Sociohydrologic Systems Thinking: An Analysis of Undergraduate Students’ Operationalization and Modeling of Coupled Human-Water Systems

One of the keys to science and environmental literacy is systems thinking. Learning how to think about the interactions between systems, the far-reaching effects of a system, and the dynamic nature of systems are all critical outcomes of science learning. However, students need support to develop systems thinking skills in undergraduate geoscience classrooms. While systems thinking-focused instruction has the potential to benefit student learning, gaps exist in our understanding of students’ use of systems thinking to operationalize and model SHS, as well as their metacognitive evaluation of systems thinking. To address this need, we have designed, implemented, refined, and studied an introductory-level, interdisciplinary course focused on coupled human-water, or sociohydrologic, systems. Data for this study comes from three consecutive iterations of the course and involves student models and explanations for a socio-hydrologic issue (n = 163). To analyze this data, we counted themed features of the drawn models and applied an operationalization rubric to the written responses. Analyses of the written explanations reveal statistically-significant differences between underlying categories of systems thinking (F(5, 768) = 401.6, p \u3c 0.05). Students were best able to operationalize their systems thinking about problem identification (M = 2.22, SD = 0.73) as compared to unintended consequences (M = 1.43, SD = 1.11). Student-generated systems thinking models revealed statistically significant differences between system components, patterns, and mechanisms, F(2, 132) = 3.06, p \u3c 0.05. Students focused most strongly on system components (M = 13.54, SD = 7.15) as compared to related processes or mechanisms. Qualitative data demonstrated three types of model limitation including scope/scale, temporal, and specific components/mechanisms/patterns excluded. These findings have implications for supporting systems thinking in undergraduate geoscience classrooms, as well as insight into links between these two skills

Sociohydrologic Systems Thinking: An Analysis of Undergraduate Students’ Operationalization and Modeling of Coupled Human-Water Systems

One of the keys to science and environmental literacy is systems thinking. Learning how to think about the interactions between systems, the far-reaching effects of a system, and the dynamic nature of systems are all critical outcomes of science learning. However, students need support to develop systems thinking skills in undergraduate geoscience classrooms. While systems thinking-focused instruction has the potential to benefit student learning, gaps exist in our understanding of students’ use of systems thinking to operationalize and model SHS, as well as their metacognitive evaluation of systems thinking. To address this need, we have designed, implemented, refined, and studied an introductory-level, interdisciplinary course focused on coupled human-water, or sociohydrologic, systems. Data for this study comes from three consecutive iterations of the course and involves student models and explanations for a socio-hydrologic issue (n = 163). To analyze this data, we counted themed features of the drawn models and applied an operationalization rubric to the written responses. Analyses of the written explanations reveal statistically-significant differences between underlying categories of systems thinking (F(5, 768) = 401.6, p \u3c 0.05). Students were best able to operationalize their systems thinking about problem identification (M = 2.22, SD = 0.73) as compared to unintended consequences (M = 1.43, SD = 1.11). Student-generated systems thinking models revealed statistically significant differences between system components, patterns, and mechanisms, F(2, 132) = 3.06, p \u3c 0.05. Students focused most strongly on system components (M = 13.54, SD = 7.15) as compared to related processes or mechanisms. Qualitative data demonstrated three types of model limitation including scope/scale, temporal, and specific components/mechanisms/patterns excluded. These findings have implications for supporting systems thinking in undergraduate geoscience classrooms, as well as insight into links between these two skills

Exploring Elementary Students’ Scientific Knowledge of Agriculture Using Evidence-Centered Design

