Earth Natural Resource Systems

A discussion of the design and implementation of a general education lab science course serving pre-service teachers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, created by David Gosselin, Ph.D.

A description of this course and its goals is available.

1. Course content focuses on Earth as a system upon which humans rely for critical resources.
2. Students take part in hands-on, inquiry based experimental design and data collection activities modeled after best practices, some of which can be directly transferred to the K-8 classroom.
3. Students utilize technology in their experimental design to expand data collection abilities.
4. Pre-service teachers examine the learning process as they are exposed to new content through instruction and experimentation.

1. The course curriculum is focused on earth system and hydrologic cycles which provide services and resources to human societies. Examination of stream flow data gives students the opportunity to collect and analyze spatial data on a common phenomenon (precipitation) to determine if and where flooding will be a problem. Such an analysis could also be used to examine drought potential or locate a water dependent neighborhood or industrial facility.
2. Class projects for which students must design data collection schemes before analysis provide students an example of how science is actually performed with topics and materials available to most K-8 teachers. Soil pits are dug to examine soil profiles and development giving students a "field trip" experience that can be transferred to most school settings at reasonable cost.
3. Use of the internet to access actual earth science data gives students a chance to incorporate technology into the classroom while extending the range of data available for analysis. Other experiments use data loggers to monitor soil and air temperature and humidity to determine conditions appropriate for seedling development.
4. As students learn, the development of their ideas and understanding of the scientific processes and concepts are examined regularly through online journals.

1. Student Science Phobia
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   Successful teaching of this course requires that one remember that it caters to non-science general education students relatively early in their college careers. Most have had no science classes in college or perhaps a single Geology Science 101 style course. Students lack both basic content and thought processes of science. Students' past experiences with science often include struggle and failure causing them to harbor a distrust or dislike of science. They need to gain some content and success using that information to gain the confidence needed for understanding and teaching more advanced material.

   The course demonstrates the relevance of scientific content to the students' lives and gives them a successful experience conducting science by helping them to understand the processes of science. The course content is built around relevance to the general education audience. For example, less time is spent learning to identify rocks and minerals than on understanding that different rocks and minerals tell us about what has happened in a place in the past and on what the material in question can be used for in today's world.

   The processes of science are examined through the self designed projects in which students use the scientific process to examine tractable questions with meaningful results. The thought processes involved along the way are recorded in student on-line journals. Pre-service teachers have the added benefit of practical examples that they can transfer directly into K-8 classrooms.

   The goal at the end of the semester is for all students to see that they have the skills to do science. The pre-service teachers see that they CAN teach science successfully in their classrooms and will be more inclined to do so in the future.

2. Incorporating Technology
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   Incorporating technology into this class, which serves scienfitic novices, in a manner that future teachers could replicate was a particular challenge because technology plays a big part in the mysterious black box of science. Techonology had to be included in a fashion that helps students perceive how technology serves as a tool to extend our own senses' ability to comprehend the natural world. In this course students use internet technology to collect stream flow and precipitation data for use in understanding the source of water in rivers and forecasting floods. Data loggers are used to monitor soil and air moisture and temperature to determine the conditions when seeds will grow best. While these applications of technology are relatively simple, they demonstrate the role technology plays in the PROCESS of science.
3. Balancing Content Quantity with Quality
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   The amount of content important for these novice students to learn easily exceeds the class time available during this stand-alone course. The course focuses student learning on high quality experiences that give students scientific skills and demonstrate scientific processes over broad content coverage. By giving students a successful experience and skills to take with them, the students gain the ability to be life-long learners of science as situations in the future afford.