Contributed Program: Oral, Poster, Teaching Demonstration, and Share-a-Thon Sessions

Jump down to learn more about: Oral and Poster Presentations | Teaching Demo | Share-A-Thon

Many of us have interests in multiple areas of Earth Science education in addition to our discipline-specific interests, and the Rendezvous is designed to allow exploration of these areas in ways not possible during conventional scientific meetings. The Contributed Program is a critical component to this end, and offers both a venue to present work and an opportunity to see what is going on in the Earth Science education community.

The Rendezvous provides a unique opportunity to present and discuss your work with an audience of Earth educators. Contributions will be organized under three broad areas, some of which will complement workshop sessions and even dynamically feed into workshop content. Theme sets will be organized based on abstracts submitted; we have suggested several below. We encourage attendees to organize related presentations as a set: whether the set is on a similar topic or a group of presentations from the same project or research group. Please also let us know below if the theme set is related to another element of the program (e.g. a morning workshop). This will help us better organize the contributed program sessions. We also encourage attendees to encourage colleagues to submit activities that fit a theme of their choice.

Please review the Presenter Guidelines in this page before submitting your abstract or activity sheet.

Space in sessions is limited, but we will do our best to give everyone their preferred presentation format. Session assignments will be in the final program, to be announced in April 2020. Presentations will not be able to be moved among sessions so please wait to make travel plans accordingly.

Please see abstracts for Oral, Poster and Teaching Demos in previous EER programs.

Presentation Formats At a Glance

Use the links in the grid below to jump down to more information.

Presenter Guidelines

Oral and Poster Submissions:

The 2020 EER Program Committee is accepting abstracts under two broad headings: Research and Teaching.

• Research presentations will include the analysis of data that supports research on a variety of geoscience education areas that may include teaching and learning in the classroom, teaching and learning process, assessment of programs or other research areas in teaching and learning in geosciences. Research presentations may be oral or poster format.
  
• Teaching presentations may also have some data to support them, but presentations will focus more on innovations in teaching, implementation and/or anecdotal data collection. Teaching presentations may be oral or poster format.
  

Research and teaching presentations will be sorted into the following themes for teachers/faculty or researchers:

• Student Learning with New Curriculum and Technology: Applications of new classroom tech or assessment of new curriculum
  
• Student Learning (Cognitive Domain): Assessment of classroom or program interventions associated with the processes of student learning or learning progressions
  
• Broadening Participation: Results of programs addressing issues of diversity and inclusion and transfer from community colleges to four year colleges
  
• Community Engagement: Community engagement presentations provide examples, strategies or skills that strengthen educators ability to connect between Earth education and community action (e.g. via service learning, undergraduate research, and citizen science).
  
• Place-based learning: Local projects, field work, examples, and data can motivate students learning by applying concepts to the world outside their window.
  
• Teacher Professional Development & the NGSS: Descriptions of programs for pre-service and in-service teacher training, K-12 teacher professional development programs, ways the NGSS are being implemented within a school, county or state
  
• Faculty and Graduate Student Professional Development: Evaluation and descriptions of program development, effectiveness of a training program
  
• Student Development: Assessment of research investigating self regulation, student affect, research experiences, career preparation, workforce preparation
  

The oral and poster presentation submission deadline has passed.

Teaching Demonstration Proposals:

Presentations in this category will engage the audience as participants in a classroom activity. K-16 teaching programs and activities are all encouraged equally. Teaching demonstrations are 20 minutes in length and are in a classroom-style presentation, differing from the less formal, 1-2-minute presentation followed by small-group discussion in the round-robin style of the Share-a-thon sessions.

• Active Teaching Demonstrations: We are soliciting proposals for demonstrations of successful activities that could result in "take-homes" for attendees to use in their own teaching. Demonstrations should be active, e.g. something that audience members participate in, or a video or slide show of students performing the activity. We welcome proposals for activities that you have already submitted to (or adapted from) the On the Cutting Edge collection as well as new submissions. View Guidelines.

As with the oral and poster presentations, we encourage attendees to organize related presentations as a theme set (similar topic, same project or research group). We have suggested several theme sets below, but encourage participants to communicate with colleagues to submit activities that fit a theme of their choice.

a. Activities and Assessments for Large Introductory Classes - Research in STEM disciplines has revealed a suite of empirically validated instructional practices that can contribute to improvements in student learning and a reduction in attrition. Often, such practices seem to be best suited for classrooms with small enrollment, but many instructors incorporate these "active learning" practices in large enrollment classrooms. Presentations will highlight classroom instructional practices, including assessment of student learning, that effectively engage large "lecture" classes.

b. Activities and Assessments for K12 Classes - Developing interest and excitement for Earth Science early is crucial in STEMming the workforce. Presentations will highlight classroom instructional practices, including assessment of student learning, that effectively engage K-12 students specifically, but may be transferable to other settings, including college-level coursework and outreach programs.

c. Activities that Promote Metacognition in the Classroom - Metacognition, thinking about one's own cognitive processes, is an important activity that helps students identify the extent of their content learning and helps them recognize study skills that lead to their success. Many teachers/faculty use metacognition in a variety of ways. Presentations will showcase activities and instructional practices that help students regulate their own learning, leading to greater self efficacy and success.

d. Using Apps in Geoscience Courses: Hands-on, real-world instruments for K12, 2YCs and beyond - Are phones and other devices that connect students to the world outside the classroom better off banished or embraced? By abandoning the seemingly losing battle of regulating the use of devices in class, innovative classroom activities ask students to use such devices and content-related apps to find information, collect data, interact with other learners, and more. Presentations will showcase positive activities that access information and encourage learning through the use of phones, tablets, clickers and more.

If you are interested in proposing a teaching demonstration, please fill out the proposal form by the March 2 deadline. You will be notified in early April if your demonstration has been accepted, at which point you will be asked to submit a full on-online activity description in the style of an On the Cutting Edge activity, or to update an already existing activity page.

The teaching demo presentation submission deadline has passed.

Share-a-Thon Proposals:

The EER Program Committee is excited to announce a new opportunity to share innovative teaching activities, including cool educational apps. This event will begin with a round-robin 1-2 minute "lightning" round to preview each activity, with the remaining time for attendees to circulate among presenters to interact in a small group format. Presenters will have a table to set up the materials for their activity as Share-A-Thon attendees circulate. The goal of this event is for presenters to share their favorite activities or lessons with colleagues who will get an overview of activities and have time to ask questions. Presenters are asked to provide attendees with an overview and information about the activity (handout, online link) so that it can be reproduced by attendees in their own classrooms.

The share-a-thon submission deadline has passed.