Initial Publication Date: June 10, 2015

InTeGrate Teaching Materials Development

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Finished Materials InTeGrate has created a new breed of teaching materials that can be utilized in general education courses, teacher preparation courses, core courses within geoscience majors, and courses designed for other majors including environmental studies, social science, engineering, and other sciences.

These materials are designed to:

  1. address one or more Earth related grand challenges facing society,
  2. develop student ability to address interdisciplinary problems,
  3. improve student understanding of the nature and methods of geoscience and developing geoscientific habits of mind,
  4. make use of authentic and credible geoscience data to learn central concepts in the context of geoscience methods of inquiry, and,
  5. incorporate systems thinking

These materials were designed and tested by your peers. They are ready for you to adapt them to work in your classroom, with your students.
Learn more about adapting InteGrate materials.

Development Process

All InTeGrate teaching materials are developed and tested by teams of faculty drawn from at least three institutions. By engaging these faculty who teach different kinds of students at different types of institutional settings in collaboratively developing materials we strive to create robust, flexible materials that can be used effectively in a wide variety of settings. This is key to creating materials that can be adopted easily by faculty who are not involved in the development.

Each team develops and tests materials during a two year interval. In most cases, we anticipate that teams will be created in the spring with an intensive development taking place during the summer. Testing occurs during the following academic year and is followed by revision and publication of the materials. Teams meet face-to-face near the beginning of the development work and again after the completion of testing. Team members commit to participating in the collaborative design and development of the materials, piloting and testing these materials at their home institution, and revising and refining the materials based on the results of testing. In addition, they are responsible for completing a comprehensive set of documentation that supports other faculty in using the materials, including a description of the use of the materials in their own classrooms.

To support effective integration of scientific data, teams may have other types of members beyond the core faculty from three different institutions.

InTeGrate produces tested materials that are effective in reaching their stated learning goals as well as meeting the projects overarching goals. To support development teams in meeting this high standard, each team works with a consultant drawn from the InTeGrate Assessment team. All materials must meet the criteria defined by the InTeGrate Curriculum Development and Refinement Rubric (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 113kB Jan18 14) before testing begins. This rubric encodes both the overarching goals of the project and research-based principles for effective instruction. All materials must include embedded assessments that can be used to measure student progress toward the stated learning goals. The assessment consultant's role is to provide expertise to help the team meet these requirements. The assessment consultant also helps the team make sense of the classroom testing results that form the basis for revising the materials before publication on the InTeGrate website.

Materials for General Education Courses

Introductory geoscience modules/courses
This effort, led by Dr. David McConnell at North Carolina State University, developed a modular set of materials based on the literacy documents that are suitable for use in large face-to-face, blended, and distance introductory courses within geoscience departments. These modules can be organized in a variety of combinations to serve a range of introductory courses.

Interdisciplinary general education courses

Teacher Preparation Modules/Courses

Dr. Anne Egger at Central Washington University lead an effort to develop a set of modules aimed at courses for pre-service teachers including both content courses (usually taught in science departments) and methods courses.

  • Exploring Geoscience Methods: James Ebert (SUNY Oneonta), Scott Linneman (Western Washington University), Jeff Thomas (Central Connecticut State University)
  • Interactions between Water, Earth's Surface, and Human Activity: Sue DeBari (Western Washington University), Kyle Gray (University of Northern Iowa), Julie Monet (California State University, Chico)
  • Soils, Systems, and Society: Kathryn Baldwin (Washington State University- Pullman), Jennifer Dechaine (Central Washington University), Rodger Hauge (Eastern Washington University), Gary Varrella (Washington State University - Extension)

Materials that Extend Teaching About the Earth beyond Geoscience Programs

Drs. Anne Egger, David Gosselin, and John Taber lead teams in developing modules and courses focused on teaching about the Earth beyond geoscience courses. Dr. Egger is leading teams who are building modules and courses with focused on teaching about Earth and sustainability with a humanities or social science lens. Dr. David Gosselin at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is leading the development of a set of courses that are aimed at integrating geoscience concepts into teaching about societal issues outside of geoscience programs and integrating linkages to societal issues into upper division geoscience courses. Dr. John Taber at Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) is leading the development of a module that bridges engineering, sustainability and the geosciences.

