Initial Publication Date: August 30, 2022

ICON Practice of Geoscience Education Commentary Final Draft

AGU Education Section Perspectives on Integrated, Coordinated, Open, and Networked (ICON) Science

A. U. Gold¹, T. Furman², R. L. Batchelor¹, R. Low³, H. Ali⁴, L. Arthurs⁵, H.H. Wang⁶, K. M. Layou⁷, K. Olson-Sawyer⁸, A. Pallant⁹, M. Chantale Damas¹⁰, D.T. Carter¹¹, K. Ryker¹² , L. E. LeMay¹³ and the ICON group

¹CIRES Education & Outreach, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309 USA; ²Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA; ³Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Arlington VA 22201 USA;
⁴Fort Hayes State University;
⁵Department of Geosciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309 USA; ⁶Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication Purdue University; ⁷Department of Geology, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Richmond, VA 23285 USA; ⁸GRACE Communications Foundation, New York, NY 10016 USA;
⁹Concord Consortium, Concord, MA 10742 USA;
¹⁰Physics Department, Queensborough Community College of the City University of NY, 225-03 56th Avenue, Bayside, NY 11364,
¹¹Department of Physical Sciences, Linn-Benton Community College, Albany, OR 97321 USA; ¹²School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 USA; 13Thomas Nelson Community College, Hampton, Virginia 23666 USA.

This group participated in the phone session(s) but did not comment on the written document. If you provide input on the final version, we are happy to add you as co-authors.
Kaatje Kraft

Corresponding authors:
Anne U. Gold (Anne.U.Gold@Colorado.edu) and Tanya Furman (furman@psu.edu)

Key Points:

Geoscience educators have embraced the ICON model
Five key challenges are identified for increasing community effectiveness
Conversations among individuals are critical to our community success

Geoscience Education Practice

Geoscience encompasses the systems of the oceans, Earth, and atmosphere and is uniquely positioned to embrace Integrated, Coordinated, Open, and Networked (ICON) principles. The geosciences are relevant to society, communities and individuals through weather, climate change, air quality, water security, resources, and natural disasters. Geoscience educators and learners employ creative and practical habits of mind (e.g., transdisciplinary thinking, big data analysis, facility with deep time and space). These attributes make geoscience education a natural pathway for engaging learners across disciplines, at all education levels, in the local community, and through both formal and informal education.

Communities of geoscience educators already use aspects of the ICON model. These include (1) freely accessible peer-reviewed teaching resources for grades K-16; (2) literacy principle documents framing big ideas for teaching Earth, ocean, climate, and polar science; (3) robust open professional development opportunities grounded in research-backed pedagogy and learner-centered techniques; (4) strong representation of geoscience content in national science education standards; (5) community framework for geoscience education research; and (6) systematic review of teaching and learning in undergraduate geoscience and related courses. The Covid-19 pandemic sparked growth in the development and sharing of resources for online education in areas deeply rooted in hands-on instruction (e.g., lab-based courses, field camp, undergraduate research experiences) and a further push in the development of simulation-based/computational modeling-based experiences, including virtual reality and immersive (online) learning opportunities.

The call for ICON commentaries provides an opportunity for us to imagine a more equitable future with greater transdisciplinarity, community engagement, and solutions-focused geoscience. We strive to broaden our understanding of who is a geoscientist, to use geoscience examples and datasets across traditional disciplinary boundaries, to enhance geoscience literacy and skills development for the workforce, and to center the experiences of people and communities in learning. Here we outline five key areas for community growth that will foster a shared identity among diverse practitioners.

