Welcome

We have established this blog with the goal of stirring up discussion of ideas, questions, discoveries and controversies related to how people think and learn about the Earth and environment. Recalling fascinating and seminal conversations during Bringing Research on Learning to the Geosciences and Synthesis of Research on Thinking and Learning in the Geosciences and other workshops and conferences, we are looking for a mechanism to continue such conversations on an ongoing basis, without the fossil fuel expenditure of flying our corporeal bodies around the country to the same bar or outcrop or conference room.

We are looking for linkages connecting geosciences with cognitive sciences. We have noticed that such linkages often begin as little more than an intuition, too insubstantial for a formal publication, but well suited for a conversation over beer--or a blog post. We wish to establish a venue where the community who reflect on thinking and learning about the Earth can converse about big ideas in small chunks.

How people think and learn about the Earth is important. Over the lifetime of today's students, humanity will have to figure out how to cope with a destabilized climate, the end of cheap fossil fuels, inadequate fresh water supply in many regions, degraded soils, and overtaxed ecosystem services. "Figuring out how to cope" will require the best thinking and learning about the Earth that our species can muster. We anticipate that the thoughts shared on Earth & Mind: The Blog can help move us collectively in that direction.

We hope that you will enjoy your visits to the blog, return frequently, comment insightfully, and use ideas you find here in your teaching and research.

Enthusiastically,

The Editors: Kim Kastens, Cathy Manduca, and Dave Mogk