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We present a mixed-methods approach to community-based assessment design that engages tribal college and university faculty, students, and science educators, as well as experts in cultural knowledge from the Blackfeet and Dine (Navajo) nations. Information from cultural experts, gathered through a combination of sequential surveys and focus group sessions, was analyzed to identify important themes with regard to assessment and geoscience content within the context of these communities. While experts use a variety of assessment approaches in their classrooms, only pre- and posttesting and portfolios were found to be most valuable. Experts indicated that the primary role of assessment was to monitor student progress, steer instruction, and prepare students for success; thus, assessment should be tied to the course goals. Experts differed on their views regarding sources of bias in testing, but overall they agreed that test language and content were both strong sources of bias. They indicated that input on assessment would help to incorporate local context and provide a mechanism for combating bias. Surveys completed by tribal college faculty and Native American students from Blackfeet Community College (BCC) and Arizona State University (ASU) provided information on the themes of geoscience, native science, place, and culture. Participants provided a variety of examples of important geoscience concepts that focused on (1) traditional geoscience concepts (e.g., the composition of Earth materials), (2) Earth system concepts (e.g., the environment and ecosystems), and (3) interactions between native culture and geoscience (e.g., incorporation of native language in science curriculum). Combined, these data offer the basis for developing place-based and culturally informed geoscience assessments by revealing geoscience content that is important to the local community. To aid in assessment design, one-on-one interviews with tribal college faculty and science educators, as well as students from BCC and ASU, provided specific feedback on the question validity of select items from an existing instrument: the Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI). Emergent themes from the interview transcripts address assessment content, language, and format and reference school science, cultural knowledge, physical places, and connections to the local landscape (e.g., sense of place). Together, these data (1) address the validity of the GCI as a standardized assessment measure in these student populations and (2) provide the basis for developing open-ended assessment questions and concept inventory-like questions that incorporate this feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the efforts taken for better definition, implementation and assessment of place-based approaches for the geosciences teaching.

