Building Partnerships on Campus and Beyond: Collaboration strategies and success stories

Moderator: Kathryn Ziewitz, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Collaboration is key for successful development of multi-disciplinary projects relevant to sustainability, environmental science, and other earth science endeavors. A concerted effort to enhance collaborations among faculty, students, staff, and community organizations can bring multiple rewards to a campus. These include building research partnerships, enhancing co-curricular offerings, better using the campus as a "living, learning laboratory" for sustainability, and garnering extramural funding.

The moderator will share examples of collaboration efforts that are helping to build campus sustainability and research initiatives at FAMU. Please join us to share your strategies, successes and challenges.

Mentoring Practices

Moderator: Caitlin Callahan, Grand Valley State University

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

An essential characteristic of any mentoring relationship is effective communication. Moreover, while mentoring can take different forms, successful mentoring depends not only on activities or efforts of mentors but also of mentees. In this roundtable, we will discuss tools and skills to improve interactions in mentoring relationships, whether as the mentor or as the mentee. We will also consider how identity may influence needs in mentoring relationships.

Supporting TA Success in your Classes

Moderator: Rachel Teasdale, California State University-Chico, Kelsey Bitting, Northeastern University, Katherine Ryker, University of South Carolina-Columbia

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

A 2016 survey of geoscience faculty across US institutions revealed that GTAs serve in a wide variety of instructional roles and perform a myriad of important tasks such as leading labs, grading papers, and holding office hours. Most faculty respondents to that survey believed that GTAs would benefit from substantive pedagogical preparation for those roles, but that type of support is rarely built into our departments at the program level. This session will discuss approaches to supporting GTAs in the context of your courses, including both professional development strategies and structures, to help GTAs both support your instructional goals as effectively as possible and to help them develop the broader academic skill set that will prepare them for careers in academia and beyond.

Professional Development and Support for Adjunct Professors

Moderator: Sarah Glancy, University of Hawaii West Oahu

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Adjuncts play a major role in undergraduate geoscience instruction, especially for introductory courses, which are crucial to recruiting and retaining geoscience majors, recruiting a diverse population to geoscience majors, and for scientific literacy for everyone. However, many adjuncts have little or no formal training in teaching college courses and are unaware of best teaching practices. This round table discussion will provide a forum for the community to identify barriers for adjuncts, identify and explore new and existing approaches to geoscience adjunct training and professional development, identify ways that the geoscience community can support adjuncts, and explore ways to determine the effectiveness of geoscience adjunct training.Adjuncts play a major role in undergraduate geoscience instruction, especially for introductory courses, which are crucial to recruiting and retaining geoscience majors, recruiting a diverse population to geoscience majors, and for scientific literacy for everyone. However, many adjuncts have little or no formal training in teaching college courses and are unaware of best teaching practices. This round table discussion will provide a forum for the community to identify barriers for adjuncts, identify and explore new and existing approaches to geoscience adjunct training and professional development, identify ways that the geoscience community can support adjuncts, and explore ways to determine the effectiveness of geoscience adjunct training.

Effects of Religious or Spiritual Beliefs on Global Warming and Reactions to It

Moderator: Helen M. Brethauer-Gay, Florida A&M University

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Beliefs and values underpin behavioral choices. Religious or Spiritual belief systems, whether perceived as the same thing or differing concepts, are defining elements of value systems. Science and Religion can be diametrically opposed or can function cooperatively depending on the cosmological view of each individual. Understanding this dynamic and its effects is imperative as global warming and the need to address and reduce it increases. The intent is an open and nonjudgmental discussion.

Work-life Balance: Arc of a Career

Moderator: Jennifer Roberts, University of Kansas

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Career demands and goals change over the course of our careers from graduate school until retirement. These shifting demands happen in tandem with small and large, positive and negative, life changes. Balancing personal and professional demands is key to maintaining healthy lifestyles and relationships as well as meeting professional goals at all stages of a career. This discussion will focus on strategies and available resources to help mitigate and overcome common challenges faced by academics.

Bystander Intervention Strategies for Minimizing Departmental Conflict

Moderator: Blair Schneider, University of Kansas

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, microaggressions. If you've ever witnessed any of this behavior among faculty in your department or institution, you know the negative consequences. This round-table session will focus on 1) identifying how these behaviors manifest and the multiple levels of impact they have in a workplace and 2) active bystander strategies that address harassment or bullying when it occurs.

Scientist-K12 Teacher Partnerships

Moderator: Carla McAuliffe, TERC and NESTA

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Scientist-K12 teacher partnerships are mutually beneficial and occur in many ways. The AGU-NESTA Geophysical Information for Teachers (GIFT) workshop held at the annual AGU meetings has proven to be a very successful model for providing high quality professional development to teachers. Presenters are required to have at least one scientist and one educator on their team. The goal of the GIFT workshop is to increase K12 teacher-participants' content knowledge as well as provide them with useful NGSS-congruent resources to take back to the classroom. Other scientist-K12 teacher partnerships have formed when geoscientists offer field experiences for teachers and continue to work with them after the field experience to develop teaching resources. This round table will provide an opportunity to discuss successful models. We invite those who have participated in scientist-K12 teacher partnerships to attend as well as those who are looking to form scientist-K12 teacher partnerships.

