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Challenges Inherent in Teaching Geosciences

Posted: Mar 12 2010 by Kim Kastens

Several inherent attributes of ocean, atmosphere and solid earth sciences contribute to making these disciplines challenging to teach and learn at the K-14 level. These include the large spatial scale of important processes, the consequent reliance on models and representations rather than actual target phenomena in hands-on activities, the centrality of systems thinking and emergent phenomena, and the importance of non-experimental modes of inquiry. None of these difficulties is unique to geosciences, and none is insurmountable, but they do require purposeful attention from educators, curriculum and program designers, and evaluators. More

Where do Data-Driven Visualizations Come From?

Posted: Dec 8 2009 by Kim Kastens

Two posts back, I introduced the distinction between data-driven and concept-driven visualizations, and in the last post I explored some of the affordances and pitfalls of concept-driven visualizations. Today I'd like to dig into how data-driven visualizations get made in geosciences--and how much of that process students need to know about. Recall that "a data-driven visualization uses empirically or mathematically derived data values to formulate the visualization" (Clark & Wiebe, 2000, p. 28.)

With doctoral student Sandra Swenson, I have been researching how middle school and high school students understand one particular data-driven visualization: a global map of topography and bathymetry.

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Through a Lens Darkly and Then Face to Face*

Posted: Nov 1 2009 by David W. Mogk

I've been hiking every Sunday this past fall with a group of geology majors--the Sunday Hiking Club. We are doing a service-learning project to create trailside posters and websites that explain the natural history of popular trails in the mountains surrounding our town. While on our hikes, all of the students are taking digital photographs of their experiences on the trail, and the archives of these images will serve as the raw materials for the story lines we'll present to the public. At the simplest level, our trailside posters will help direct the attention of interested hikers to the wonders they'll encounter along the trail. The premise is that the hike may be a bit more enjoyable and meaningful for recreational hikers if they know what special features to look for along the way. For the hiking public, their original motivation for going on the hike may range from exercise to aesthetics, but we think we can slip in a little science education along the way. The accompanying websites will be a bit more detailed, with in-depth information for further personal investigation with resources such as geologic maps, articles that are accessible for reading by the public, archives of annotated images, and links to related instructional sites. In observing Nature through my own lens, and also observing my students as they themselves look at the world with focused attention through their cameras, I came to realize vaguely at first, and then with increased clarity, the transformative power of photography as an instructional activity. More

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Even Darwin Struggled with Dip and Strike

Posted: Sep 21 2009 by

Kim Kastens

When students were asked what aspects of introductory geology they found most troublesome, dip and strike featured on many students' hit lists (Helmer & Repine, 2006). One thread of my research with psychologist Lynn Liben seeks to understand why dip and strike are so hard for so many students.

Instructors and students who have struggled with this topic may find it reassuring to learn that even Charles Darwin struggled with dip and strike. Shortly before leaving on his epic voyage on the Beagle, he wrote to J. S. Henslow, professor of mineralogy and botany at Cambridge University:

I love the image of one of the greatest observational scientists of all time, with the tables in his bedroom all askew, trying to master his brand new clinometer. More

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More Hypothesis Templates

Posted: Aug 12 2009 by Kim Kastens

In an earlier post, I introduced the idea of "hypothesis templates," a device intended to help students learn to generate plausible hypotheses from spatial information. I'm still struggling with the question of how do people, either experienced geoscientists or beginning students, generate meaning from information about the position, configuration, trajectory, orientation or shape of objects or phenomena in the real world. Over the last few days, my collaborators and I have been going through student products from the Lamont Data Puzzle Project, a curriculum development project. Whenever we instructed the students to "Suggest a hypothesis to explain [the observations they had just made from data]," many students struggled and came up with little to nothing.

So today, I offer hypothesis templates for two additional common types of observations. More

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