Rachel Teasdale: Teaching Living on the Edge in Geological Hazards at California State University, Chico

Unit 1

• I walked the students through the probability calculation, but I think it will work better to have students work together in groups so they can move through the calculations at their own pace. Timing is of great importance so that students have enough time to complete the probability calculation and enough time to discuss the questions at the end of the class (also used as informal assessment). One thing I did was to go through the San Francisco calculation together and had the Los Angeles solution completed; I walked them through those results so that we had the information to compare the two sites for discussion, but we did not get too bogged down in the calculations. Timing might be more of an issue for larger classes than for smaller ones.

Unit 2

• Students very much enjoyed working with the maps of the schools they were assigned, determining the vulnerability calculations and comparing theirs with those of other groups/schools. Students take a vested interest in their school getting the funding and were so engaged that they were disappointed to learn that some other schools had worse situations than theirs! I recommend that instructors have packets of maps for each group ready at the beginning of class, especially with large classes where handing things out to groups can take some time (my class had 50 students). An extra person in the room would be ideal, but asking students to help works well, too. Be sure to save time at the end of class to get to discussions, which means being very efficient at the beginning of class. Students really need the recommended amount of time to do the calculations before discussions can happen.

Unit 3

• Students liked using real-world data for the African and Icelandic examples, I would recommend minimizing time spent on recapping the prework and move quickly into the activity that asks students to examine and discuss the earthquake and eruption data available to them. Efficient use of time at the beginning (e.g. minimizing prework discussion) will help instructors (me!) get to the discussions at the end of the unit. Next time, I will emphasize to them that scientists do not always get the complete suite of data that they would like to have—sometimes because the data was not collected, instruments were damaged, or because data collection is expensive, so not all forms are available.

Unit 4

• I had to really streamline the discussions at the beginning of Unit 4 for my 50-minute class period. The prework is a great introduction to monitoring, and discussion of inflation/deflation can be done relatively quickly so students have time to make their predictions and compare those to the actual real-time GPS data series provided in the activity. Giving students latitude to work through their predictions and then to move on to the actual data and discussion questions is empowering to them, and for the most part, students rose to the challenge; only a few got bogged down in not understanding the data. For the most part, students in groups were able to help each other when some were confused (possibly because they skipped the prework!), which is great, too. Consideration of the GPS and seismic data is a great use of data (and use of multiple data sets) and can be done even before all the GPS questions (e.g. before #6 and # 7 if some groups are ready before others).

Unit 5

• Students were challenged (happily so) to understand the data in this unit and were definitely engaged in trying to determine an appropriate eruption forecast. By now (in the module) students understand that they may not have enough data, and I heard several saying they wished they had more data of another type (e.g. the tilt group wanted earthquake data, and the gas group wanted tilt data, and several groups mentioned GPS data). My standard response was that scientists in the field often say the same thing—they want to see all the information even though some of it is not available. In big classes, it is important to make sure that students can all get started so some introduction to the data types is useful. Students are pretty used to earthquake data by now, but the groups looking at gas and ash data were not as familiar, so a quick sentence or two of instructions will help.
• Another factor (especially for large classes) is to be super-organized at the beginning (and before) starting the Unit 5 and Unit 6 combo so that students know they will need to remember the type of data to work on for the prework to Unit 6 as well as their assigned location for the Unit 6 prework. I divvied up the groups for Unit 6 and wrote their location and group numbers for Unit 6 on the worksheets we used in Unit 5. They took their Unit 5 worksheets home with them and knew what to work on for prework. Then, they brought those worksheets back with them for the day of Unit 6, and knew they needed to sit with their new, mixed group that day.

Unit 6

• Students really enjoyed the emerging scenario of the eruption. I added instructions to the class PowerPoint (Eruption Scenario) so students could see what they were supposed to be doing (sharing data with their new groups and developing their third eruption forecast) in addition to having articulated those instructions verbally. By the middle of class when I announced that the eruption had occurred, they eagerly awaited the appearance of their town in the slideshow. Students reacted with groans and laughter or "YES!" when they learned of the damage (or survival) of their location. It became personal, and more meaningful.
• Logistics for Unit 6 took a bit more time than for Unit 5 when students were working in groups they were very familiar with (from having worked together previously). A few students were clearly caught off-guard to have to work with different people. A short introduction of this idea might help them feel more comfortable working with brand-new people.
• Organization is key again for Unit 6, but good preparation before Unit 5 helps a lot. One issue I still struggle with is how to deal with the students who miss the first day of the activity (Unit 5) and need to get caught up on the day we do Unit 6, and the students who came for Unit 5 but not the next day for Unit 6, leaving gaps in the groups. One idea is to assign students who miss class a data type according to their last name so they can do the prework (e.g. a note on the class management website, Blackboard, etc.), that says if your last name starts with A-I, do the work for Tilt, last names J-P do the work with Earthquake data, and last names starting with R-Z do the work with Gas/Ash data. Then those students can be plugged into groups that are missing those data types. If there are extra people who missed the first day, they can work together or can be doubled up with someone who learned the same data type in Unit 5). More for me to test!