Designing an Earth System Course

Teaching Geoscience as "Earth System Science" provides a spatial and temporal perspective that broadly integrates scientific understanding of the connections and interactions between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, solid Earth, and space. Pedagogically, Earth system science requires an integrated interdisciplinary approach, replacing traditional discipline-based, compartmentalized thinking.

In a recent report, Shaping the Future of Undergraduate Earth Science Education (Ireton, Manduca and Mogk, 1997 ), the editors strongly urge that Earth and Space scientists embrace Earth system science as a new paradigm for undergraduate Earth science education.

This module supports faculty efforts to structure Earth system science education not only to the needs of geoscience majors, but a variety of different audiences, from non-science majors to pre-service teachers.