T242 New Strategies for Teaching Mineralogy, Petrology, Geochemistry, and Volcanology (MPVG) to Geoscience Majors and General Education Students (Posters)

Wednesday, 7 November 2012
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Hall B

INTEGRATING GALLERY WALKS AND WIKIS TO EXTEND THE ACTIVE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

Paper number: T242-15
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Authors

  • John Hogan Presenting Author
    Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO
  • Dan Cernusca
    Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO

Abstract

Teaching strategies (e.g., Gallery Walks) are available for creating an active learning environment within the classroom. In a “Gallery Walk” several students spend ~5-8 min on a problem presented on a large Post-it note and write their contribution to the solution using a color-coded marker. A bell sounds, they move to solve the next problem, and continue until they return to the original Post-it note. Each group then presents a verbal summary of the solution to the class. Problems typically require students to apply skills and concepts previously presented in lecture or they can be considerably more challenging, pushing students to apply previously mastered skills/concepts in a novel way to solve a problem they have not seen before. Examples of each type of question will be presented. Gallery Walks offer many advantages towards student learning (cooperative learning, peer assessment, practice on a variety of problems and tasks, etc.) and assessment as faculty can readily observe student’s understanding of material and provide formative feedback in a lower stress environment than formal exams.

Gallery Walks create a dynamic but transient learning environment that evaporates as everyone leaves at the end of class. Did students have enough time to fully appreciate each problem? To what extent will they retain information for their problem and for all the other problems they briefly faced? How can the information contained on each of the Post-it notes be made readily accessible to students after the exercise ends? To mitigate these concerns, the active learning environment can be extended beyond the classroom with the implementation of a course Wiki. Separate Wiki entries are created for each Gallery Walk problem. Student groups populate their entry with material from their Post-It Note as well as additional sources. Using a rubric each group evaluates two other entries - the results are compiled and shared with the class. Examples of Wiki entries and evaluations will be presented. An anonymous end of the course exit survey indicates students perceived Gallery Walks as a significantly more involving out-of-the-norm classroom activity, while Wikis were perceived more as an out-of-class extension of typical course activities. Students’ open-ended feedback indicated both tools enhanced learning.