January 2005 Journal of Geoscience Education

We propose that a learner-centered environment (LCE) is particularly suitable for Earth System Science (ESS) learning due to the nature of the knowledge and research environment that characterizes the field. We show how the principal characteristics of LCE effectively provide learners with motivation and opportunity to understanding this complex area of scientific inquiry.

We describe a course that supports learning the science of global change and address the human aspects of global change through the development and negotiation of an international environmental agreement. Students play the roles of country representatives and participate in activities such as writings, class discussions, presentations and negotiations. Rubrics developed for each activity are used both to assess student learning and to communicate feedback to students about their work.

Our study suggests that the adoption of a LCE enhanced student learning of content and critical skills. The frequent student presentations were found to play a major role in student learning. The rubrics served as scaffolding for knowledge construction, helped students to self-assess and maintain their quality of work, and allowed instructors to provide quick and efficient feedback. The development of basic learner-centered tools and teaching practices will help ESS instructors provide learning environments most suitable for their discipline.

Student conceptual understanding and conceptual change is an active area of research in many science disciplines. In the geosciences, alternative conceptions held by students, particularly college students, are not well documented or understood. To further this body of research, students enrolled in introductory science courses at four institutions completed 265 open-ended questionnaires and participated in 105 interviews. Data were collected at a small private university, two large state schools, and one small public liberal arts college. Students were probed on a variety of topics related to the Earth's crust and interior, as well as geologic time. Analysis of questionnaire and interview responses indicates that students hold a number of non-scientific ideas about the Earth. Additionally, students apply a range of ontological categories to geologic phenomena, with significant implications for teaching geosciences from a systems perspective.

The environmental science curriculum at the University of Washington, Tacoma (UWT) is based on an experiential learning model that enhances undergraduate education by involving students in ongoing research projects that extend beyond the classroom into the broader scientific community. Nontraditional student learning is especially enriched by access to unique hands-on field experiences that foster a sense of scientific ownership. During the summers of 2001 and 2002, undergraduate students from UWT participated in two very different marine research courses designed by environmental science faculty. By comparing these two course designs, we have identified two primary issues of importance when setting up a field research program at sea. First, learning outcomes are dependent on the platform chosen for the research cruise, and thus the vessel to be used must be considered when designing a curricular model. Second, planning and implementation considerations need to be addressed regardless of the platform chosen. Planning challenges include early advertising, minimizing costs, and scheduling for nontraditional students; while implementation considerations include research group configurations and the structure of the post-cruise working environment.

Supernova explosions are so enormous that their scale is difficult to imagine. Thought experiments and simple calculations involving the Sun going supernova can help with visualization. The energy flux would be roughly equivalent to having the entire earth's nuclear arsenal detonated a kilometer away, and would be sufficient to boil away the surface at hundreds of meters per second. Even on the temporarily protected night side, scattered light in the atmosphere and light reflected from interplanetary dust would far exceed normal sunlight, and radiation reflected from the moon would heat the earth to lethal temperatures if the moon were near full. The earth would take at most a few days to vaporize. Fortunately, the sun is not massive enough to become a supernova. Supernova explosions occur only in short lived stars, so that the melancholy science fiction theme of a civilization being incinerated by its own sun is very unlikely to happen in reality.

The Community Review System (CRS) of the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) is intended to help educators seeking excellent and appropriate digital resources, and resource creators seeking recognition. The CRS gathers web-based feedback from educators and learners who have used DLESE educational resources, plus specialist reviews by science and pedagogy experts. This information is used to identify exemplary resources to be showcased in the DLESE Reviewed Collection. Detailed, but anonymous, feedback is provided to the resource creator to encourage improvement of the resource. To help potential users of the resource decide whether (and how) to use the resource, we also web-disseminate four kinds of aggregated information from the review process: Teaching Tips, recommendations about whether the resource is effective with specific learner populations, a graphic summary of the quantitative feedback from the community reviews, and an Editor's summary.

This note offers a new tool for indirect stream velocity estimation: the transparent velocity-head rod (TVHR). When compared to the commercially available Price-type AA current meter, the TVHR dramatically reduces the time necessary for each velocity measurement. The TVHR is simple to build, far less expensive than a high quality current meter, and typically precise within 5%. The TVHR is an outgrowth of the older tool of indirect velocity estimation known as the velocity-head rod (VHR). The VHR, although simple, contains measurement difficulties that make its use inaccurate and somewhat unwieldy. The TVHR is a simple construction of transparent plastic and hardwood meter sticks. It allows simultaneous measurement of upstream superelevated water and depressed downstream water elevation created when the rod is placed into flowing water. The difference between these water height measurements can be used to predict the depth-averaged flow velocity using a simple, physically-based equation empirically calibrated for this particular design. In a field environment the TVHR is rugged, lightweight, and simple enough to allow velocity measurements to be made very rapidly on site. In a classroom environment the TVHR can be used to teach physical energy concepts, calibration techniques, design, and sampling theory.

In 1950, J. P. Guilford, the President of the American Psychological Association, gave a speech often identified as initiating national interest in creativity in which he asked researchers to find the promise of creativity in our children and to investigate enhancement of the development of the creative personality. Fifty years later, Yager (2000) called for the knowledge accumulated during the ensuing years of inquiry to be applied to science education.

This article briefly explores different aspects of creativity, and then examines K-12 teachers' reactions to exercises applied to earth science concepts in a graduate creativity class. Different types of puzzle activities centering on geoscience content include a quiz game based on Odyssey of the Mind spontaneous problems, and other exercises related to embedded words, transformed cliché