Designed for Spanish courses - Team lead - Anne Egger

Designed for use in Humanities courses - Team Lead Anne Egger

Designed for use in Social Sciences courses - Team Lead David Gosselin

Designed for use in Engineering courses - Team Lead John Taber

  • Water Sustainability in Cities: Steve Burian (University of Utah), Manoj Jha (North Carolina A&T State University), Gigi Richard (Colorado Mesa University), Marshall Shepherd (University of Georgia)

Materials for Use in Geoscience and Related Majors

Upper-level interdisciplinary course - Team Lead David Gosselin

  • Critical Zone Science: Martha Conklin (University of California, Merced), Susan Gill (Stroud Water Research Center), Bill McDowell (University of New Hampshire), James Washburne (Pima Community College and University of Arizona), Timothy White (Pennsylvania State University)

Interdisciplinary modules - Team Lead David Gosselin

  • An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources: Ed Barbanell (University of Utah), Meghann Jarchow (University of South Dakota), John Ritter (Wittenberg University)
  • Food as the Foundation for Healthy Communities: Richard Schulterbrandt Gragg III (Florida A&M University), John Warford (Florida A&M University), Cynthia Hewitt (Morehouse College), Akin Akinyemi (Florida State University), Cheryl Young (Heritage University), Bakari McClendon (Tallahassee Food Network)
  • Lead in the Environment: Caryl Waggett (Allegheny College), Katrina Korfmacher (University of Rochester), Martha Richmond (Suffolk University), Richard David Gragg III (Florida A&M University)
  • Water, Agriculture, and Sustainability: Nicole Davi (Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory), Terri Plake (Northwest Indian College), Christopher Sinton (Ithaca College), Robert Turner (University of Washington Bothell)

Interdisciplinary modules - Team Lead John Taber

  • The Wicked Problem of Global Food Security: Rebecca Boger (CUNY Brooklyn College), Russanne Low (University of Nebraska, Lincoln), Amy Potter (Armstrong State University)
  • Major Storms and Community Resilience: Lisa Doner (Plymouth State University), Lorraine Motola (Metropolitan University of New York), Patricia Stapleton (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
  • Regulating Carbon Emissions to Mitigate Climate Change: Robyn Smyth (Bard College), Sandra Penny (Bard College), Curt Gervich (SUNY Plattsburg), Gautam Sethi (Bard College), Eric Leibensperger (SUNY Plattsburgh), Pinar Batur (Vassar College) and volunteer consultants: Elias Dueker (Bard College), Monique Segarra (Bard College)
     

Interdisciplinary distance learning courses 
Dr. Tm Bralower at Pennsylvania State University, is leading development of a suite of on-line courses emphasizing the grand challenges of climate change, energy, sea level rise, water supply and natural hazards. These courses incorporate a focus on the use of predictive models to forecast changes and the impact of mitigation efforts. Taken together, these courses support a Certificate of Excellence in Earth Science.

  • Coastal Processes Hazards and Society: Sean Cornell (Shippensburg University), Duncan Fitzgerald (Boston University), Mark Kulp (University of New Orleans), Dinah Maygarden (University of New Orleans), Ioannis Georgiou (University of New Orleans), Brent Yarnal (Penn State University)
  • Modeling Earth Systems: Dave Bice (Penn State University), Luisa Bradtmiller (Macalester College), Kirsten Menking (Vassar College)
  • Energy, Environment, and Our Future: Richard Alley (Penn State University), Seth Blumsack (Penn State University) - course has passed the review rubric and was piloted in Fall 2015. Note: The link provided leads to the Penn State World Campus version of the course - upon completion, this course will be available in the InTeGrate project format.
  • Future of Food: Heather Karsten (Penn State University), Gigi Richard (Colorado Mesa University), Karl Zimmerer (Penn State University)
  • Water Science and Society: Mike Arthur (Penn State University), Patrick Belmont (Utah State University), Demian Saffer (Penn State University)
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