Hannah Scherer

Unit 1: Impacts of Land Use part of A Growing Concern
In this introductory unit, students will learn about the fundamental role of observation by viewing photographs of both agricultural and non-agricultural (natural) landscapes and making independent observations. ...

Unit 2: Soil Characteristics and Their Relationship to Land Use Practices part of A Growing Concern
In a hands-on exploration, students will learn to describe and quantify the porosity and permeability of soil models representative of both agricultural and natural environments. Students will use this information ...

Unit 3: Natural and Agricultural Erosion Rates part of A Growing Concern
Students will identify their perceptions of erosion by examining images of mountain and agricultural landscapes and discussing which environment is more erosive. They will use geospatial figures to compare erosion ...

Unit 4: Using SoilWebTMto Investigate the Soil Beneath You part of A Growing Concern
Students will use SoilWeb™, a smartphone and web application that pulls detailed soil survey data from both the 1:24,0000 Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO) and the 1:250,000 scale State Soil Geographic ...

Unit 5: Predicting the Effects of Climate Change on Soil Loss part of A Growing Concern
Students will investigate how the factors that influence erosion work together to produce an overall erosion rate. In agricultural areas, these factors are rainfall-runoff erosivity, soil erodibility, slope ...

Unit 6: Creating an Agricultural "Fact Sheet" part of A Growing Concern
For a given region, students will use what they have learned about the interdisciplinary problem of soil sustainability to make recommendations for agricultural practices in response to potential changes in ...

Interdisciplinary coteaching as a model for faculty development part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
Modern post-secondary faculty are increasingly challenged to implement student-centered pedagogy in their classrooms. The lack of training to do this is a considerable hurdle that must be addressed. We implemented ...

Building a Strong Collaborative Team: Factors for Success part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Abstracts
The sustainability of humanity is dependent on managing geologic resources including: water, soil, and mineral resources. The InTeGrate Project addresses this through building earth literacy for undergraduates and ...

The Sustainability Scholars Program: Early Successes from the Pilot Year part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2019:Program:Poster Sessions:Friday
The Sustainability Scholars Program is a structured undergraduate academic experience focused on issues of sustainability in the food, agricultural, natural resources and/or human sciences (FANH). Experiential ...

Building a National Collaborative for Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW): Insights from a National Conference part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
Institutions of higher education must take a leading role in preparing all global citizens for the food, energy, and water (FEW) challenges of today and tomorrow. The Food-Energy-Water Nexus concept has emerged as ...

Student Learning of Complex Earth Systems: A Model to Guide Development of Student Expertise in Problem Solving part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2017:Program:Poster Sessions:Wednesday
Engaging students in authentic problem solving concerning environmental issues in near surface complex earth systems involves both developing student conceptualization of the earth as a system and applying that ...

Education in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: A Transdisciplinary Community part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2017:Program:Oral Sessions:Wednesday A
Institutions of higher education must take a leading role in preparing all global citizens for the food, energy, and water (FEW) challenges of today and tomorrow. The Food-Energy-Water Nexus concept has emerged as ...

Conceptual Frameworks of Earth Systems: A Synthesis of Literature Addressing Student Learning of Complex Earth Systems part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2017:Program:Oral Sessions:Wednesday B
The importance of an earth systems approach to education has been well documented for K-12 science education, geoscience literacy, and geoscience workforce expertise. Inherent in this approach is the idea of ...

Student Learning of Complex Earth Systems, Part II: Student Engagement in Problem Solving & Decision Making About Environmental Issues part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Oral Sessions:Wednesday A
Engaging students in authentic problem solving concerning environmental issues in near surface complex earth systems involves both developing student conceptualization of the earth as a system and applying that ...

Student Learning of Complex Earth Systems, Part I: Conceptual Frameworks of Earth Systems and Instructional Design part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Poster Sessions:Tuesday
Engaging students in authentic problem solving concerning environmental issues in near surface complex earth systems involves both developing student conceptualization of the earth as a system and applying that ...

Adapting geoscience materials for introductory biology courses using the Faculty Mentoring Network part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Oral Sessions:Monday B
InTeGrate and the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES) project have partnered to support the adaptation of these geoscience modules into introductory biology courses. The modules all ...

Using Conceptual Frameworks of Earth Systems to Frame Future Directions in Systems Thinking Research part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program:Morning Workshops:Using Conceptual Frameworks of Earth Systems to Frame Future Directions in Systems Thinking Research
Systems thinking is a fundamental geocompetency and developing student conceptualization of the Earth as a system is key to issues facing society. Additionally, systems thinking is a major topic for geoscience ...

Unpredictable path with strong mentoring part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Morning Workshops:GER:Idea Papers
Hannah Scherer, Virginia Tech My interest in Geoscience Education Research stems from my long-standing interest in teaching and learning, particularly in the geosciences. My involvement in teaching-related ...

Developing Systems Thinking part of Rendezvous 2015:Program:Mini Workshops:Systems Thinking
Many of the challenges we now face require complex solutions that cross disciplinary boundaries and take into account multiple perspectives. How do we as educators prepare students to think in this way? ...

Town Hall part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2018:Program
The town hall will allow us to collectively reflect on the lessons we learned as a community at the Rendezvous, and to address any opportunities we see for collective action or impact. Sponsored by NAGT's ...

Town Hall part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2017:Program
The town hall will allow us to collectively reflect on the lessons we learned as a community at the Rendezvous, and to address any opportunities we see for collective action or impact. Don't forget to tell us ...

Building Community in your Online Course: Strategies for getting students to work together part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2017:Program:Roundtable Discussions
Facilitating peer learning and building community in online courses represents a fundamental component of student engagement and success in online learning. In this roundtable discussion, we will share examples of ...

Bridging the Research to Practice Gap part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2017:Program:Afternoon Mini Workshops
Researchers are currently developing new knowledge about how students think and learn, evaluating the effectiveness of instructional strategies, and studying many other topics that can strengthen our teaching. But ...

Teaching Systems Thinking part of Integrate:For Team Members:Info for Materials Developers:Developing Effective InTeGrate Teaching Materials
This page was developed by Hannah Scherer, Virginia Tech Jump down to: Strengthening Systems Thinking in your Course | Classroom activity/ course design ideas You probably already teach about systems, but do your ...