Initial Publication Date: July 1, 2019

Jessica J. Smay: Using Measuring the Earth with GPS in Physical Geology lab at San Jose City College

About This Course

Lower division, introductory, non-majors

students

One 80-min lecture and one 3-hour lab per week

Physical Geology Lab syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 99kB Jul12 19)

Show the catalog description of my course

Lab: Students will study minerals, rocks, and sediments and the processes that form them. These and other geologic processes will be related to plate tectonics, the rock cycle and the water cycle. A major focus is on using the scientific method to study these geologic processes and concepts. Projects will include using technology to conduct experiments that model geologic processes, interpreting maps and other images, and studying geologic processes in the field. Field trip(s) will be required. GEOL 010 taken with GEOL 010L meets the lab science requirement for graduation/transfer. (C-ID GEOL 100)

Lecture: Students are introduced to geologic processes related to volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, erosion, tsunami, and Earth resources. The relationship of these processes to each other and to overarching geologic concepts, such as plate tectonics, the rock cycle and the water cycle will be examined. Major focuses include the impact these processes have on civilization and communicating geologic concepts. The scientific method is illustrated as it relates to analyzing geologic problems. GEOL 010 taken with GEOL 010L meets the lab science requirement for graduation/transfer. (C-ID GEOL 100)

Show more about the course goals and content

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

Communicate geologic concepts in writing and diagrams related to: internal and external processes that shape and form the Earth; formation, change, and erosion of environments through geological time; and, the basic properties of rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, and Earth's resources.
Examine geologic processes to analyze geologic problems using the scientific method.
Relate fundamental concepts and principles to Earth's systems such as plate tectonics, the water cycle, the rock cycle, Earth's resources, and their impact on civilization.

The module was used primarily in my lab course, but the PowerPoint material was covered in the lecture or at home as homework. The lab is optional; this semester all of the lab students were also enrolled in the lecture, so I was able to include the background learning in the lecture and the group activities as part of the lab. Unfortunately, this semester I had a high attrition rate, and ended the semester with 9 students. These 9 students were strong students, and they really bonded as they worked through these activities.

I like how it showed students how science relates to their everyday lives, both in the techniques used (like GPS on their phones) and in the repercussions of the findings.

My Experience Teaching with GETSI Materials

I used the PowerPoint parts of the module in my lecture course, and the group activities in the lab course. Otherwise, I did not make changes.

Relationship of GETSI Materials to My Course

My course is 16 weeks long. I introduced GPS via the presentations in week 8 of my lecture class. The activities for Units 1 and 2 were in week 8 and 9 in the lab course. Unit 2 relates to plate tectonics and earthquakes, which I had covered in my lecture course by then. In particular, I wanted to have covered plate motions and the elastic rebound theory. Units 3 and 4 were in week 13 and 14 of the lab course. They related to glaciers and groundwater, so I wanted to already cover those in the lecture as well. In particular, I wanted to have covered what an aquifer is. Because the lab course was a subset of the students from the lecture course, I did not talk about the lab material in lecture, but I did talk about the lecture material in lab.

A Unit-by-Unit Breakdown of How I Taught This Module

Unit 1

I began this unit in my lecture course, using the presentation slides and lecture broken up by the Conceptests. During the lecture, students took notes in the handout to help them follow along and draw on relevant figures. During lab, I went through the slides again quickly, stopping to focus on the most relevant slides as a quick review for the students, and answering questions by students who had missed some material the first time through. The lecture, including questions, took about 25 minutes. The Jigsaw portion of the unit was done in the lab. The number of students had dropped significantly from the beginning of the semester, so at this point there were 10 students.
Tips and what I would change: I could have used at least 5 more minutes for the PowerPoint lecture. The Jjigsaw worked fairly well, but it is important to check in with the different groups to make sure none are struggling. Even in my small class, it was very important for me to check in with the groups. If you have never run a Jigsaw before, I recommend doing a practice run ahead of time so you know how to divide up students and hand out the right materials.