Improve the Range and Accessibility of Online Resources
Geoscience educators have developed and curated high-quality, peer-reviewed resources for learners. These resources include tools for teaching through effective and meaningful engagement with geoscience topics and robust datasets. Cloudbased digital tools, like visualizations, data analysis platforms or analytical tools and open-access data repositories, allow the geoscience education community to access such resources, and virtual technology facilitates inclusive professional development for educators across the world. To expand our reach, we must create new and enhance existing networks and partnerships that value openness, including key governmental and non-governmental organizations and the private sector.
Expand Community Science
We challenge ourselves to engage with place-based and locally relevant projects that are co-created through equitable partnerships with communities and non-traditional or Indigenous and local knowledge holders or producers. Our disciplines position us to build local citizen-scientist communities of practice that connect learners to action by promoting environmental justice. Place-based projects with local or underserved communities allow for meaningful and engaging work and present opportunities to improve the quality of life for all. This work can succeed through partnerships with groups already active in this space.
Increase Exposure to the Geosciences Through Teaching and Mentoring
There are many pathways into the geosciences, so broadening the exposure of learners across all educational settings is a critical component of success. Within the US, we encourage and support the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which promote scientific inquiry and recognize the importance of geoscience skills and thinking to the overall growth of an informed society. We encourage collaboration among geoscience teachers and allies from social science, humanities, and STEM fields in K-12, higher education, and informal learning contexts. Mentoring efforts for and by educators in the middle grades, high school, college and established geoscientists will strengthen our connections, support career development, and build our teams. We identified a need for increased networking opportunities and infrastructure.
Address Workforce Opportunities and Challenges
Geoscience skills and understandings are highly relevant to community workforce needs. We embrace the braided river career development model (Batchelor et al., 2021) and recommend highlighting career opportunities as part of K-20 geoscience instruction. Key examples include flexible Associate's degrees and certifications developed in partnership with local industry (a strength of our two-year college networks), internships, and research experience programs. All resources should be shared and adapted for local demands to improve career readiness and to meet local workforce demands.

Crosscutting Theme -- Improve Inclusion and Belonging

The culture within the geosciences must change to become more welcoming and inclusive for all individuals. This shift can begin via open discussions of systemic bias (e.g., URGE), the application of universal design principles in curriculum development, and increased safety protocols during fieldwork (Hill et al., 2021). The hard work does not end with a conversation but rather requires focused action and commitment. Our community can become more inclusive by promoting culturally relevant learning, supporting diverse sense-making, developing virtual internships that reduce financial and place-based barriers to participation, working to bridge silos of language and accessibility, connecting with families, and incorporating environmental justice into education resources and teaching.

We recognize through our conversations that the most important element to our shared success is the investment of time to build human connections, share resources, and develop networks. These efforts take time and emotional energy, but without them, we will not achieve our potential. The marriage between both top-down and grassroots efforts has been the strength of our community, and we call upon one another to be agents of change as we move forward.

References

Batchelor, R. L., H. Ali, K. G. Gardner-Vandy, A. U. Gold, J. A. MacKinnon, and P. M. Asher (2021), Reimagining STEM workforce development as a braided river, Eos, 102, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EO157277. Published on 19 April 2021.

Hill, A. F., M. Jacquemart, A. U. Gold, and K. Tiampo (2021), Changing the culture of fieldwork in the geosciences, Eos, 102, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EO158013. Published on 06 May 2021.

Show ICON Practice of Geoscience Education Key Points - Draft

ICON Practice of Geoscience Education Key Points - Draft

The geosciences are uniquely relevant to students' lives (e.g., climate change, natural resources, hazards, water security) and employ creative and practical habits of mind (e.g., transdisciplinary thinking, big data analysis, facility with deep time and space). Many career opportunities exist in the geosciences with academic, vocational and industry opportunities that allow for various career paths, entry into the geosciences at all stages of the career and application of skills and training in different contexts. Thus, learners can enter the geosciences through various pathways, the braided river career development model illustrates the multitude of avenues into the field (Batchelor et al., 2021). Geoscience education and careers offer students an option to choose a profession in which they tackle important societal challenges (e.g., climate change, natural hazards, pollution).

Geoscience education has a long tradition of using aspects of the ICON model. This approach is exemplified by the community development of (1) freely accessible and peer-reviewed teaching resources for grades K-16[, (2) development of big ideas in teaching about critical geoscience topics (Literacy principle documents: Earth Science, Ocean Science, Climate, Polar) (3) robust open professional development opportunities grounded in active learning techniques, (4) engagement in shaping the development of the science education standards (5) the development of a community framework for geoscience education research, and (6) periodic collection and analysis of data on teaching and learning in undergraduate geoscience courses across the United States.

