Exploring ENSO through the El Niño/La Niña Slide Chart and Current Data
David Curry, Council Rock School District; Elizabeth Mills, American Meteorological Society
The past year has featured an active, warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, considered historically "strong". El Niño developed in early summer 2023, peaked in November, and persisted through ...

Four Years of Discovery Improvements for SERC website visitors
Sean Fox, Carleton College; mahdi mohamed, Carleton College; Monica Bruckner, Carleton College; Ashley Carlson, Carleton College; Cailin Huyck Orr, Carleton College; Ellen Iverson, Carleton College; John McDaris, Carleton College; Kristin O'Connell, Carleton College
The Science Education Resource Center (SERC) hosts materials from more than 120 geoscience education projects. However, the project-focused nature of the SERC website means that information is siloed which presents ...

Integrating nature journals into an online pre-service elementary education science course
Christy Visaggi, Georgia State University
Teacher preparation in the elementary education program at Georgia State University, a large public minority-serving institution in downtown Atlanta, includes a series of "integrated science" courses ...

Understanding how food, energy, and water decisions affect the thriving of local, regional, and global systems– A practice brief for secondary science teachers
Shondricka Burrell, Morgan State University; Imogen Herrick, University of Kansas Main Campus; Todd Campbell, University of Connecticut; Doug Lombardi, University of Maryland-College Park; Xavier Fazio, Brock University
Historically, decision-making around food, energy, and water (FEW) have not emphasized naturally occurring and complex interconnections. As such, these decontextualized approaches have led to environmental ...

Exploring Earth's Dynamic Systems
catherine etter, Cape Cod Community College
The Earth's Dynamic Systems Lab aims to illustrate the interconnectedness of Earth's systems by depicting global and local climate change variables, biogeochemical cycles, and natural versus ...

The Wow Factor: Cutting Rocks to Engage Students
Kyle Fredrick, Pennsylvania Western University - California; Elisabeth Ervin-Blankenheim, Front Range Community College; Daniel Harris, Pennsylvania Western University - California
Many of our students, including non-majors already bring an interest in rocks, crystals, or gems to their introductory-level geoscience classes. But traditional geology labs tend to focus on rock and mineral ...

Paleontologists for a Day
Mattie Horne, Western Washington University; Robyn Dahl, Western Washington University
This activity uses hands-on interaction with 3D-modeled fossils to guide students and educators through an exploration of critical geoscience concepts (deep time, paleoclimate, functional morphology, and ...

PANNING FOR "GOLD": HELPING STUDENTS EVALUATE WEB PAGES FOR CLASS USE
Fred Marton, Bergen Community College; Lynn Schott, Bergen Community College
It is not unusual for students to search the web for sources to use for their classes. It is also not unusual for some of those sources to be unacceptable for a variety of reasons. To help students recognize which ...

Inquiry-based modeling in Earth Science
Beth Dushman, Howard Community College
Two activities are presented here, both using the Model-Based Inquiry method, in which students are introduced to a phenomenon, model an explanation, test those models with real scientific data, and share and ...

Soil Science: Bridging Geology and Environmental Science in a Sustainable World
Michelle Cauley, Dakota College at Bottineau
The study of soils, soil health, and soil's impact on our climate is paramount in our ever-changing educational landscape. In this workshop, participants will be exploring the connection that soils have in our ...