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Getting the most out of your
introductory courses
Workshop at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union
December 16, 2014
Conveners: Anne Egger and Dave Dempsey
One of a series of workshops on
Teaching Introductory Geoscience in the 21st Century
Why Anne is here
• San Juan College
– Science Gen Ed that wasn’t biology or
chemistry
– Very low basic skills
• Stanford University
– Desperately trying to recruit into the major
– Serve needs of engineering programs
• Central Washington University
– Gen Ed and recruitment
– Pre-service teachers a large part of the
audience
Why Dave is here
• No good deed goes unpunished
• He has been on the front lines of revising and updating introductory courses at SFSU
• He brought the clickers…
Why are you here?(Choose one answer)
I would like to…
a. …improve my own introductory course
b. …improve my department’s introductory
course offerings
c. …learn more about teaching in general
d. …do something other than go to talks and
posters
Why you’re here: Themes from SWOT analyses
• You strive for relevance
• You want to engage your students
• You want to incorporate active learning strategies
• You want to recruit students into your department
Goals for this workshop I:
On the Cutting Edge and NAGT
• Help you get the most out of your introductory course(s) by making them better
• Learn more about what resources you need to be successful in improving your courses
Goals for this workshop II:
What we hope to accomplish
• Analyze your introductory
course(s) in its context of
your own institution;
• Share and discuss
effective strategies for
introductory courses;
• Explore recently developed web resources and
successful strategies for introductory courses;
• Develop an action plan for making change
beyond the workshop.
What’s in your 21st century toolbox for
you as a scientist?
• Google Earth: easy access to imagery
and maps of the entire world. From my
desk.
• Lidar: High-resolution topography for
incredibly detailed mapping and
analysis.
• Skype, Google Hangout: Free tools that
facilitate collaboration.
• Data, data, data, data
What’s in your 21st century toolbox for
you as a teacher?
• Lots of research on learning to inform what I do in the classroom
• Easy access to web and data to engage students
• Easy access to web to share resources with other faculty and instructors
• Learning technologies
• Critical issues facing society: lots of teachable moments
Plan for the day
• Discuss some background, guiding
documents, and the research on learning
• Revisit the SWOT analysis: big group,
individuals, small groups
• A parable of progress
• Work time to develop an action plan
Guiding documents: The literacies
Background and guiding documents
Background and guiding documents
Background and guiding documents
Guiding documents: The standards
Background and guiding documents
Key themes
• Emphasis on human interactions with Earth
– How Earth affects us (hazards, climate)
– How we affect Earth (sustainability, climate)
• Emphasis on engaging in the process of science
– Science and engineering practices and learning by doing
– Techniques and tools that Earth scientists use
Why does this matter for us in post-secondary
education?
Background and guiding documents
Some statistics
• In 2011, 103,992 students obtained Bachelor’s
degrees in education in the US (compared to
4671 in geosciences)
• About 60% of those degrees were in elementary
education
• As of 2002, 83% of practicing elementary
teachers had at least 1 semester course in
Earth science
– Better than chemistry (53%) and physics (62%)…
– …but not as good as life science (92%)
• But perhaps even more important…
Background and guiding documents
54% had ONE course
It could have been yours!
Background and guiding documents
Our introductory and general
education courses better be really
good:
They may be the only opportunity that
future teachers and citizens have to
learn about Earth.
Background and guiding documents
How do we make them really good?
• Approach teaching with the same rigor
as scientific research.
• Use “active learning strategies that to
engage students in the process of
science and teaching methods that
have been systematically tested and
shown to reach diverse students.”
Research on learning
Handelsman et al., 2004, Science
Active learning is…
a. …homework.
b. …what takes place when students
listen to a lecture.
c. …any method that engages students in
the learning process.
d. …a hands-on laboratory or field
exercise.
e. …also called kinesthetic learning.
Research on learning
Handelsman et al., 2004, Science
Active learning is…
a. …homework.
b. …what takes place when students
listen to a lecture.
c. …any method that engages students in
the learning process.
d. …a hands-on laboratory or field
exercise.
e. …also called kinesthetic learning.
Research on learning
Handelsman et al., 2004, Science
Uh oh.
Research on learning
How do I learn these tested teaching
methods that engage students in the
learning process?
Collected research on learning
Research on learning
All freely downloadable from the National Academies Press:
http://nap.edu
Key findings• Students come in to our classes with
preconceptions, not blank slates
• Students must have the opportunity to develop a conceptual framework that facilitates retrieval and builds on deep knowledge
• A metacognitive approach helps students monitor their own learning and become better learners
• Promising practices:
– Developing (and using) learning outcomes
– Engaging students in activities during class, in groups
– Organizing content in scenarios, with context
– Get and give feedback with formative assessment
Research on learning
How many active learning strategies
have we already used today?
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3
e. 4
At least two:
• Classroom response systems (aka clickers)
• Think-pair-share
Kind of a third:
• Just-in-time-teaching (JITT)
More to come:
• Gallery walk
(Does everybody else know
about these but me?)
No.
And many resources are already
developed to help you.
Research on learning
Efforts underway
Key findings about research on learning
+
Key themes in geoscience literacy
+
Resources for reaching diverse students
=
Opportunities for engaging all students
HOW CAN YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF
THESE OPPORTUNITIES?
Start by analyzing your course
Example objectives• To increase student understanding of the scientific process
and current challenges in geoscience (e.g. future energy
needs, climate change, natural hazard awareness)
• To increase awareness in applicability of science to students'
lives, regardless of their chosen field of study.
• To use learning assistants in a lab/lecture introductory
geology course to help general education students rarely take
advantage of learning resources the college provides (i.e.
tutoring, science help desk).
• To easily share course materials, teaching methods, and
course management structures from semester to semester
among an ever-changing team of instructors.
• To improve our large-lecture introductory geology class by
increasingly replacing lecture with active learning exercises.
• To increase recruitment of majors and minors.
To reach that objective…
Next steps
• As an individual, spend 15 minutes adding
to or creating your SWOT analysis
• We will create small groups by shared
objectives and class sizes
– Discuss SWOTs: sharing ideas for converting,
matching, etc.
– Post a question that you want feedback on
– Look at other groups’ questions, discuss and
offer answers/solutions
– Report out
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