Workshop Agenda

Biotic Response to Climate Change: Viewing the Future through the Past

Plan to arrive in Northfield by 5:00 pm on Sunday, October 11th and to depart after 2:30 pm on Tuesday, October 13th.

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Neotoma fuscipes exhibit, Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History

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Workshop goals:

By the end of the workshop, each team will:

1. Have a draft of at least one teaching activity that engages undergraduate students in exploring the Neotoma database to answer a real paleoecological question (or questions);
2. Have a plan for each faculty member on the team to test the teaching activity in his/her classroom by the end of spring term, 2016;
3. Identify what assessment data and reflections each pilot tester will provide to the Neotoma leadership team, to guide activity revisions at the workshop in spring/summer, 2016;
4. Develop a preliminary plan for disseminating the teaching activities developed here to the paleoecology education community.

Sunday, October 11

Participants meet at Carleton College's Alumni Guest House, in the large meeting room on the main floor

5:00 pm: Icebreaker with cash-only bar

5:30 pm: Welcome, introductions, and reminder of the goals of the Neotoma project and this workshop - Russ and Carol

6:00 pm: Dinner

7:00 pm: Best Practices in Teaching with Data: Lessons from Research on Learning (Acrobat (PDF) 5.5MB Oct11 15) - Carol

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• SERC Site Guide: Teaching with Current Research and Data
• Teaching with Data and Teaching with Data in Introductory Courses, from the Pedagogy in Action project
• Using Data in the Classroom, from NSDL and On the Cutting Edge
• GeoPRISMS
• GETSI

Monday, October 12

From 6:00 am on: Complimentary breakfast at the Northfield Country Inn

Participants meet at Carleton College's Alumni Guest House

8:30 Workshop overview and agenda - Carol

8:45 Teams explore the Neotoma database and brainstorm teaching activity ideas

Each team will develop a list of questions they could have students explore using the database, relevant to their area of expertise (mammals, insects, pollen, ostracodes). Towards the end of this session, each team will choose their three favorite research questions around which they could design a teaching activity for their students. For each "research question," the team will describe why the question is important, in what course(s) they envision using the activity, and how they will motivate their students to be interested in the question.

10:00 Coffee break

10:15 Gallery Walk: teaching activity ideas

Each team will put each of their 3 favorite research questions on a poster-sized post-it note. Each poster will also describe the significance of the question, the courses they plan to use it in, and their plans for motivating student interest, but will have plenty of room for comments. Teams will review each other's posters in a quick "gallery walk."

10:45 Designing an Effective Teaching Activity (Acrobat (PDF) 1.5MB Oct11 15) - Carol

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Checklist for designing an effective teaching activity

Examples of teaching activities that incorporate student exploration of data

• Investigating Earthquakes: GIS Mapping and Analysis
• In Search of GLOBE Data
• Climate History from Deep Sea Sediments
• Ice Core Exercise

11:00 Development of Learning Goals

Teams choose one of their teaching activity ideas to flesh out and develop learning goals for it. These will include both content goals (knowledge of paleoecological principles, for example) and skills goals (e.g. ability to analyze spatial data sets).

11:30 Round Robin Report-out

Each team shares which teaching activity it has chosen and the learning goals they've developed for it.

12:00 Lunch – Carleton College, Language and Dining Center

1:15-4:30 Work time to develop teaching activities (with a coffee break at 3:00)

Teams develop a teaching activity that all members of the team plan to use in at least one of their classes before the end of the academic year (spring, 2016) and iteratively review the checklist for designing an effective teaching activity.

5:00 Show and Tell: Each team does a brief demo of their activity

6:00 pm Dinner

Small groups can assemble for dinner; there's a list of local restaurants in walking distance in your folder. Reminder: the shuttles will leave from the AGH tomorrow; check out and bring your luggage with you in the morning. Are there people with cars who can transport luggage?

Evening Hours: On your own

8:00 pm: Froggy Bottoms Reprise (optional, of course)

Tuesday, October 13

From 6:00 am on: Complimentary breakfast at the Northfield Country Inn

Participants meet at Carleton College's Alumni Guest House

8:30 am Work time to finish drafting activities and put them on the SERC website

Each team drafts the teaching activity web page for the SERC website. (This is how other faculty will be able to find and access the activities developed, once you are ready to share them with the public.)

10:00 Coffee break

10:15 Activity Test-Drive

Teams exchange teaching activities and test-drive them.

11:30 Teams meet to exchange feedback on each other's activities

12:00 Lunch – Carleton College, Language and Dining Center

1:15 Planning next steps

Teams will answer the following questions (in this document (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 54kB Oct8 15)), then upload their answers.

• How will your team make any needed revisions to the activity? Set responsibilities and a timeline for completion.
• What assessment data and reflections will each team member provide to the Neotoma leadership team, to guide activity revisions in the spring or summer of 2016? How will you get those data to your team leader? Will you need IRB clearance to collect those data?
• How will each of you help disseminate the teaching activities developed here to the paleoecology education community?

2:15 Wrap up and end of workshop survey

2:30 Adjourn