Teaching Data Analysis through Solid Earth Investigations (DAISE) program
The Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College was awarded a federal grant to engage instructors to develop and test new teaching materials for upper-division geoscience courses. The goal is to understand and improve teaching and learning in these courses, and we are thus studying the influence of the curriculum on participating students. To see how the teaching materials influence your learning, we'd like your permission to collect the assessments and analyze them as part of the project research.
Why are we asking for your permission?
We want to offer geoscience students the best possible education, and sharing your assessment responses helps us know how well the curriculum is working and how well we are meeting our program goals. Your participation in this research will help us improve what we do for future upper-division geoscience courses. Participation in the research component (i.e., consenting through this form to have your responses included in the research) is entirely voluntary. There are no particular risks to participating in this study as the questions are non-controversial and not personal. We will store the responses in a secure password-protected folder.
Will your responses be confidential?
The SERC office will receive identifiable information, will remove all data from the students who do not consent to the research. For those who choose to participate, SERC staff will create a code and replace any identifiable information. All data we collect will be grouped and reported in aggregate. Any quotes used to highlight a theme will not include identifying information.
Your instructor may have you take the assessment and grade it as part of your coursework, which is separate from including your responses in the research study. While your instructor will include your assessment grade in your coursework at their discretion, you can opt in or out of including your responses in the research study, which will not affect your coursework or grade in any way. Your instructor will not know which students opted in or out of the research study, that information remains with the SERC office as part of the project.
Who is conducting this research?
This study and data collection is being led by Kristin O'Connell (evaluator, koconnell@carleton.edu) and Rory McFadden (program lead, rmcfadden@carleton.edu) at the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College. You can contact either of them directly at the above email addresses. Please contact the SERC evaluation team if you would like to withdraw consent if you have completed this form and change your mind (you do not need to provide a reason).
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this study and would like to talk to someone other than the researcher(s), contact the Institutional Review Board for Research with Human Subjects at Carleton College, c/o Office of the Associate Dean of the College, Carleton College, One North College Street, Northfield MN 55057; telephone (507) 222-4301.
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