Initial Publication Date: March 14, 2016

Using Data to Teach About Societally Important Questions

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Improving Climate Literacy Through your Undergraduate Course
Thursday, April 7
12:00 pm Pacific | 1:00 pm Mountain | 2:00 pm Central | 3:00 pm Eastern

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

10:00 am Pacific | 11:00 pm Mountain | 12:00 pm Central | 1:00 pm Eastern

Presenters: Becca Walker (Mt. San Antonio College), Beth Pratt-Sitaula (UNAVCO), Kirsten Menking (Vassar College)

This webinar is part of a series supporting teaching with InTeGrate principles, using InTeGrate-developed and curated materials as tools.

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Resources, including presentation slides and the Screencast recording

Summary

This webinar will provide an opportunity to hear from geoscience faculty who connect the use of data and earth modeling to learning about the Earth in their courses (more information on teaching sustainability). Becca Walker and Beth Pratt-Sitaula are the author and editor (respectively) of Ice Mass and Sea Level Changes, a UNAVCO-developed, geodesy-focused GETSI module that uses authentic geodetic data to introduce students to the scientific and societal aspects of sea level change. Kirsten Menking is the author of the InTeGrate module: Earth Modeling (coming live in the Fall) that develops students' qualitative and quantitative tools for constructing, experimenting with, and interpreting dynamic models of different components of the Earth system. The webinar will include presentations on specific teaching strategies/tools and will provide opportunities for discussion. Participants are encouraged to both ask questions of the presenters and discuss their own experiences of using data to teach about societally important issues.

Goals:

At the end of this webinar, participants will have

new strategies for using data and/or modeling to teach about the Earth and important societal issues
an understanding of the values and challenges of teaching with real datasets and models
an appreciation of the value of having a societal component in a scientific course
greater familiarity with InTeGrate teaching principles and resources
new colleagues engaged in this work

Logistics

Time - 10:00 am Pacific | 11:00 pm Mountain | 12:00 pm Central | 1:00 pm Eastern
Duration - 1 hour
Format - Online web presentation via Adobe Connect web conference software with questions and discussion. To join the webinar, please visit: http://serc.adobeconnect.com/integrate/ and follow the prompts.

Registration - Registration is closed.
Preparation - There is no advance preparation required for this webinar.

Please email Alice Newman (anewman AT carleton.edu) if you have any questions about this event.

Presenters

Becca Walker, Earth Sciences and Astronomy, Mt. San Antonio College.

Beth Pratt-Sitaula, Education and Community Engagement, UNAVCO.

Kirsten Menking, Earth Science and Geography, Vassar College.

To download the slides for this presentation, click here: Teaching with Data Slideshow (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 15.9MB Mar22 16)

Program

1) Welcome and introductory remarks- John McDaris, SERC

Overview of InTeGrate and GETSI and the value of having a societal component in a scientific course - Beth Pratt-Sitaula

2) Using data to teach about climate systems - Becca Walker

Ice Mass and Sea Level Changes module

Unit 5: Warm With a Chance of Melting

Considerations when using real data in your teaching

Climate of Change module Unit 2.1: Climate Variability in the Equatorial Pacific
Ice Mass and Sea Level Changes module

Unit 1: Rising Concerns Over Rising Sea Levels
Unit 5: Regional Sea Level Changes - A Tale of Two Citites

Q & A

3) Why modeling is an important tool for teaching with data - Kirsten Menking

Preview of the Earth Modeling module
Participant reflections: Why teach modeling? What barriers have you encountered?
Two examples from Earth Modeling:

Population modeling
Earth's energy balance and resulting temperature

Resources and activities currently available

6) Reflection by Participants

Given the ideas and examples that have been presented, and your own teaching goals and experiences: how would you move forward in using data and modeling to teach about climate systems and other societally important questions? After reflecting for a moment, please use the chat to share something about where you are in your teaching, how you would move forward, and why this is a strong move. You can also enter questions for discussion into the chat at this time.

7) Synthetic Remarks