heather Macdonald, and Cathryn Manduca (2006). Managing Your Career: New "On the Cutting Edge" Online Resources for Graduate Students, Post-Doctoral Fellows, and Early-Career Faculty (Acrobat (PDF) 2.8MB Dec22 09): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Philadelphia, PA). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol J. (2004). Keeping it Real: Making the Geology of the National Parks Relevant for Non-science Majors (Acrobat (PDF) 8.6MB Jan19 09): Geological Society of America annual meeting (Denver, CO).
- Tullis, J., Campbell, P., Czeck, D., Harrison, M., Kopf, C., Ormand, C., Reinen, L., Sussman, A., Torrez, B., and Wojtal, S. (2004). Why and How to Include Grain-scale Deformation Mechanisms, Microstructures, and Rheology in Undergraduate Structural Geology Courses: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Denver, CO).
Structural Geology
- Czeck, Dyanna, and Carol J. Ormand (2007). Geometry and folding history of the Baraboo Syncline: Implications for the Mazatzal Orogeny in the north-central U.S.: Precambrian Research, v. 157, p. 203-213.
- Czeck, Dyanna, and Carol J. Ormand (2005). Using cleavage refraction, microstructural analysis, and mineralogy to learn about rheology in the Baraboo Quartzite: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Salt Lake City, UT). See abstract.
- Ormand, Carol J. and Peter J. Hudleston (2003). Strain paths of three small folds from the Appalachian Valley and Ridge, Maryland: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 25, p. 1841-1854, 2003.
- Ormand, Carol J. and Dyanna Czeck (2003). Structure and kinematics of the Baraboo Syncline: a three-dimensional analysis: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Seattle, WA).
- Ormand, Carol J. and Pam Olson (2001). An analysis of fault systems in an experimental stratigraphic basin, with a comparison to the Mid-Continent Rift System: Geological Society of America annual meeting (Boston, MA).
Experience
Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, 2005-present
Visiting Assistant Professor, Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH, 2002-2005
Visiting Assistant Professor, St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI, 2000-2002
Graduate Assistant, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 1992-2000
Adjunct Instructor, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, 1997
Education
Ph. D. in Structural Geology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2000
- Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Dept. of Geology & Geophysics
B. A. in Mathematics, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, 1989
- Graduated Cum Laude; Member, Sigma Xi (Scientific Honor Society)
Hobbies
I'm a bit of a fanatic about traditional American contra and square dancing and music; to see what I mean, check out my dance homepage.
I also enjoy quilting. For my first quilting project, I combined these two interests and made a dance t-shirt quilt, as you can see in this photo. (Click on the image to see it up close and personal.)

