Initial Publication Date: January 9, 2025

Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus: Using the TIDeS modules in Intro to Geology I (Physical)

Darryl Reano, Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus

Why I Revised My Course

About the Course

Intro to Geology I (Physical)

Level: The students in this course are primarily non-majors. They often take this course to satisfy an introductory science course requirement. However, this requirement usually includes a lab section, which is not a part of this course (it is taught separately by a different instructor).
Size: 111 students
Format: Two 75-minute "lecture" sessions

Show Course Description

Course Description and Purpose:
Our goal is to help you become familiar with and understand the internal and external geologic processes that have shaped Earth through time. At the end of this course, you will be able to connect how geological processes and earth materials impact society and your everyday life. This knowledge could be useful in some of your future personal, financial, and professional decisions (e.g. where to live to avoid geohazards, societal value for earth materials, etc.). As part of this course, we will analyze the basic principles of mineral and rock formation, as well as the effects of volcanoes, earthquakes, weather and climate change.

Course Objectives:
- Build a basic understanding on the geological processes shaping the structure, composition, and landscapes of planet Earth today and through geological time and relate that knowledge to the various geological hazards affecting human populations around the world.

- Discover the interconnections between the solid Earth, Earth's climate, the ocean, and the evolution of life through 4.5 billion years of Earth's history.

- Identify basic geological materials that build our planet, understand their geologic histories, and understand their use in modern society. In addition, students will gain basic knowledge of the geological factors controlling the formation and distribution of minerals, energy, and water resources.

GLG 101 syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 258kB Jan8 25)

A major change for this large enrollment course was that I asked students to work in small groups (5-10 people). In previous iterations of the course, most assignments were completed individually. In addition, I had more opportunities during my lectures for students to discuss posed questions with their neighbors. For most of the TIDES modules we also had dedicated group work time, when students were expected to complete a handout by the end of class to demonstrate attendance and that they completed the activity. Students were given instructions at the beginning of class and we also talked through the instructions prior to students beginning the activity. It often worked better to help students engage in investigation and design once they were in their groups, rather than as a whole class discussion (students were often hesitant to contribute in front of the entire class).

When asked what was most valuable to them about the course, a couple students responded on the course evaluation "the interactive assignments".

My Experience Teaching with TIDeS Materials

In my experience, implementing the TIDES modules was somewhat difficult. I should have probably introduced only a couple units of new activities rather than trying to implement too many new things into my course. I also think that the classroom I teach in (amphitheater style with tiered seating) was not conducive to group work or for me to visit different groups in order to supervise and/or give feedback. This was a major challenge during my implementation of the TIDES modules.

A Unit-by-Unit Breakdown of How I Taught this Module

Unit Breakdown

Unit 1

Unit 1 (Earth and Physical Science) was pretty easy to implement as-is. I did come up with my own list of materials

Unit 2

Unit 2 (Earth Science). It would have definitely helped to break students into groups before class and give them the materials for each jigsaw activity beforehand so that they could become familiar with it before class. There wasn't enough time for them to read the handouts and become comfortable with the content knowledge during the 75-minute class.

Unit 3

Unit 3 (Physical Science) The students really seemed to enjoy learning about the Atomic Models, but there needed to be some explanation of the visualizations and differences between models, especially for students that hadn't had another science course yet.
Unit 3.6 (Physical Science) We ended up trying to have students model faults and folds specifically on different days. Students tended to focus on folds right away because the materials were easily shaped into folds, but they had a harder time recognizing how to manipulate the materials to show faulting. It helped to assign them specific geomorphologic features to replicate from their readings and then explain how the material properties allow for the structural features to be created.

Unit 4

Unit 4.1 (Physical Science)- I should have used the Phet simulations. However, I did not have enough time to show the simulations and also give a brief overview of distance, acceleration, and velocity. Overall, this sub-unit was likely extraneous for the level of students in this course.

Assessments

Unfortunately, the students often did not have enough time to complete the entire assignment for any of the units. Therefore, I graded mostly on participation and gave the students a stopping point on the assignment. If they completed the assignment up to the stopping point, they were generally given full credit. It was clear that some students understood how the concepts from the book translated to the in-class activities (TIDES module activities), but many students admitted on the course evaluation that they didn't understand the relevance of the TIDES module activities to the book chapter readings. In the past, students were given multiple-choice assignments that were due each week (taken online outside of class time and graded automatically). The TIDES modules replaced these activities, which meant a lot more grading time for the single TA and I. The students often had to be reminded to use full sentences in their responses which seemed to help in the later part of the semester for assessing student understanding.

Outcomes

Originally, I had hoped that the TIDES modules would readily reinforce the textbook readings I assigned to students. In my mind, the activities seemed to correlate very well with the book. However, students did not seem to agree with this perception. I also hoped that the TIDES modules would create more interest and engagement with geology concepts. This did seem to happen albeit at a smaller scale (fewer students) than I had hoped. The TIDES modules did seem to work well with some students but the vast majority of students did not like the modules, often for non-academic reasons (e.g., they don't like group work). In this way, I think we did achieve this goal of creating more interest in geology, but I don't think the impact is as large as I would have hoped.

See more Instructor Stories »