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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Data Visualization as Rorschach Test part of Earth and Mind:Posts
A single data visualization--a time series graph of global death rate--elicited three wildly different interpretations. This reminds us that (a) data interpreters bring their own priorities and domain expertise 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 ...

Data-Driven versus Concept-Driven Animations part of Earth and Mind:Posts
Author proposes that instructional animations can be usefully subdivided into concept-driven (most common) and data-driven (only a few examples available), paralleling the subdivision of static visualizations ...

Should we call on non-volunteering students? part of Earth and Mind:Posts
Author postulates that calling on non-volunteering students in class, if done carefully, can set up opportunities for the "self-explantion effect" to come into play and foster deeper, longer-lasting ...

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, ...