Reed A. Schwimmer Geological and Marine Sciences First-Year Experience Faculty Development Day August 21, 2006 Redesigning GEO-100 Earth Systems Science

Reed A. SchwimmerGeological and Marine

Sciences

First-Year ExperienceFaculty Development Day

August 21, 2006

Redesigning GEO-100Earth Systems Science

How are coursesHow are coursescommonly designed?commonly designed?

• Make list of content items important to coverage of the field

• Develop syllabus by organizing items into topical outline

• Flesh out topical items in lectures, discussions, labs

• Test knowledge learned in course

On the Cutting EdgeProfessional Development for Geoscience Faculty

What’s missing?

• Articulation of what your students need

• Articulation of goals beyond content/ coverage goals

• Deliberate consideration of strategies to achieve goals beyond content goals

• Plan for evaluation of success


An alternative goals-based approach

• Brings same kind of introspection, intellectual rigor, systematic documentation, and evaluation to teaching that each of us brings to our research

• Really shakes the tree and designs the course from the bottom up

• Assessment falls out naturally


Step 1: Context and audience

The course design process begins with answering the following:

• Who are my students?• What do they need?• Can’t set goals effectively until these

questions are answered• What are the constraints and support

structure?


• Freshmen to seniors

• Science and non-science majors

• Course is a requirement or elective

• Not active learners; they haven’t been taught how to learn

GEO-100 Audience

Step 2: Develop overarching goal(s)

• Teaching is commonly viewed as being teacher-centered

• Commonly reinforced by how we phrase course goals: “I want to expose my students to….” or “I want to teach my students that…” or “I want to show students that…”


Instead…goals can be student-centered

• “At the end of this course, students will be able to…”

• What do you want the students to be able to DO at the end of the semester?

• This focuses beyond the semester – what value has the course added to student lives, abilities, and skill sets?


So you don’t want students to…

list… explain… calculate…

identify… describe… know about…

recognize… paraphrase… prepare…


Instead, you want to facilitate higher-order

thinking tasks

derive… predict… analyze…

design… interpret… synthesize…

formulate… evaluate… create…


1. Students will be able to derive the relationships between process and product.

2. Students will be able to synthesize the interactions between different Earth systems (e.g., lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere).

GEO-100 Overall goals

From these goals, course content can then be selected

• Choose broad content topics that will help you achieve your goals.

• Then for each topic, select content items that you want the student to master.

• “How will you give students practice in doing…”

• You don’t need to cover “everything.”


• Chapters are arranged around specific Chapters are arranged around specific topics, not the connecting processestopics, not the connecting processes

• Each chapter is treated as a separate Each chapter is treated as a separate entityentity

• Not organized to emphasize these Not organized to emphasize these connectionsconnections

The problem with textbooks

Example of table of contents from anEarth science textbook

• Develop the overall goal(s) early and keep focusing on it throughout the course.

• Use concept maps to illustrate the interrelationships within this goal.

• Have students demonstrate their understanding by creating concept maps.

One solution…

1.1. Connecting concepts and terms within a Connecting concepts and terms within a topic (within a chapter)topic (within a chapter)

2.2. Connecting concepts between topics Connecting concepts between topics (across chapters)(across chapters)

3.3. Connecting concepts to the overarching Connecting concepts to the overarching goal (generally not done in textbooks)goal (generally not done in textbooks)

Three levels of concept maps

warm cool

WINDWINDAIR PRESSUREAIR PRESSUREDIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES

HIGH LOW

RISING OR FALLINGRISING OR FALLINGAIR MASSESAIR MASSES

HL

SURFACE AIR TEMPSURFACE AIR TEMP

AIR DENSITY CHANGES

SUNLIGHT ANGLESUNLIGHT ANGLEAND DURATIONAND DURATION

SEASONSsummer winter

TILT OF EARTH’S AXISTILT OF EARTH’S AXISASTRONOMICALASTRONOMICALPROCESSESPROCESSES

• SHAPE OF ORBIT• TILT ANGLE• AXIS WOBBLE

WINDWIND

AIR PRESSUREAIR PRESSUREDIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES

HIGH LOW

warm cool


HL


AIR DENSITY CHANGES


SEASONSsummer winter

TILT OF EARTH’S AXISTILT OF EARTH’S AXIS

ASTRONOMICALASTRONOMICALPROCESSESPROCESSES

• SHAPE OF ORBIT• TILT ANGLE• AXIS WOBBLE

Option 1 – Students arrange topics into a flowchart.Option 1 – Students arrange topics into a flowchart.

warm

WINDWINDAIR PRESSUREAIR PRESSUREDIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES

HIGH LOW


HL



SEASONS

summer winter


Option 2 – Students describe the connections.Option 2 – Students describe the connections.

AIR DENSITY CHANGES

TILT OFEARTH’SAXIS

SHAPE OF ORBIT TILT ANGLE

AXIS WOBBLE

HEAT ENERGY CONC.

KINETIC ACTIVITYCONCENTRATION

EQUILIBRIUMDIFFUSION

WINDWIND

AIR PRESSUREAIR PRESSUREDIFFERENCESDIFFERENCES



AIR DENSITY CHANGES


SEASONS

TILT OF EARTH’S AXIS


Option 3 – Students create their own flow chart.Option 3 – Students create their own flow chart.

Concept

SHAPE OF ORBIT TILT ANGLE

AXIS WOBBLE

HEAT ENERGY CONC.

KINETIC ACTIVITYCONCENTRATION

EQUILIBRIUMDIFFUSION

Connections

Final thoughts…

• As you enter a classroom, ask yourself this question: “If there were no students in the classroom, could I do what I am planning to do?” If the answer is yes, don’t do it. General Ruben Cubero, Dean of the

Faculty, United States Air Force Academy(Novak et al., 1999, Just-in-Time Teaching)


• If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

• Same goes for teaching. If the only tool in your teaching toolbox is lecturing, then….

Documents

Reed A. Schwimmer Geological and Marine Sciences First-Year Experience Faculty Development Day August 21, 2006 Redesigning GEO-100 Earth Systems Science