11 Geoscience Education in the Western U.S and México. Practices, Pathways, and Partnerships.

Promotes the exchange of educational practices, and collaborations between U.S.A. and México to strengthen geoscience education, fostering academic networks, pedagogical innovation, and collaborative training for students and faculty.

Wednesday, 22 April 2026
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
LMH, Deli

Designing and refining authentic data-driven lessons for variable instructional styles in introductory geoscience courses

Paper number: 11-1
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:35 PM – 1:55 PM

Authors

Abstract

We developed new introductory geoscience lessons to study student learning at varying levels of instructional reform. Our overarching research goal is to quantify the relationship between reformed teaching and student learning, making lesson design critical to the project. Initial lesson design was informed by previous NSF-funded projects (InTeGrate and TIDeS), which aimed to engage students in scientific investigations of relevant problems using authentic data. With similar goals, we developed four lessons (Critical Minerals, Landslides, Mass Extinctions, Glacial Ice) at three instructional levels (student centered (SC), transitional (Tr) and Teacher Centered (TC)). 

Instructors at four institutions piloted the initial SC lessons and identified the need for two types of revisions: 1) increase the depth of student interactions with exploration of authentic data sets and 2) deepen the geologic focus of lesson investigations. Revisions were informed by instructor reflections and assessments of student learning. RTOP and COPUS observation protocols guided subsequent revisions of lessons to Tr and TC levels of reform. Generally, SC lessons include an introduction of background information, with an investigation in which students work together more than 25% of the class period to learn about and use authentic data to solve a real-world problem (e.g. where to build homes in a landslide-prone area). Tr lessons include more instructor lecture and a few instructor-posed questions, but less time for students to discuss course material (~10% of the class period). TC lessons are dominated by lectures with few or no instructor questions and an average of 0-1 opportunities for student interactions. RTOP and COPUS observations confirm all four instructors consistently teach the newly designed lessons at the three targeted levels of reform. 

Two paired surveys measure student learning; one compares students’ responses on exam questions with their responses at the start of the semester and the second compares question responses at the start and end of class periods. Student learning also informed revisions to assessments; some questions were too easy (high pre-lesson scores), others were not well aligned with lesson content or with instructional styles (e.g. asking for rote recall of details when lessons explored big picture ideas). The final lesson plans, along with their measured impacts on learning will be shared with the geoscience community, as will guidelines for developing SC lessons.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 3

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026CD-410753

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