The document discusses a workshop aimed at helping instructors improve their introductory geoscience courses. The conveners explain why they are focused on improving intro courses, noting challenges like low student skills and recruiting majors. Participants are asked why they are attending, with most wanting relevance, engagement, and active learning strategies. Goals for the workshop include analyzing courses, sharing strategies, and developing action plans. The document discusses literature on teaching methods and how to engage students through active learning, formative assessment, and conceptual frameworks. Participants are encouraged to apply this research to analyze their courses and develop objectives and next steps.

1. Getting the most out of your
introductory courses
Workshop at the Fall Meeting of the American
Geophysical Union
December 16, 2014
Conveners: Anne Egger and Dave Dempsey
One of a series of workshops on
Teaching Introductory Geoscience in the 21st Century

2. Why Anne is here
• San Juan College
– Science Gen Ed that wasn’t biology or
chemistry
– Very low basic skills
• Stanford University
– Desperately trying to recruit into the major
– Serve needs of engineering programs
• Central Washington University
– Gen Ed and recruitment
– Pre-service teachers a large part of the

3. Why Dave is here
• No good deed goes unpunished
• He has been on the front lines of revising
and updating introductory courses at
SFSU
• He brought the clickers…

4. Why are you here?
(Choose one answer)
I would like to…
a. …improve my own introductory course
b. …improve my department’s introductory
course offerings
c. …learn more about teaching in general
d. …do something other than go to talks and
posters

5. Why you’re here:
Themes from SWOT analyses
• You strive for
relevance
• You want to engage
your students
• You want to
incorporate active
learning strategies
• You want to recruit
students into your
department

6. Goals for this workshop I:
On the Cutting Edge and NAGT
• Help you get the
most out of your
introductory
course(s) by
making them better
• Learn more about
what resources
you need to be
successful in
improving your
courses

7. Goals for this workshop II:
What we hope to accomplish
• Analyze your introductory
course(s) in its context of
your own institution;
• Share and discuss
effective strategies for
introductory courses;
• Explore recently developed web resources and
successful strategies for introductory courses;
• Develop an action plan for making change
beyond the workshop.

9. What’s in your 21st century toolbox for
you as a scientist?
• Google Earth: easy access to imagery
and maps of the entire world. From my
desk.
• Lidar: High-resolution topography for
incredibly detailed mapping and
analysis.
• Skype, Google Hangout: Free tools that
facilitate collaboration.
• Data, data, data, data

10. What’s in your 21st century toolbox for
you as a teacher?
• Lots of research on learning to inform
what I do in the classroom
• Easy access to web and data to engage
students
• Easy access to web to share resources
with other faculty and instructors
• Learning technologies
• Critical issues facing society: lots of
teachable moments

11. Plan for the day
• Discuss some background, guiding
documents, and the research on learning
• Revisit the SWOT analysis: big group,
individuals, small groups
• A parable of progress
• Work time to develop an action plan

12. Guiding documents: The literacies
Background and guiding documents

13. Background and guiding documents

14. Background and guiding documents
Guiding documents: The standards

15. Background and guiding documents

16. Key themes
• Emphasis on human interactions with Earth
– How Earth affects us (hazards, climate)
– How we affect Earth (sustainability, climate)
• Emphasis on engaging in the process of science
– Science and engineering practices and learning by doing
– Techniques and tools that Earth scientists use
Why does this matter for us in post-secondary
education?
Background and guiding documents

17. Some statistics
• In 2011, 103,992 students obtained Bachelor’s
degrees in education in the US (compared to
4671 in geosciences)
• About 60% of those degrees were in elementary
education
• As of 2002, 83% of practicing elementary
teachers had at least 1 semester course in
Earth science
– Better than chemistry (53%) and physics (62%)…
– …but not as good as life science (92%)
Background and guiding documents

18. 54% had ONE course
It could have been yours!
Background and guiding documents

19. Our introductory and general
education courses better be really
good:
They may be the only opportunity that
future teachers and citizens have to
learn about Earth.
Background and guiding documents

20. How do we make them really good?
• Approach teaching with the same rigor
as scientific research.
• Use “active learning strategies that to
engage students in the process of
science and teaching methods that
have been systematically tested and
shown to reach diverse students.”
Research on learning
Handelsman et al., 2004, Science

21. Active learning is…
a. …homework.
b. …what takes place when students
listen to a lecture.
c. …any method that engages students in
the learning process.
d. …a hands-on laboratory or field
exercise.
e. …also called kinesthetic learning.
Research on learning
Handelsman et al., 2004, Science

22. Active learning is…
a. …homework.
b. …what takes place when students
listen to a lecture.
c. …any method that engages students in
the learning process.
d. …a hands-on laboratory or field
exercise.
e. …also called kinesthetic learning.
Research on learning
Handelsman et al., 2004, Science

23. Uh oh.
Research on learning
How do I learn these tested teaching
methods that engage students in the
learning process?

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

25. 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
– Get and give feedback with formative assessment
Research on learning

26. How many active learning strategies
have we already used today?
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 3
e. 4

27. At least two:
• Classroom response systems (aka
clickers)
• Think-pair-share
Kind of a third:
• Just-in-time-teaching (JITT)
More to come:
• Gallery walk

28. (Does everybody else know
about these but me?)
No.
And many resources are already
developed to help you.

29. Research on learning

31. Efforts underway
Key findings about research on learning
+
Key themes in geoscience literacy
+
Resources for reaching diverse students
=
Opportunities for engaging all students
HOW CAN YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF
THESE OPPORTUNITIES?

32. Start by analyzing your course

33. Example objectives
• To increase student understanding of the scientific process
and current challenges in geoscience (e.g. future energy
needs, climate change, natural hazard awareness)
• To increase awareness in applicability of science to students'
lives, regardless of their chosen field of study.
• To use learning assistants in a lab/lecture introductory
geology course to help general education students rarely take
advantage of learning resources the college provides (i.e.
tutoring, science help desk).
• To easily share course materials, teaching methods, and
course management structures from semester to semester
among an ever-changing team of instructors.
• To improve our large-lecture introductory geology class by
increasingly replacing lecture with active learning exercises.
• To increase recruitment of majors and minors.

34. To reach that objective…

35. Next steps
• As an individual, spend 15 minutes adding
to or creating your SWOT analysis
• We will create small groups by shared
objectives and class sizes
– Discuss SWOTs: sharing ideas for converting,
matching, etc.
– Post a question that you want feedback on
– Look at other groups’ questions, discuss and
offer answers/solutions
– Report out