Using Student-Generated Concept Sketches for Learning, Teaching,

and Assessment in Structural Geology Courses

Barbara J. Tewksbury (Hamilton College)

Stephen J. Reynolds and Julia K. Johnson (Arizona State University)

How geologists use sketches and illustrations

For recording observations and ideas

For organizing knowledge

For conveying ideas to others

How geologists use sketches and illustrations

We are actively engaged in creating sketches and illustrations

They become an integral part of constructing our own knowledge and conveying knowledge to others

How do we ask students to use sketches and illustrations?

To receive knowledgewe ask students to learn from diagrams in

books

To reproduce knowledge at a rote levelwe commonly ask students to draw

labeled sketches

What do we know about how students use illustrations in textbooks?

Many students skip illustrations entirely without seeing them as more than pictures

Most students do not know how to interpret or use scientific illustrations (Lowe, 1989, 1993; Schwartz, 1993)

Many students can easily label a diagram by rote but be unable to articulate concepts

Reynolds and Jackson’s work

How to make illustrations an effective part of the learning process?

How to help students use illustrations as part of constructing knowledge?

How to make a student’s experience with illustrations more like ours?

Reynolds and Jackson’s work

Explored concept mappingStudents organize own knowledge as

network of linked concepts; demonstrable learning gains (e.g., Esiobu & Soyibo, 1995)

Argued that concept maps fail to adequately address spatial relationships important in geology

Reynolds and Jackson’s work

Developed idea of a concept sketch

Sketch or diagram concisely annotated with short statements describing processes, concepts, and interrelationships shown in the sketch

Builds on value of concept mapping

What does a concept sketch look like?

(Reynolds and Jackson, in press)

Features of a concept sketch

More than a simple labeled diagram

Combines identifying and linking key concepts while retaining spatial relationships among concepts

(Reynolds and Jackson, in press)

Reynolds and Jackson’s work

Instructor-generated diagrams Most successful for student learning if students

construct own captions Forces students to think though key features and

processes

Student-generated diagrams Students must make decisions about what to draw Forces students to think more deeply about

concepts

Reynolds and Jackson’s work

Using concept sketches In classAs homework preparation for classOn exams

My experience

Steve described idea to me at end of April last spring

I decided to try it in the field and for final project in my structural geology course

My experience

Gave one homework assignment to teach students how to do concept sketches

Students had no problem figuring out what to do

My experience

In the field, students: Made concept sketches at each outcropTook notes in concept caption form

In the lab, students:Examined samples and thin sections from

the outcrops

My experience

Assignment for final project:Create a set of concept diagrams, with a

short introduction, to illustrate the structural features and geologic history of Glens Falls/Whitehall area, with an emphasis on deformation mechanisms and causes of deformation.

Integrate field and laboratory observations.

Results

I was struck by:How natural it seemed to my students to

make concept sketchesHow much more complete their

observations and notes were in the fieldHow much I learned from reading concept

captions about what they knewHow much most of them enjoyed the

process

More information on concept sketches

TSG Resource Sitehttp://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/

structure/presentations.html Scroll down to Short Demonstration Sessions, S1B

Article in press in JGE Reynolds, Stephen J. and Jackson, Julia K., in

press, Concept sketches – using student- and instructor-generated, annotated sketches for learning, teaching, and assessment: Journal of Geoscience Education.