Why are feedback loops difficult to teach and learn? part of Earth and Mind:Posts
Although the feedback loop concept has strong explanatory power, a number of cognitive and practical problems can make it hard to teach and learn. Practical problems include: use of the terms "positive" ...

Reinforcing feedback loops power effective communities of practice part of Earth and Mind:Posts
A "community of practice" is "a group of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." Effective communities of practice ...

Curriculum by Design part of Earth and Mind:Posts
The Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, recently implemented a top to bottom revision of its curriculum. We are a department that encompasses both geology and geography, and we have degree ...

Put a Little ART in your EARTH Science part of Earth and Mind:Posts
C.P. Snow famously wrote about "The Two Cultures"[1]—that great divide between the sciences and humanities. Snow argued that the inability of scientists/engineers and scholars of the arts/humanities to ...

"Telling Lies to Children" part of Earth and Mind:Posts
Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett and colleagues have characterized much of education as "telling lies to children." This post looks at which kinds of lies (aka simplifications) are more or less unacceptable ...

A Curriculum by Design Part II: Student Learning Outcomes and Program Assessment part of Earth and Mind:Posts
In an earlier blogpost (A Curriculum by Design) I outlined the philosophy and process we used in the Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, to revise our undergraduate curriculum. This continuing ...

The second law of thermodynamics as a unifying theme of geosciences part of Earth and Mind:Posts
Many major earth processes have a net effect of redistributing energy spatially from areas of high concentration towards areas of lower concentration. Examples include the global atmospheric circulation, ...

Going Negative on "Negative Feedback" part of Earth and Mind:Posts
The terms "negative feedback" and "positive feedback" are used in earth system science for processes that push systems towards equilibrium or towards extremes. But in popular culture and other ...

More Hypothesis Templates part of Earth and Mind:Posts
The author suggests "hypothesis templates" for the observation that (a) two phenomena co-occur in space, and (b) an object or group of objects have a distinctive shape. "Hypothesis templates" ...

Was "Voyage of the Mimi" Effective? part of Earth and Mind:Posts
Author recalls her own involvement with the "Voyage of the Mimi" educational TV series, cites positive and negative (anecdotal) evidence of its effectiveness, and invites reader to reflect on the question ...