Developing Student Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Leadership Capacity to Address Wicked Problems

Tuesday, July 18 | 3:00-4:15pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Participants will work together to address one of the biggest challenges for higher education, that is, creating effective interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary linkages to address the many "wicked problems" facing society. This session will specifically engage participants in the processes, approaches, and products developed by the NSF-funded EMBeRS (Employing Model-Based Reasoning for Socio-environmental Synthesis) model for creating more effective interdisciplinary teams. Participants will leave with ideas for activities ready to implement with your students that will help develop their skill sets to work in interdisciplinary teams.

Implicit Bias

Moderator: Catherine Riihimaki, Princeton University

Friday, July 20 | 1:30-2:45pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Implicit bias describes when we have attitudes towards people or associate stereotypes with them without our conscious knowledge. Cognitive science research shows that everyone has implicit biases, sometimes in surprising ways, and that these biases affect how we understand situations, make decisions, and behave. This round-table discussion will focus on how to recognize different forms of implicit bias and how to address the ways that these biases manifest themselves in our teaching and other professional responsibilities.

Advancing the Conversation on NGSS

Moderator: Cheryl Manning, Evergreen High School

Friday, July 20 | 1:30-2:45pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Five years after the publication of the Next Generation Science Standards, states and school districts are working on implementation strategies, teachers are developing 3-dimensional learning opportunities, and students are beginning to learn science in a new way. At the college level, NGSS has the potential for additional positive disruptions and students should be expected to be better prepared to tackle more complex scientific and social challenges. As we work toward adopting or adapting the NGSS and A Framework for K-12 Science Education, we engage in a grand social experiment within the constraints of financial realities, infrastructure, and trained personnel. Join us to find the path forward.

The HBCU Geosciences Working Group - Goals, Direction, and Accomplishments

Moderator: John Warford, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Friday, July 20 | 1:30-2:45pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

The mission of the HBCU Geosciences Working Group is to promote geoscience on historically black college and university campuses and the communities they serve. This discussion lead by its group members seeks to inform EER2018 participants of the work undertaken, forge new ideas through dialogue and new partnerships, and expand the value of HBCU GWG's contributions in the broader Geosciences community. All interested and engaging conference attendees are encouraged to come, ask questions and share.

Collaborative Learning in an Online Course: Building community

Moderator: Christopher Berg, University of West Georgia

Friday, July 20 | 1:30-2:45pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

This roundtable discussion is intended for instructors who teach, or are interested in teaching, online classes with a collaborative learning component. Encouraging teamwork in an online class increases peer engagement and decreases the sense of isolation commonly associated with online learning. We will discuss different types of online activities that involve group work, several technologies that enable (or hinder) collaborative learning, and various methods to encourage student interactions in group projects. Participants are encouraged to share their own experience as we discuss collaborative learning techniques for courses ranging from intro-level gen eds to upper-level classes.

Using Virtual Reality Fieldtrips in Introductory Geoscience Courses

Moderator: Aida Farough, Kansas State University

Friday, July 20 | 1:30-2:45pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

In geosciences, VR fieldtrips can provide the opportunity to engage students and enhance learning experiences inside and outside of classroom. During this roundtable, you will experience VR fieldtrips and learn about the best practices of utilizing VR resources in the classroom. The aim of the discussion is to explore VR resources for Earth educators and develop a comprehensive list of VR activities that can be utilized in introductory geoscience courses.

This session is co-sponsored by Kansas State University, NAGT Mid-Continent section.

Using Apps to Engage and Assess Students

Moderator: Avery Shinneman, University of Washington-Bothell Campus

Friday, July 20 | 1:30-2:45pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

This roundtable discussion will explore connecting with students using apps (e.g. Flyover Country, Lambert, Rockd, and many others) both in and out of the classroom. We'll discuss using apps as a teaching tool as well as means for assessment of student learning and the student experience in the apps.

Digital Teaching Networks for Earth and Space Science Education

Moderator: Ariel Anbar, Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus

Friday, July 20 | 1:30-2:45pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

AGU, NAGT and the Center for Education Through Exploration at Arizona State University are developing a program to enable the geosciences community to create, distribute, modify, and support adaptive digital learning experiences for Earth and Space Science undergraduate education. This digital teaching network will facilitate a community-based process to develop digital resources that capitalize on the latest educational technologies to support individualized, independent learning at low cost.

Experiences will be developed by teams that bring together Earth and Space Science expertise, pedagogic expertise, and technical expertise in development of digital learning experiences. They will incorporate exploratory learning using a "guided discovery" design that makes use of authentic science practices and tutoring via adaptive feedback.

An initial pilot project will focus on immersive virtual field experiences. Ariel Anbar (AGU/ASU) and Callan Bentley (AGU/NAGT) bring prior work in the development of digital materials for virtual field exploration, including adaptive technologies and learning design. The team-based process will foster engagement of AGU and NAGT members and draw on the experiences of the SERC/InteGrate team based, rubric-guided materials development model.

Do you want to learn more or be involved? Join us!

Your First Teaching Experience

Moderator: Cody Kirkpatrick, Indiana University-Bloomington

Friday, July 20 | 1:30-2:45pm | Burge Student Union Forum C/D

Whether as a teaching demonstration as part of a job interview or in a full-on course, your first experience as a teacher can be daunting. In this roundtable discussion, we will explore ways to prepare for this pivotal moment in your career. Guided by participant interest, our discussion will include topics such as making decisions about the content of a lesson; strategies for active learning in the classroom; and setting the tone in your first class meeting. Those who are or will be pursuing academic careers that include any amount of teaching are invited to attend.