Students examine a fault scarp

Teaching the Methods of Geoscience

June 27-29, 2012
Montana State University, Bozeman MT

Optional all day field trip - June 30

Note: this workshop has already taken place. See the workshop outcomes for materials developed in association with the workshop. Workshop presentations and summaries of discussions are available on the program page; participants' activity, course, and essay contributions are available via the participants page.
The methods and ways of thinking that are intrinsic to Earth science differ in important ways from the experimental procedures that are commonly taught in schools as the scientific method. Hypothesis testing in the geosciences relies on compiling multiple lines of evidence through observations and modeling. Geoscience thinking involves working with deep time, understanding the Earth as a complex system, spatial reasoning, and direct observations of the Earth in the field.

This workshop is for undergraduate faculty who are interested in integrating explicit teaching about the methods of geoscience into their classroom. We encourage undergraduate faculty who teach science methods courses in pre-service teacher preparation or undergraduate research to apply, as well as faculty who emphasize geoscience and/or methods in other courses.

The workshop will consist of a combination of plenary talks, panelist presentations, discussions, and time for networking and collaboration. Workshop participants will share successful strategies and materials for teaching the methods of geoscience. An important outcome from this workshop will be to identify topics where new curricular materials will have a major impact on integrating teaching the methods of geoscience at multiple levels.

Deadlines for application to the workshop and for workshop travel stipends have passed.

Accepted participants are expected to contribute teaching materials to a new web-based collection that will showcase a variety of approaches for teaching the methods of geoscience.

Read the workshop overivew for details about the workshop goals, schedule, and expectations for participants.

View the participant checklist for all the critical deadlines for this workshop.


Workshop Conveners

Anne Egger, Central Washington University
Cathryn Manduca, Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
David Mogk, Montana State University, Bozeman

Join the Discussion

Read the email list discussion, join the email list or unsubscribe using the Teaching Methods of Geoscience email list.

This workshop is part of the InTeGrate project for interdisciplinary teaching of geoscience for a sustainable future. InTeGrate is a 5-year, National Science Foundation (NSF) STEP Center grant, running from 2012 through 2016. This work is supported by a NSF collaboration between the Directorates for Education and Human Resources (EHR) and Geociences (GEO) under grant DUE - 1125331. Learn more about this project.


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