The recent pandemic sparked growth in development and sharing of community resources for online education in areas strongly rooted in hands-on instruction (e.g., mineralogy, field camp) and a further push in the development of virtual reality experiences and immersive learning opportunities for all grade levels and informal learning.

The call for ICON commentaries provides an opportunity for Earth and Space Science Educators to imagine a broader, deeper and more equitable future together. Here we outline five key areas of opportunity for community growth that will foster a shared identity among diverse practitioners.

1. Improve Accessibility to Online Resources

Geoscience educators have developed and curated numerous compendia of excellent peer-reviewed resources that are available free of charge for learners at all levels. These resources are tools for educators to teach science through effective and meaningful engagement with Geoscience topics and data sets for formal and informal education. Infusing Geosciences in other subjects and disciplines allows for meaningful transdisciplinary learning of the complex systems that comprise the Geosciences; for example, mathematics education can take advantage of big data and interesting, real-world questions that require analyses, social studies can draw the connections between Geoscience topics and societal impact. There are opportunities to expand our reach through inclusive learning resources for nontraditional students and diverse learners and highlight the need to address inequities in the ways in which natural disasters or climate change impacts communities. Using modern digital tools allows to make access to such resources easier and virtual technology can easily be used to facilitate inclusive professional development for educators in all parts of the world.

2. Expand Community Science

We challenge our community to engage with place-based and locally relevant projects that are co-created through equitable partnerships with communities and non-traditional or underrepresented knowledge holders. Our disciplines position us to build local citizen-scientist communities of practice that connect students and other learners to action through promoting environmental justice. Place-based work allows for meaningful and engaging work within communities and present opportunities to improve the quality of life for all. This work can succeed through partnerships with groups already active in this space, including Thriving Earth Exchange, CLEAN, SERC, and AGU Voices for Science.

3. Increase Exposure Through Teaching and Mentoring

There are many pathways into the Geosciences, so broadening exposure in educational settings is a critical component of success. Within the US, we encourage and support adoption and incorporation of the NGSS, which mimic the scientific inquiry process in its three-dimensional learning approach and recognize the importance of geoscience skills and thinking to overall growth of an informed society. We encourage collaboration among geoscience teachers and allies from social science, humanities, and STEM fields in K-12 settings, 2- and 4-year colleges and universities. Mentoring efforts in the middle grades, in high school, in college and even for established geoscientists will strengthen our connections and build our teams.

4. Address Workforce Opportunities and Challenges

Geoscience skills and understandings are highly relevant to the workforce needs of many communities. Our community should embrace the braided river model that highlights the many pathways into the STEM workforce and careers (see Batchelor et al., 2021). We recommend that identification and highlighting of career skills, opportunities and pathways be scaffolded across the teaching spectrum from elementary grades through graduate work. We note that practical career resources and a diversity of pathways to technical certification could be widely shared across institutions and adapted for local relevancy to improve the career readiness across our field. Flexible Associates degrees developed in partnership with local industries could become a strength of two-year college networks and their international equivalents.

Crosscutting Theme -- Improve Inclusion and Belonging --

It is imperative that the culture within our discipline changes to becoming welcoming and inclusive for a wide variety of people (see for example Ali et al., 2021). Learning and culture shift can be achieved through raising awareness within schools, departments and the workforce (e.g., URGE, Geo-context) and increased preparation and training of the next generation of scientists as they prepare for field work (Hill et al., 2021) or engage in computer-based Geoscience[AG6] . Further, the community has the opportunity to take action that include increasing culturally relevant service learning opportunities, developing virtual internships that reduce financial and place-based barriers to participation, connecting with families, and incorporating cultural relevancy and environmental justice into educational resources and teaching. Implicit in this approach is the recognition that field-based research is one of many entry points into the domain; data science, laboratory work, and service learning are all integral to the discipline.

These five areas highlight directions for collaborative growth for geoscience educators in all settings. We recognized through our conversations that the most important element to our shared success is the investment of time to build human connections and to share resources. These efforts take time and emotional energy, but without them we will not achieve our potential. The marriage between both top-down and grassroots efforts has been the strength of our community, and we call upon one another to be agents of change as we move forward.

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