The public is more disconnected from agriculture than ever. Americans are now two to four generations removed from the farm with a majority of Americans having no direct experience in agriculture. As a result, the public lacks the knowledge and appreciation of the food, fuel, and fiber it demands. The National Agricultural Learning Objectives (NALOs) were recently developed to describe students’ agricultural knowledge but have, as yet, not been used to guide research into students’ agricultural literacy. The purpose of this project is to further understand students’ agricultural literacy through NALO-based assessment of students’ knowledge. This study focused on the NALOs in the areas of agriculture and the environment (AgE) and the STEM dimensions of agriculture (STEM) using a sequential exploratory mixed methods design. Thirty-five students participated in semi-structured interviews surrounding the NALOs. Interview data were coded and analyzed while using the evidence-centered design process to create empirically grounded assessments that were administered to a sample (n=400) of elementary students. Results suggest that students are more knowledgeable about the STEM dimensions of agriculture than the agricultural and environmental topics. Recommendations are provided to guide future research and development around the NALOs

Fostering Student Sense Making in Elementary Science Learning Environments: Elementary Teachers’ Use of Science Curriculum Materials to Promote Explanation Construction

While research has shown that elementary (K-5) students are capable of engaging in the scientific practice of explanation construction, commonly-used elementary science curriculum materials may not always afford them opportunities to do so. As a result, elementary teachers must often adapt their science curriculum materials to better support students’ explanation construction and foster student sense making. However, little research has been conducted to explore if and, if so, how and why, elementary teachers modify science curriculum materials to engage students in explanation construction. We use an embedded mixed methods research design to explore elementary teachers’ (n = 45) curricular adaptations and pedagogical reasoning. We collected and quantitatively analyzed a matched set of 121 elementary science lesson plans and video recorded lesson enactments to investigate the extent to which in-service elementary teachers engage in instruction to more productively support students’ explanation construction. Our findings suggest that the curriculum materials heavily emphasized hands-on engagement and data collection over explanation construction and that the teachers’ adaptations did not fundamentally alter scientific sense-making opportunities afforded students in the lesson plans. Interviews and other artifacts were also collected and analyzed to construct a multiple-case study of four of these elementary teachers. Findings from the case study suggest that the teachers’ conceptions of explanation construction and concerns about the abilities of their students to engage in scientific explanations impacted their curricular adaptations

Patterns of inquiry-based science instruction and student science achievement in PISA 2015

Scientific literacy is a central aim of science education. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a measure of secondary students’ scientific literacy and reported science instruction in 72 countries. Researchers have analyzed PISA data to identify important relationships between science instruction and students’ science achievement. The purpose of this study is to further explore these relationships by using PISA 2015 data from a sample of 13 participating countries representing a range of mean science achievement. We use Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to explore how students from highest- and lowest-performing profiles characterize the inquiry-based science instruction they experience. We then use cluster analysis to compare patterns in inquiry-based instruction reported by students in the highest-performing profiles in each country and examine relationships between inquiry-based and other instructional practices. Findings from our analysis reveal fundamental differences in the frequency and nature of inquiry-based instruction reported by students associated with the highest and lowest levels of science achievement. For the highest performing profiles of students, results illustrate both consistencies and unique features of science instruction students report across four distinct clusters of countries. We discuss implications of these results for theory, research, and the design of science learning environments

Supporting 3rd-grade students’ model-based explanations about groundwater: A quasi-experimental study of a curricular intervention

Scientific modelling is a key practice in which K-12 students should engage to begin developing robust conceptual understanding of natural systems, including water. However, little past research has explored primary students’ learning about groundwater, engagement in scientific modelling, and/or the ways in which teachers conceptualize and cultivate model-based science learning environments. We are engaged in a multi-year project designed to support 3rd-grade students’ formulation of model-based explanations (MBE) for hydrologic phenomenon, including groundwater, through curricular and instructional support. In this quasi-experimental comparative study of five 3rd-grade classrooms, we present findings from analysis of students’ MBE generated as part of experiencing a baseline curricular intervention (Year 1) and a modelling-enhanced curricular intervention (Year 2). Findings show that students experiencing the latter version of the unit made significant gains in both conceptual understanding and reasoning about groundwater, but that these gains varied by classroom. Overall, student gains from Year 1 to Year 2 were attributed to changes in two of the five classrooms in which students were provided additional instructional supports and scaffolds to enhance their MBE for groundwater. Within these two classrooms, the teachers enacted the Year 2 curriculum in unique ways that reflected their deeper understanding about the practices of modelling. Their enactments played a critical role in supporting students’ MBE about groundwater. Study findings contribute to research on scientific modelling in elementary science learning environments and have important implications for teachers and curriculum developers

