103 Balancing Tradition and Innovation: Evolving Geoscience Curricula for a Changing World (Posters)

This session examines geoscience curricula balancing traditional foundations and innovative, interdisciplinary approaches. We invite abstracts exploring how programs address evolving societal challenges while preparing students for licensure exams and diverse career pathways.

Monday, 20 October 2025
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, Hall 1

Atmospheric Science Knowledge Gain Among Pasadena City College Students Completing the CLUE Wearable Air Temperature and Humidity Sensor Curriculum

Paper number: 103-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

During Spring 2025, students in two Pasadena City College (California) introductory-level Physical Geography classes completed the Climate Literacy in Undergraduate Education (CLUE) curriculum. The central innovation of this curriculum is the collection and analysis by individual students of personal air temperature and humidity data. This data is collected with state-of-the-art wearable sensors over a two-day interval. Also, students learn about the atmosphere through 6 presentations (slide decks or short videos) and respond to related assessment prompts. To evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum, students completed pre- and post-surveys. To assess knowledge retention, they also completed an additional survey one month after completing the curriculum. For the two classes combined, there are 46 matching pre-/post-surveys and 41 matching one-month post-surveys. The surveys include 16 prompts about processes controlling ambient global temperatures, the trend in global temperature over time, the consequences of temperature change, and the local effects of microclimates. One-way ANOVA shows that there is a significant difference among the three levels of survey responses at the p<0.01 level. Tukey HSD ad hoc tests show that there is a significant (p<0.05) pre-/-post-survey knowledge gain of 1.5 out of 16 points, and a significant (p<0.01) pre-/one-month post-survey knowledge gain of 1.8 points. However, there is no statistically significant difference at the p<0.05 level between post- and one-month post-surveys. These findings show that the CLUE wearable sensor curriculum results in atmospheric science knowledge gain among community college students, and these students retain knowledge for at least one month after completing the curriculum.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-414605

© Copyright 2025 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.