Jeffrey D. Thomas

Exploring Geoscience Methods part of Exploring Geoscience Methods
This module gives pre-service secondary science teachers the opportunity to use and reflect on geoscientific thinking. The module begins with an exploration of how geoscience methods are similar to and different ...

Unit 3: Discovering Curricular Resources and Teaching Interdisciplinary Lessons that Incorporate the Methods of Geoscience part of Exploring Geoscience Methods
This unit provides pre-service teachers in methods courses with resources for teaching geoscience content and utilizing the methods of geoscience. Pre-service teachers will prepare an annotated bibliography of ...

Unit 2: Climate Change, After the Storm part of Exploring Geoscience Methods
The goal of Unit 2 is for students to apply what they learned about the methods of geoscience to complete an authentic and data-rich, lab-based activity to address the following problem: "To what extent should ...

Activity 2.1: The Issue part of Exploring Geoscience Methods
Activity 2.1 motivates and engages students through the issue of climate change in a socioscientific context. This activity first assesses students' prior knowledge and then familiarizes students with a ...

Activity 2.3: Constructing the Argument part of Exploring Geoscience Methods
In Activity 2.3, students make an argument from evidence to address the problem: "To what extent should we build or rebuild coastal communities?" Students work as a team to complete a graphic organizer. ...

Reasons for the Seasons part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Teaching the Methods of Geoscience:Activities
The inquiry method and meteorological and astronomical online data can be used to elicit the inconsistencies of students' naïve ideas about the "real" reasons for the seasons. The first phase of this two-part investigation uses online meteorological data to identify factors that might explain differences of seasonal temperatures among cities These factors are used to hypothesize why differences of seasonal temperatures occur among cities. During the second phase, the variables and hypotheses that were previously identified in part one are used to design and conduct an inquiry-oriented investigation. Astronomical data is used as part of the investigation to "test" students' hypotheses— conclusions are drawn then communicated.