Unit 2

For this unit, I had the students begin Activity 1 at the end of the lab where we did Unit 1. However, this meant that I forgot to go over the presentation slides with them before they tackled this new concept of using GPS to study earthquakes. However, working together allowed the students to help each other with the math. The students were then to finish Activity 1 at home, watch the animation and complete Activity 2 at home. Between labs, I inserted the presentation slides that I had not covered into my usual lecture. The next week in lab where the students were supposed to have completed Activity 1 and 2, I found very few students had done Activity 2. So, the first thing we did was to watch the animation and complete Activity 2 together. We spent a few minutes linking the information in the animation to the work that they had done in Activity 1, and then I encouraged them to keep in mind that the work that they did in Activity 1 and 2 were related to Activity 3. At the beginning of the next lab, I went over the "Letter to Alix" and explained what they did well and what could use improvement. I also emphasized that they would be writing similar letters for future GPS labs and on their final.
Tips and what I would change: The students were able to tackle Activity 1 without the introductory presentation, but I think reviewing that information was useful and gave them more context for why they did the work they did. Some students plowed through the math and questions without thinking about why they were answering those questions. I found that even though I took the time in lecture to point out the connections, some students had a hard time applying the knowledge they gained from the first activities to the third activity. Also, another thing that tripped students up was the order of operations when plugging calculations into their calculators. I paused the whole group and had a short discussion. I do not like pausing the whole class and breaking up their work time, but I found that having already made some calculations helped students understand why I was giving that short lecture. If I had given it in the introductory lecture, I am not sure how many students would have been able to apply it to the situations given in the unit.

Unit 3

The students completed this unit during a 3-hour lab period. I had initially planned to pause the class when students completed Activity 1 so that we could watch the animation together, but students took between 30 and 50 minutes to complete Activity 1, so students instead watched the animation on their phones. This meant they could work at their own pace. I waited until the last students watched the video and then paused the class to have a discussion about it. Near the end of lab, two students asked for time to write the letter at home, so I let them take photos of their data and email the letter to me a few days later.
Tips and what I would change: This unit ran quite smoothly. Unit 2 has a similar set up (Activity 1: Observe and Describe; Activity 2: watch Animation; Activity 3: Analyze, Interpret, and Apply). Again, I found it useful to review their letters and remind them that they will be writing letters again for Unit 4 and for their final. Students also had a bit of trouble with realizing the difference between a long-term rate compared to an annual range of motion. I reviewed this difference before beginning Unit 4, as they needed to be able to do those calculations with the groundwater data.

Unit 4

Unit 4 follows a similar setup to Unit 2 and 3, so the students were comfortable with it. However, in this unit, in Activity 3, Part 3, the students in one group are supposed to analyze different graphs, and then compare their data to answer questions. Some students were upset by the idea that they had to calculate their own numbers. I showed them that it was asking something very similar to they had done for Unit 3, so they could look back at their old work to help. I also reminded them that they would be expected to be able to do this type of graph interpretation and calculations for the final exam. The students then either successfully looked at the previous unit or got help from their group mates.
Tips and what I would change: I would emphasize to the students that the data need to be measured very carefully. Also, for this unit I took the time in the following lab to go over the letters, and discuss what they had improved on and what could use more improvement.

Assessments

Because I had a very small class, I was able to grade all parts of the whole module. However, for Units 2, 3, and 4, if I have a large class, I would either collect one Activity 1 and 2 for each group, and grade individuals for Activity 3, or I would have each student turn in the whole packet and grade for completeness and choose specific questions for a correctness grade.
Besides grading each lab and giving feedback, I gave a final exam that included a few multiple-choice questions and a GPS graph with a long-answer question in the same style as the previous "letter" questions on the labs.

Outcomes

Some of the labs in my course were focused on learning content and less about analyzing and interpreting data. As this was likely the last science class many of these students would take, I wanted them to have more practice with data. I also wanted them to build confidence in working with data. The setup of Units 2, 3, and 4 were similar (Activity 1: Observe and describe GPS data and learn basic information. Activity 2: watch an animation and fill in a worksheet. Activity 3: Analyze and interpret GPS data and apply it to a particular societal situation by writing a letter). By the time students got to Unit 4, they were familiar with this setup, worked with similar data several times, and were able to build confidence in their increasing skill to do science.

Another thing missing from many of my previous labs was a link to society. This module really helped my students work with scientific data sets in a context that was relevant to society. Working with groundwater data and earthquake data was particularly interesting to my students, as these were issues that many of them had heard about in the news.

One last goal for my students was for them to be able to communicate science. Discussing the letters each time brought awareness to the importance of communicating science, particularly using data to support statements. For the first letter or two, many students wrote very generic statements about the data, but by Unit 4 they understood that when they made a statement, they should support it with a specific description and numbers.

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