T61 Iris Moreno Totten Research in Geoscience Education Session

Sunday, 22 September 2024
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
208B

LINKING CONCEPTIONS OF BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING TO EARTH SYSTEMS THINKING SKILLS

Paper number: T61-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:50 PM – 2:05 PM

Authors

Abstract

Research has shown the highest level of understanding in the geosciences to be the ability to think about the Earth as a dynamic system. Biogeochemical cycles, such as the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous cycles, are fundamental constructs linking all components of the Earth system. As these cycles link the major spheres of the Earth system through the movement of matter and energy, they provide a valuable tool to give insight into undergraduate students’ systems thinking abilities. This talk will overview how qualitative and quantitative methods can be used to probe undergraduate students’ systems thinking skills by examining their conceptions of major biogeochemical cycles and provide a framework for assessing Earth systems thinking skills and biogeochemistry content knowledge. Through analysis of undergraduate interviews and drawings of major biogeochemical cycles, students’ systems thinking abilities were probed, which led to the development of concept inventories to enable future research. This talk with synthesize the work of several studies employing qualitative and quantitative methods to explore connections between biogeochemistry content knowledge and systems thinking and how this work led to the creation and validation of two concept inventories.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 56, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2024AM-401878

© Copyright 2024 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.