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Steven Semken
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus
Steven (Steve) Semken, President's Professor of Geology and Education in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, is an ethnogeologist and geoscience-education researcher whose work encompasses research on place-based and culturally bridging geoscience teaching methods, geological heritage, virtual field geology education, and the geological evolution of southwestern North America. A graduate of MIT and UCLA, Steve began his career on the faculty at Diné College, the Tribal College of the Navajo Nation, before he joined ASU. Steve and his students work in geologically and culturally diverse places in southwestern North America and Latin America, in collaboration with Indigenous and Latina/o colleagues and communities.
Steve's research informs his teaching, and vice versa; he uses place-based, culturally bridging methods to foster student interest in geoscience and catalyze active learning. He teaches ASU courses in regional geology of Arizona and the Southwest, in Earth-system history, in field geology, and in evidence-based teaching methods for Earth and space science. He regularly offers talks and field trips for public outreach in National and State Parks in Arizona and the Southwest. He is a co-creator of the award-winning Trail of Time at Grand Canyon. Steve also teaches geology to the public for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU and at Yavapai College in the Verde Valley.
Steve is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a Past-President and former Distinguished Speaker of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.Steve was appointed an ASU President's Professor in 2025. He received the 2014-2015 Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching Award in Natural Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. He was also recognized with the highest awards for science teaching at Diné College in 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1995; and with the Goodwin Medal, the highest award for graduate teaching assistants at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1985.
Project Leader
Keyah Math Project part of Keyah Math
The Keyah Math Project has developed a series of versatile online activities in mathematical geoscience, using the natural and cultural landscapes of the Southwest United States as context and setting.
Website Content Contributions
Activities (2)
Power Source part of Energy:Energy Activities
In this lesson-opening activity, students or groups are tasked to make concept sketches that track the source of electrical power as far back as they can conceive. The concept sketches reveal students' prior ...
Learn more about this review process.
Multiple temporal scales of landscapes and landforms part of Rates and Time:Teaching Activities
This exercise provides students with a timescale and list of geomorphic landforms and processes. The activity requires that students utilize their knowledge of process-driving mechanisms to place landforms and ...
Course (1)
Earth Science in Arizona and the Southwest part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences:Courses
ESAS is a place-based course in which students apply Earth system sciences to interpret the rocks, landscapes, geologic history, climate, resources, and natural hazards of Arizona and the surrounding ...
Essays (4)
Copper Triangle Pilot Project: Enhancing Opportunities for Geoscience Studies and Careers in a Culturally Diverse, Underserved Rural Mining Area part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Broadening Access to the Earth and Environmental Sciences:Essays
An essay page detailing the Copper Triangle Pilot Project, an NSF-funded initiative developing a sustainable, place-based pathway in geoscience education and careers for underrepresented minority students in a rural Arizona mining region through academic partnerships, community engagement, and culturally informed curriculum.
Conference Presentations (6)
Geology, Society, and Justice: An undergraduate and graduate level place-based geoscience class to recenter land justice in geoscience education part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2024:Program:Poster Sessions:Monday Poster Session
Geoscience education has long been guided by formulaic objective truth-seeking and methodologies inherited from centuries of practice rooted in the Western worldview that continues to permeate and shape the role of ...
Other Contributions (12)
B.A. in Earth and Environmental Studies, Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus part of Strong Geoscience Departments:Degree Programs:Curriculum Profiles
A curriculum profile page for Arizona State University's B.A. in Earth and Environmental Studies, detailing program design, learning goals, course sequencing, capstone requirements, and alumni career outcomes within the context of liberal arts-focused geoscience education.
Communities
Far Western Section, Geoscience Education Research Division
July 2021 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2020
July 2020 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2018
July 2018 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2017
July 2017 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2016
July 2016 Advocacy Interest Group
EarthConnections Interest
GETSI Community
NAGT All
NAGT Past Presidents
Teach the Earth
Humans' Dependence on Earth's Mineral Resources Interest Group
Ice Mass and Sea Level Change Change interest Group
NAGT Webinar Series Interest
Teaching Materials Interest Group
Earth Educators' Rendezvous Interest Group
Workshop Leader (5 workshops)
February 2014Teaching About Time Workshop 2012
February 2012Career Prep Workshop 2010
July 2010
Workshop Participant (28 workshops)
July 2020 EER 2020 Teaching Online
July 2020 Place, Cultural Context, and Geoscience
July 2017
Webinar Leader
November 2020Climate and Energy Webinar April, 2011
April 2011