T67 Digital Poster Session: Training Preservice Teachers to Apply Digital Technology across the Geoscience Curriculum (Posters)

Sunday, 25 September 2016
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Exhibit Hall E/F

TEACHING WITH ONLINE EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS IN THE GEOSCIENCE CLASSROOM: EXAMPLES FROM TEXAS AND JAMAICA

Paper number: T67-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

Four courses in which geoscience was taught in the classroom using online materials are featured. Two courses were designed for pre-service teachers. The first was piloted as part of the NSF-sponsored DIG Texas project and organized around of set of thematic teaching units, comprising curated online teaching materials. The second, Teaching About Climate With EarthLabs, was implemented as an extension to an active NSF DRL project, which included curriculum development, teacher professional development, research on student attainment, and evaluation. Both courses were listed in The University of Texas at Austin’s (UTA) Department of Geological Sciences course offering and counted toward the requirements for science majors pursuing secondary teaching certification through UTA’s UTeach program. A third course supported by a UTA collaborative teaching grant, Geoscience Through the Lens of Art, was piloted with upper level undergraduates, including pre-service teachers, by a team of three instructors—a geoscience educator, geodynamicist and an artist. The course, which used a project-based learning (PBL) approach, integrated online presentations by artists and scientists from Fall AGU Meetings and introduced students to computer-based visualization techniques developed jointly by artists and computer scientists to analyze datasets. The fourth course, Disaster Management, taught at the University of the West Indies, Mona, included a PBL assignment that encouraged students to work with mapping tools, data and educational resources available online at the IRIS, UNAVCO, EarthScope and SERC websites. Although some students initially experienced discomfort in adjusting to the different class format, instructional style, and PBL activities, they generally performed well. The poster highlights examples of student work, shares information on course design, and offers recommendations on teaching with technology based on evaluation results and experience with course delivery.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-286397

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