Instructors can hit unanticipated roadblocks to covering content when students have deficiencies in "geo-competencies" such as quantitative skills, data analysis and geographic awareness. This workshop ...

The Essential Principles and Big Ideas from the different documents listing Earth Systems Literacy Principles (for ocean, and atmospheric science, geology (a.k.a., Earth science), climate and energy) represent ...

The objectives of this activity are to make lecture more interactive, introduce methods used in lab, and increase lecture attendance. The activity is presented in the context of a lecture on groundwater which ...

Geoethics is an important part of students' pre-professional training, but is typically not formally included in a degree program in a dedicated course or embedded in existing courses. This demonstration will introduce resources available for teaching Geoethics, basic principles that can be introduced (e.g., responsible conduct of research, responsibilities of using and communicating geoscience to the community, stewardship of Earth), and suggested instructional methods. A series of interactive "two minute" ethical challenges and case studies will demonstrate how Geoethics can be effectively taught in all geoscience classrooms.

This activity introduces systems and systems thinking. The activity could be used in almost any course and includes an introduction of terminology, motivation for using systems thinking, practice reading, as well ...

My lab activity uses simple stream systems to teach and reinforce concepts in introductory geology courses. Each group of students receives a pvc half-pipe that they partially fill with a sand-gravel mixture to ...

Students are given information about Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). This information helps them to understand that these are persistent legacy contaminants banned in 1977 by the EPA for concerns about the ...

This application was developed to promote deeper understanding of the science of geochronology, including the integration of crystal-scale relative dating principles with numerical dating via radioisotope ...

Prior to redesigning the entire undergraduate geology curriculum at Lake Superior State University we conducted a national survey of all undergraduate geoscience programs through the American Geosciences Institute. ...

Sustainability themes, in terms of meeting the needs of human society while sustaining environmental support systems of the planet, can be applied to a broad range of courses in the geosciences and provide the ...

In this activity, designed for introductory level undergraduates, but adaptable for K-16 learners, we explore fundamental ideas about the Ideal Gas Law as it applies to the atmosphere, and specifically to the ...

Participants will use low-cost materials to construct scientifically accurate models in the classroom. The first model will allow the student to investigate the Earth-Moon system including lunar phases, elliptical ...

Cream-filled, chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreo®, are a popular way to teach students about the phases of the moon, and numerous images and lesson plans are readily available online. However, activities ...

Opportunity to introduce FTIR and Raman spectroscopy into the undergraduate Geoscience curriculum at all levels at modest cost. We have acquired and used these instruments in introductory and intermediate courses ...

In 2015, a Fall "Freshman Seminar" at Princeton University (http://geoweb.princeton.edu/people/simons/FRS-SESC.html) taught students to combine field observations of the natural world with quantitative ...

Public science education is a not just a service industry for the community it can also act as a tool by which graduate students in the field of Earth Science can be trained. The classroom setting is often a ...

Local geological knowledge is usually not highlighted in general geology textbooks that are used in high schools, and thus they do not incorporate hands-on learning opportunities that can engage and inspire new ...

For three semesters we conducted a general-education course designed for both undergraduates and seventh-graders in which students investigated contaminant sources and water quality of a local stream. The middle ...

The 100-level Introduction to Meteorology course is a requirement for Natural Sciences and secondary science education majors. It also attracts a significant proportion of non-majors. This seems to be the perfect ...

In the geosciences, writing is key to describing thoughts, observations, and data to effectively communicate results and interpretations. However, written communication of geological ideas is often a difficult task ...

Sketching is a valuable activity to help students develop spatial skills and understand difficult geoscience concepts. Yet, sketching is rarely implemented at the introductory level due to the time needed to grade ...

The main learning objective of the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) course, Introduction to Weather and Forecasting, is to obtain a working knowledge of the development of a weather forecast. Developing a weather ...

Most geoscientists collect and study physical samples (soil, rock, fossils, drill core, thin sections, water, gas, etc.). However, systems with the ability to link physical samples with digital information, such as ...

Field-based courses at the university level are logistically difficult, but an essential part of the learning process in geology. We present a pilot study related to two field trips (Grand Canyon, AZ; Rainbow ...