To motivate student learning, the affective domain - emotion, attitude, and motivation - must be engaged. We propose a model that is specific to the geosciences with theoretical components of motivation and emotion from the field of educational psychology, and a term we are proposing, "connections with Earth" based on research in the fields of environ- mental education and art education. When all three of these components (motivation, emotion, and connections with Earth) are combined in the classroom, students may experience greater interest in and connection to the content. This interest and connection may lead to greater motivation to learn and value the content. We use our model to evaluate three practices in geoscience education and show that their demonstrated success in achieving student learning lies in the attention to students' affective needs as well as to delivery of content. We propose a future research agenda using currently developed, validated instruments that can measure these motivational and attitudinal shifts to determine what practices work best for our students from both cognitive and affective perspectives. Although this was conducted in both Europe and the United States, the implications of this research may extend across cultures and nationalities. Additional research needs to be conducted to understand these implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Trail of Time exhibition under construction at Grand Canyon National Park is the world's largest geoscience exhibition at one of the world's grandest geologic landscapes. It is a 2-km-long interpretive walking timeline trail that leverages Grand Canyon vistas and rocks to guide visitors to ponder, explore, and understand the magnitude of geologic time and the stories encoded by Grand Canyon rock layers and landscapes. As one of a new generation of geoscience education exhibits, the Trail of Time targets multiple cognitive and affective levels with accurate content, active geoscience inquiry and interpretation, and place-based cultural integration. It developed as an outgrowth of sustained geoscience research funded by the National Science Foundation, with scientists as the conceivers and coordinators of the project. It benefits from a high level of synergy with the National Park Service interpretation division, as well as extensive on-site and off-site evaluation of pedagogic effectiveness in the outdoor informal science environment. The Trail of Time will impact many of the five million annual visitors to the National Park. Associated cognitive research on public understanding of "deep time" offers opportunities to inform more effective geoscience pedagogy for informal and formal educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We recast a standard igneous petrology course at Fort Lewis College into a field-based, inquiry-driven research course focused on a specific field area, in this case the Tertiary volcanic complex at Ship Rock, Navajo Nation, New Mexico. The main goal was to allow undergraduate students an opportunity to use field work to investigate advanced topics in igneous petrology while engaging in scientific research and developing important skills that are needed for all careers in science. Constructing research projects around this class enabled students to learn science by doing it, and to carry enthusiasm for research into further studies. This also better served the needs of the Geoscience program at Fort Lewis College by further developing skills for critical analysis and inquiry, and building on content taught in the introductory petrology course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elementary, middle, and secondary school teachers may experience considerable unease when teaching evolution in the context of the Earth or life sciences (Griffith and Brem, in press). Many factors may contribute to their discomfort, including personal conceptualizations of the evolutionary process - especially human evolution, the most controversial aspect of evolutionary theory. Knowing more about the mental representations of an evolutionary process could help researchers to understand the challenges educators face in addressing scientific principles. These insights could inform educators of alternative methods in providing support and assistance. In this study, we examined pre-service teachers' conceptual representations of an evolutionary process through their personal narratives of evolution for an imaginary humanoid species on a far-off planet. The imaginary creature participants described tended to resemble humans in both form and evolutionary history. The narratives had a tendency to link evolutionary changes with social and moral consequences. Those whose narratives closely paralleled human evolution also seemed to have difficulty envisioning evolutionary changes that would take the species past current human development and into their evolutionary future. The connection among social and moral issues, evolution, and difficulties envisioning the future may provide important clues into pre-service teachers' conceptualizations of human evolution. Addressing personal barriers and misunderstandings that might impede geoscience education may become an effective tool for teaching scientific principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Places are localities given meaning by human experiences in them. Sense of place refers to a set of meanings of and attachments to places that are held by individuals or by groups. The cultures and educational philosophies of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples reflect rich senses of the places that make up their traditional homelands. However, sense of place does not manifest itself in proportionate enrollments in undergraduate geoscience by American Indians and Alaska Natives. This is because mainstream geoscience teaching emphasizes global syntheses over exploration and in-depth understanding of places that have prior meaning for Indigenous students, and may even depict such places in culturally-inappropriate ways. Many teachers and researchers with experience in Native educational systems recommend a greater emphasis on the study of local places, synthesis of local cultural knowledge, and community-directed activities in science education. Such a "place-based" approach is used by a small number of school systems, nearly all outside of Native communities. Place-based geoscience teaching could potentially enhance science literacy among American Indian, Alaska Native, and other underrepresented minority students, and bring more of them into the geoscience profession. However, this hypothesis has not yet been rigorously tested. Empirical and descriptive studies of place attachment and meaning among different student populations, and clearer definition of place-based teaching, are prerequisite to more authentic place-based geoscience courses and programs. Five characteristics of place-based geoscience teaching are identified here and illustrated with suggestions for implementation in diverse educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Features the recipients of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) and the Geological Society of America (GSA) awards. Retired professor John B. Southard, winner of NAGT 2001 Neil Miner Award; Author Sarah Andrews, winner of NAGT 2001 James H. Shea Award; Professor Eric B. Grosfils, winner of GSA 2001 Biggs Award for Excellence in Earth Science Teaching; Professor Kennard Bork, winner of the NAGT 2000 Neil Miner Award.

Discusses the introductory earth sciences education at the Navajo Community College, Shiprock, Navajo Nation, New Mexico. Description of the Navajo model of natural systems; Application of the model to the course; Earth systems framework; Dynamic equilibrium in the Earth and `Dine systems analysis.'

Focuses on the National Association of Geoscience Teachers-sponsored symposium `Geoscience Education in Native American Communities,' during the 1996 Geological Society of America Rocky Mountain sectional meeting in Rapid City, South Dakota. Importance of geoscience education; Topics of the symposium.