This document provides information about a workshop on building strong courses that connect to sustainability and social justice issues. The workshop is facilitated by Sarah Fortner, Richard Gragg, and Ellen Metzger of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, and aims to help participants effectively incorporate sustainability and social justice issues into their courses through activities like backward course design. The workshop also provides information from educational research on student learning and high-impact teaching practices.

1. Building Strong Courses: Connecting
to sustainability and social justice
Workshop Facilitators:
Sarah Fortner
Richard Gragg
Ellen Metzger

2. The National Association of Geoscience
Teachers
NAGT supports a diverse, inclusive, and
thriving community of educators and education
researchers to improve teaching and learning
about the Earth.
Goals:
• To foster improvements in the teaching and
learning about Earth as a system at all
levels of formal and informal instruction;
• To emphasize the societal relevance of
geoscience and its cultural significance for
all people;
• To foster and disseminate research in
geoscience education;
• To promote the professional growth of our
members.
Building geoscience expertise and an Earth-literate
society through high-quality education
www.nagt.org

3. Workshop Goals
• Effectively incorporate high-impact
practices into your courses
• Identify sustainability and social justice
issues that are relevant for your students
and connecting with other faculty and your
local community
• Use relevant issues in teaching content to
engage diverse learners
• Use the backward design process to
(re)design a course

4. Icebreaker
• Introduce yourselves
• Within your group of three, come up with
at least three issues that relate to
sustainability and social justice that you
face in this community

5. Think-Pair-Share
• For you, what has been a significant
learning experience? Something that stuck
with you, or had a profound impact?

6. What unites these experiences?

7. Why the SWOT?
• Gets you thinking about your course in context
• Strengths: the topic, the landscape/region, class
size (small), resources
• Weaknesses: New courses have no history,
expenses textbooks, too much writing, quantitative
skills, student apathy, class size (large)
• Opportunities: semester transition, new Gen Ed
program, real-world applications
• Threats: competition, cost, student apathy, lack of
recognition of geosciences/courses, maintaining
quality with multiple instructors

8. Collected research on learning
Research on learning
All freely downloadable from the National Academies Press:
http://nap.edu

9. Key findings
• Students come in to our classes with
preconceptions, not blank slates
• Students must have the opportunity to develop a
conceptual framework that facilitates retrieval and
builds on deep knowledge
• A metacognitive approach helps students monitor
their own learning and become better learners
• Promising practices:
– Developing (and using) learning outcomes
– Engaging students in activities during class, in groups
– Organizing content in scenarios, with context
– Getting and giving feedback through formative
assessment
Research on learning

10. Research on learning

11. If you could choose one thing…
What would you want students to remember
from your course in (5, 10, 20) years?
How do we design courses that facilitate this
process?

12. List Course Topics
Design Instruction
Design Exams/Papers
Course Design
“Traditional”
Wiggins and McTighe (1998)
= instructor-centered
Typical syllabus
• Week 1: Chapter 1
• Week 2: Chapter 2
• …
Typically graded based
on
• 1-2 midterms
• Final

13. Course Design
Identify outcomes: what
you want students to
know and be able to do
Figure out how you will
know that they know
Design activities that help
them succeed
“Backward”
Wiggins and McTighe (1998)
= learner-centered
Typical syllabus
• Learning goals
• Organization of course
• …
Typically graded based
on
• Weekly assignments
• Projects

14. Backward Design
Identify Desired
Results
Determine
Acceptable
Evidence
Plan Learning
Experiences
and Instruction
Wiggins and McTighe (1998)

15. 1. Identify desired results  learning goals/outcomes
– Enduring understandings: that one thing…
– Course-level outcomes: aspirational and substantial
– Unit-level outcomes: achievable and measurable
– Goals should “bundle up”
2. Determine acceptable evidence  assessment
– Consider a wide range of assessments
– Match assessments to learning outcomes
3. Plan learning experiences
– Use instructional strategies that foster engagement
– Design activities that give students practice
Backward Design

16. Enduring understanding: What do I want my students to
remember 5 or 10 years from now?
Some of my goals
Overview
Earth science is the study of our home planet, from its origins to the way we
interact with it today. Much of what we know about Earth—its history and the
processes that shape it—comes from detailed observations at a range of
scales, from satellite images to microbes. Learning about Earth and how we
know what we know, therefore, means learning how to observe, look for
patterns, and interpret those patterns in light of the complexity of the Earth
system. As future teachers and citizens, you will find yourselves in the position
of helping others understand that complexity in the future. My primary goal
for this course is to empower you to teach Earth science by giving you the
opportunity to engage in learning Earth science through inquiry.
Example from GEOL 106 Earth Science Inquiry

17. Course-level outcomes: What should my students know
and be able to do by the end of the course?
Some of my outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to…
• Apply…
• Collect, analyze, and interpret quantitative and qualitative data to address
questions about relevant Earth science concepts.
• Apply…
• Articulate...
• Find and utilize a variety of resources to learn and communicate about
Earth science events and processes.
Example from GEOL 106 Earth Science Inquiry

18. Unit-level outcomes: What should my students know and be able
to do (and show me they can do it) by the end of an activity?
Some of my outcomes
1: Nature and methods of Earth science
• Define data, interpretation, and evidence, giving examples from the Earth
system.
• …
2: Plate tectonics and the rock cycle
• Describe the difference between a map and a cross-section and how they
are used to display data.
• Describe and explain the distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes,
topography, and age of the seafloor around the world.
• ….
Example from GEOL 106 Earth Science Inquiry
Over 10 weeks, these “bundle up” into:
• Collect, analyze, and interpret quantitative and qualitative data to address
questions about relevant Earth science concepts.

19. 1. Identify desired results  learning goals
– Enduring understandings: that one thing…
– Course-level goals: aspirational and substantial
– Unit-level goals: achievable and measurable
– Goals should “bundle up”
2. Determine acceptable evidence  assessment
– Consider a wide range of assessments
– Match assessments to learning outcomes
3. Plan learning experiences
– Use instructional strategies that foster engagement
– Design activities that give students practice
Backward Design
Now!
Shortly
Tomorrow

20. Your task
• In your table groups:
Share out about the pre-readings from &
how these might connect to course-level
goals
• Then we’ll share out as a whole group

21. Your task
• On your own:
Write an enduring understanding, at least one
course-level outcome, and at least one unit-
level outcome in your workspace
• See resources on program page for help, or
ask!
• In pairs or trios:
Talk with your neighbor(s) about your goals
and outcomes
• Then we’ll share out as a whole group

22. How to get to & edit your page
• Method 1: Go to serc.carleton.edu and log in
to your account (upper right)
• Method 2: Go to the workshop program, click
on participants (left navigation), then click on
the link next to your name
• Everyone:
– Click “Show editing controls” (upper right, red
box)
– Click “Edit this page” (top green box)
– Click anywhere in the text to start typing