This poster presents evaluation of field-based learning in courses within the Sustainable Community Development program at Stephen F. Austin State University. Course fieldwork includes: citizen restoration of an ...

The important role of spatial thinking in STEM education is established, yet minimally applied to meteorology education and the study of atmospheric sciences. Weather forecasting, involving hand plotting of ...

Geology is perceived by many students as a qualitative science, and thus is attractive to students who love science but are afraid of math. As a result, many students of geology are either intimidated by, or ...

Places are made by people. Place-based teaching draws on the importance of places to people, as context for locally situated geoscientific inquiry and to promote local environmental and cultural sustainability. ...

Skip to Main ContentSkip to Navigation Login Earth Educators' RendezvousMadison, WI July 18-22, 2016 View the Program | Search the Program ...

Math anxiety involves moderate to extreme fear, anxiety, and occasionally physical pain associated with anticipating or performing mathematical tasks. High levels of math phobia have been tied to students taking ...

We teach the sole required geology course for undergraduate civil, architectural, and environmental engineering students at Drexel University. We are on the quarter system, so we have just ten weeks to undertake ...

The geosciences are highly visual, and benefit greatly from computer visualizations, but also stress hands-on and tactile student experiences. Digital methodologies are recent additions to a toolkit of skills ...

Learning in the geosciences requires students to use spatial thinking, including tasks such as making and interpreting geologic and topographic maps (Kastens and Ishikawa, 2006). The ability to think critically ...

Five faculty-mentored student-developed virtual field trips (VFTs) are planned during 2016-2017 in Colorado where geology and meteorology significantly affect weather and climate. The first of these presentations ...

Geoscience education research strongly supports the use of place-based approaches to effectively teach Earth science content, particularly when working with general education students and members of underserved ...

As part of the InTeGrate implementation program, the University of South Dakota (USD) began incorporating science and sustainability issues related to the Missouri River into courses across the liberal arts ...

The CUAHSI Water Data Center is an NSF funded program that builds and maintains cyberinfrastructure for publishing and reusing water related environmental data. Through this program, which was originally funded in ...

Sustainability challenges are often "wicked problems" that require a transdisciplinary approach to adequately define and understand. As such, teaching sustainability requires faculty to teach outside of ...

How can we improve students' spatial reasoning? This workshop will present an overview of research on spatial skills and how those research results can be applied to student learning in the classroom, lab, and ...

This activity aims to: dispel common misconceptions about the origin of magma (i.e., from a liquid layer of Earth), promote understanding of the processes of magma generation, help students see igneous rocks as ...

Many students perceive equations as simply collections of variables, and when solving problems may choose an equation because it has the right variables rather than because it represents the right process. Helping ...

Plate tectonics forms a fundamental component of our understanding of how Earth works. In this activity, students examine the age of the ocean crust, calculate the rate of seafloor spreading at different locations ...

This activity demonstrates apparent polar wandering by using paper compasses to simulate paleomagnetic records. In the first part of the activity the demonstrator plays the role of a stationary continent. She ...

A course in geological mathematical problems solving has been evolving in the undergraduate curriculum at the University of South Florida for nearly 20 years. Now called Computational Geology (after the column of ...

World Climate is a simulation-based role-playing exercise in which participants take on the roles of delegates to the UN climate negotiations and are challenged to create a global deal that, according to current ...

This is a lesson I use when teaching about the different volcano types. Previously students would have learned about controls on magma viscosity and how viscosity influences volcanic eruptions. They would have ...

Incorporating cutting edge technologies in field camps and course experiences is highly rewarding for students and often very challenging for instructors. Geodetic tools such as GPS, terrestrial laser scanning, ...

"Volcanoes" are formed from bowls of gelatin inverted onto pegboard. "GPS stations" (pushpins) are installed and "housing developments" (Monopoly™ houses and hotels) are built. Then, ...

The concept of global climate models, GCMs, is difficult for introductory environmental science students to grasp due to the global scale of thinking involved, fluxes, and simplifying assumptions. While the idea of ...

The organic compound thymol, with a melting temperature of 48°C, can be used to give students an opportunity to experiment with the effects of cooling rate on crystal size. We examine how a cookbook lab, which ...