Teaching with Geochemical Data: A collaborative workshop to identify barriers and find solutions

Thursday, Friday 8:30am-11:30am
Workshop

Session Chairs

Karin Block, CUNY City College
Hannah Adrienne Sweets, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Students frequently struggle when working with data. Handling geochemical data can be especially daunting as it requires knowledge of stoichiometry, magma composition, and the physical processes that influence element partitioning and chemical fluxes. The goal of this workshop is to collaboratively brainstorm and share techniques and activities to help students learn how to work with research-grade data to obtain information about igneous processes. Participants will be introduced to the EarthChem portal and its member databases and work together to produce a suite of teaching activities to be shared via the Teach the Earth portal.

This workshop has funding to provide up to 10 eligible* participants a $450 stipend that can be used toward registration compensation for the two days of the workshop. Funding is available to provide qualified* participants with the stipend, unless they choose to waive it, on a first-come, first-serve basis (through registering for the workshop). All stipends will be disbursed after the Rendezvous, provided you participate in the entire workshop.

Note: there is a waitlist for stipends, as more than 10 people have registered.

Please contact the workshop leads if you have any questions about the stipends.

*Please note that as these stipends are NSF-funded, to be supported by this funding, a participant must be either a U.S. citizen, a permanent resident, or in the employ of a U.S. institution.

Overview

There is strong evidence that working with authentic data can increase student confidence and science identity, as well as improve workforce skills. At the same time, students frequently struggle when working with data and instructors need strategies to support them through to success. Igneous geochemical and petrological data, while important to upper division courses, can be especially complex. Students need to be scaffolded in their use of stoichiometry, magma composition, and understanding of the physical processes that influence element partitioning and chemical fluxes. In this workshop, we will work collaboratively with participants to understand their barriers to teaching with igneous geochemical data and work together on approaches and solutions. We will invite participants to work collaboratively to share and brainstorm teaching techniques and activities to help students learn how to work with research-grade data to obtain information about igneous processes. The workshop will be both interactive and generative. Participants will learn about the EarthChem data portal and resources that serve data from peer-reviewed literature on igneous geochemistry and petrology so they can consider how to bring these data into their own courses. Our goal is to create and deliver a suite of completed activities to be shared via the EER site immediately during the workshop and more comprehensively through the SERC-hosted Teach the Earth portal in the latter half of 2023.

 

 

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