Getting Help from Course Management Software to Teach a Large-enrollment Introductory Geology Class

This article deals with utilizing the Internet as a medium for empowering learning and course management of on-campus classes using the enterprise-wide software system WebCT, which has proven to be very useful in managing a large introductory geology class. The author presents the results of her students' learning experience with WebCT. The article also provides a simple tutorial on how to create an Internet-enhanced course in less than a day using WebCT and with no prior knowledge of HTML language or FTP procedures. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Pattern of first and last appearance in diatoms: Oceanic circulation and the position of polar fronts during the Cenozoic

First and last occurrences of 389 diatom species from the first global Cenozoic record are used to reconstruct the position of major oceanographic boundaries. First appearances and extinctions group in three latitudinal bands: middle to high northern latitudes, equatorial region, and high southern latitudes. Sparse Paleogene occurrences were limited to southern high latitudes along the equivalent of the modern Antarctic polar front. Its late middle Eocene to middle Miocene position varied within 10°, and within a 20° band from middle Miocene to present, suggesting an association with global cooling. First and last occurrence events appear in the two remaining latitudinal regions during the Eocene and increase in a stepwise fashion, mimicking significant cooling events. At about 16 Ma, first and last appearances shift from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. Low-latitude data suggest low surface water productivity prior to 40 Ma, while increased abundance from the middle Miocene correlates with expansion of the east Antarctic Ice Sheet

The Significance of Geologic Time: Cultural, Educational, and Economic Frameworks

The discovery of geologic time revolutionized scientific thinking and led to the development of the modern Earth sciences. Less appreciated, however, is the fact that geologic time has had far-reaching cultural and societal consequences that go well beyond its founding influence upon the geosciences. This essay summarizes the literature describing the difficulties students encounter in understanding deep time, provides an overview of the historical development and cultural relevance of deep time, and suggests ways to increase students’ understanding of the significance of geologic time

Earth Wind & Fire: A Learning Community Approach to Build Ties Between Degree Programs in a Geoscience Department

We describe the components of a learning community program for meteorology, geology, and Earth Science undergraduates in a geoscience department. The learning community provides the students with opportunities to interact with each other and with faculty, and it helps them in the transition from high school to a large public university. Enrollment data show that, in addition to being a successful community-building approach, the learning community has a positive impact in major retention to the programs and is well received by the students

Assessment in Online Learning: It’s a Matter of Time

Taking online courses is becoming a more common part of the college experience, but very little is known about student behaviors and strategies related to online assessment. This article reviews how students in an online Earth and Space Science course interact with various online assessments. Our two main findings are that our students do not use self-assessment tools effectively, and time spent on online exams is surprisingly short. We discuss how the use of selfassessment tools can probably be improved through careful online course design, but the short time spent on online exams is partially due to the nature of the online environment itself. We make a number of design suggestions that can encourage good test-taking strategies in the online environment

Attitude toward Learning Science of Students in Introductory Geology Courses

Research into attitudes in science focuses largely on determining if certain instruction methods affect student attitude and there is a broad range of opinions as to what attitude means and how to study it. We have analyzed the attitude of students enrolled into two introductory geology classes with the goal to test if demographic factors and success in the class play a significant role in determining students attitude towards science and learning science. A pre-test and a post-test Likert-type attitude questionnaire were administered to two introductory Geology classes at Iowa State University during the Autumn semester 2002. Results were analyzed for statistically significant relationships between attitude, gender, major and final grade. The results show that male students, science, math and technology majors, and students who successfully passed the class have a better attitude towards learning science

Quantifying the Level of Inquiry in a Reformed Introductory Geology Lab Course

As part of a campus-wide effort to transform introductory science courses to be more engaging and more accurately convey the excitement of discovery in science, the curriculum of an introductory physical geology lab course was redesigned. What had been a series of “cookbook” lab activities was transformed into a sequence of activities based on scientific inquiry and cooperative learning. The first two semesters were spent developing and implementing the new lab activities, and two more semesters were spent refining them. In the second semester of each of these two phases, students enrolled in the lab completed a 15-question version of the Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI; Libarkin and Anderson, 2005); there were significant improvements from pretest to posttest scores. Student evaluations before and after the reform are not significantly different and overall positive. This paper presents an overview of the lab activities in the new curriculum, a detailed analysis of the type and level of inquiry in each lab, and the assessment of the impact on student learning

Diagnostic Testing of Introductory Geology Students

A diagnostic test for assessing the general and Earth science knowledge of entry-level college students was administered to 451 students in 2002 and 401 students in 2003 enrolled in an introductory geology course at Iowa State University. The study shows that male students, seniors, and science-technology-math majors score higher than female students, freshmen, and non-science-technology-math majors and that the differences are statistically significant. Also, students who scored higher on the diagnostic test were more likely to pass the course. The results support the feasibility of a standardized diagnostic test as a tool for geoscience instructors for curriculum planning, student advising, and curriculum assessment, similar to standardized diagnostic testing and pre-post testing used in chemistry and physics courses. Standardized national tests would enhance college geoscience education

Web-based student response systems and peer instruction: a review and case study

Cooperative learning and peer instruction are well documented pedagogies that engage students in their learning process. The means to implement cooperative learning in the classroom have evolved from raised hands, colored flashcards, student response systems or “clickers”, to web-based audience response systems that work on any electronic device. This paper briefly reviews available audience response systems and presents a case study on Learning Catalytics, a system designed to enable peer instruction and implement just-in-time teaching pedagogy

Understanding Atmospheric Carbon Budgets: Teaching Students Conservation of Mass

In this paper we describe student use of a series of connected online problem-solving activities to remediate atmospheric carbon budget misconceptions held by undergraduate university students. In particular, activities were designed to address a common misconception about conservation of mass when students assume a simplistic, direct relationship between atmospheric CO2 concentrations and carbon emissions. This particular misconception was challenged through an instructional intervention applying constructivist learning theory principles in an effort to prompt cognitive dissonance and induce conceptual change. This study is based on 1 y of data collected from a survey completed by introductory physical geology students (n = 176), divided into a control group (n = 127) and an experimental group (n = 49). The students in the experimental group worked on an instructional intervention targeting identified misconceptions during a laboratory session. Both the control group and the experimental group were presented information targeting the same misconception through a traditional lecture. Students completing the instructional intervention demonstrated significant increases in learning and reductions of misconceptions relative to students in the control group. However, some aspects of the misconceptions seemed to persist