14 Creating Geoscience Opportunities for High School Students
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
8:00 AM - 10:30 AM
D.H. Holmes C
A SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT ON VOLCANOES TO PROMOTE CRITICAL THINKING AND EARTH SCIENCE LITERACY
Paper number: 14-2
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 8:15 AM – 8:30 AM
Authors
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Martha BraudEast Baton Rouge Parish Schools, Baton Rouge, LA
Abstract
- Each SL team met with their assigned teacher early in the semester to learn about their school/students. Each individual SL student wrote a summary of what he/she saw and learned about their school/students, and how he/she will use this information in preparing for classroom instruction.
- Each individual SL student researched and wrote a short paper on a historical volcanic eruption. The report focused on Earth Science Literacy Initiative Big Idea number 8 (humans can mitigate but not control natural hazards) as well as aspects of Big Ideas 1-4 (Understanding of Earth is continuously revised, rocks provide a record of Earth history, catastrophic process produce enormous change, Earth is a dynamic planet) and 7 (earth materials provide our resources).
- Each SL team combined their research papers and created a poster and a PowerPoint presentation to be used in their Earth Science/World Geography class. Posters and presentations were peer reviewed and revised prior to use in classrooms.
- Each SL team then used the materials developed above to teach 30 minute sessions in two Earth Science classes including questions and answers. Each individual SL student then wrote a report on the team’s activities, discussion of what he/she learned about Earth science, your community, and yourself.
SL students and teachers both regarded the experience as positive. SL students indicated they gained a deeper understanding of volcanic processes/hazards and their relationship to plate tectonics and civilization as well as improved communication skills. Teachers commented that their students benefited from a presentation on a specific historic volcanic eruption as well as the opportunity to ask SL students questions about volcanoes and the college experience.