ED21D:
Understanding Learning Processes in Geoscience Classrooms: New Tools and Insights Posters


Session ID#: 8546

Session Description:
Key requirements for a successful undergraduate geoscience curriculum include conceptualization of interrelated earth processes acting over very large and across multiple spatiotemporal scales, visual representation and interpretation of processes and quantities, spatial thinking, historical approach to problem enunciation and retrospective scientific thinking. The session will focus broadly on technology and classroom interventions geared toward understanding of student difficulties in any of the above areas. Borrowing from the learning sciences, we will look at a spectrum of studies that use cutting-edge technologies (such as, eye tracking, galvanic skin conductance, EEG and fMRI) to understand learning processes. We will also look at studies using traditional assessment techniques and novel curricular interventions to measure and improve geoscience learning in undergraduate classrooms. This session solicits studies that identify one or more concepts or abilities (e.g., deep time, spatial thinking, visual representation) and discuss novel ways to improve or assess student understanding in those areas.
Primary Convener:  Ritayan Mitra, North Carolina State University Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, United States
Convener:  Karen McNeal, North Carolina State University at Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, United States
Chairs:  Karen McNeal, Auburn University, Geosciences, Auburn, United States and Rachel Atkins, North Carolina State University Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Ritayan Mitra, North Carolina State University Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, United States
Index Terms:

0820 Curriculum and laboratory design [EDUCATION]
0840 Evaluation and assessment [EDUCATION]
0845 Instructional tools [EDUCATION]
0850 Geoscience education research [EDUCATION]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Teaching Spatial Thinking in Undergraduate Geology Courses Using Tools and Strategies from Cognitive Science Research (Invited) (60426)
Carol J Ormand1,2, Thomas F. Shipley3, Barbara L Dutrow4, Laurel B Goodwin1, Thomas A Hickson5, Basil Tikoff6, Kinnari Atit7, Kristin Michod Gagnier7 and Ilyse Resnick8, (1)Univ Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States, (2)Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College, Northfield, MN, United States, (3)Temple University, Psychology, Philadelphia, PA, United States, (4)Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, United States, (5)University of St Thomas, St. Paul, MN, United States, (6)Univ Wisconsin, Madison, United States, (7)Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States, (8)University of Delaware, School of Education, Newark, DE, United States
An analysis of TA-Student Interaction and the Development of Concepts in 3-d Space Through Language, Objects, and Gesture in a College-level Geoscience Laboratory (63120)
Seth Lawrence King, Pennsylvania State University Main Campus, University Park, PA, United States
Expert and Novice Approaches to Using Graphs: Evidence from Eye-Track Experiments (Invited) (72178)
Karl R Wirth and James M Lindgren, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN, United States
PIXELS: Using field-based learning to investigate students’ concepts of pixels and sense of scale (78721)
Allen Pope, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, CO, United States, Laura Tinigin, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, United States, Heather L Petcovic, Western Michigan University, Geological & Environmental Sciences, and the Mallinson Institute for Science Education, Kalamazoo, MI, United States, Carol J Ormand, Carleton College, Northfield, MN, United States and Nicole LaDue, Northern Illinois University, Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, DeKalb, IL, United States
Spatial Thinking and Visualisation of Real-World Concepts using GeoMapApp (80491)
Andrew M Goodwillie, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, United States and The IEDA Team
Pupil diameter as predictor of cognitive load: A novel tool for geoscience education research (80811)
Ritayan Mitra, North Carolina State University Raleigh, Raleigh, NC, United States and Karen McNeal, Auburn University, Geosciences, Auburn, United States
Psychometric Principles in Measurement for Geoscience Education Research: A Climate Change Example (Invited) (85366)
Julie C Libarkin, Michigan State University, Earth and Environmental Sciences, East Lansing, MI, United States, Anne U Gold, University of Colorado Boulder, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Boulder, United States, Sara Ellen Harris, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Karen McNeal, Auburn University, Geosciences, Auburn, United States and Ryan Bowles, Michigan State University, Human Development and Family Studies, East Lansing, MI, United States

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