Cultivating Water Literacy in STEM Education: Undergraduates’ Socio-Scientific Reasoning about Socio-Hydrologic Issues

Water-literate individuals effectively reason about the hydrologic concepts that underlie socio-hydrological issues (SHI), but functional water literacy also requires concomitant reasoning about the societal, non-hydrological aspects of SHI. Therefore, this study explored the potential for the socio-scientific reasoning construct (SSR), which includes consideration of the complexity of issues, the perspectives of stakeholders involved, the need for ongoing inquiry, skepticism about information sources, and the affordances of science toward the resolution of the issue, to aid undergraduates in acquiring such reasoning skills. In this fixed, embedded mixed methods study (N = 91), we found SHI to hold great potential as meaningful contexts for the development of water literacy, and that SSR is a viable and useful construct for better understanding undergraduates’ reasoning about the hydrological and non-hydrological aspects of SHI. The breadth of reasoning sources to which participants referred and the depth of the SSR they exhibited in justifying those sources varied within and between the dimensions of SSR. A number of participants’ SSR was highly limited. Implications for operationalizing, measuring, and describing undergraduate students’ SSR, as well as for supporting its development for use in research and the classroom, are discussed

Research on Teaching about Earth in the Context of Societal Problems

Knowledge and consideration of societal issues are critical for students majoring in the geosciences, as well as for non-science students and the general public who vote and make decisions that should be based on sound science. Thus, the importance of integrating geoscience with other disciplines such as urban planning, social justice, politics, communications and more has become a critical call to action for geoscience researchers and educators that merits examination. Improving undergraduate STEM education with the use of relevant issues such as societal problems is a useful mechanism to help students find science to be personally relevant and to develop their interest based on societal contexts (e.g., as is currently being done in the InTeGrate program). The grand challenges in this chapter examine the use of societal issues to teach about the Earth, which include consideration of the impact on student learning, the design principles of curricula that best integrate geoscience content within the context of societal issues, and the assessment needed to measure the efficacy of these methods

Towards water literacy: an interdisciplinary analysis of standards for teaching and learning about humans and Water

Water is critical to sustain human existence. Water literacy involves understanding the interactions within and between natural and human dimensions of water systems to support informed decision-making, an important outcome for learners of all ages. It is therefore critical to foster water literacy in today’s global citizens, particularly through formal education. The purpose of this study, in tandem with a parallel study focusing on natural dimensions of water systems (Mostacedo-Marasovic et al., in press), is to examine water-related K-12 standards for teaching and learning about human dimensions of water systems to develop a comprehensive and transdisciplinary perspective on water education. Our overarching question is, “What do disciplinary standards specify as outcomes for students’ learning about water and humans?”. Our research questions are: i) “To what extent do these water-related standards address recognized domains of learning?” and ii) “What thematic outcomes for students’ learning are apparent across grades in these water-related standards?”. We use chi-square statistics and a conventional qualitative content analysis method complemented by processes from grounded theory to analyze water-related education standards (N = 341) from 12 education-oriented, governmental and non-governmental organizations based in the United States. Our results indicate that first, water-related standards emphasize the cognitive domain, including declarative and procedural knowledge. The affective domain and its social and emotional components are much less prevalent. Second, the water-related standards illustrate five categories which encompass human dimensions of water spanning K-12 grade bands, including human settlements; the nexus between water, food, and energy; public health; impacts of human activities on water quality and quantity; and water resources management. Overall, the study contributes to a more holistic and comprehensive perspective of water and human systems that can help inform teaching and learning to cultivate water literacy, including curriculum development and classroom pedagogy