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Field-based education is an integral component of undergraduate geoscience curricula and provides educational and social benefits associated with enhanced learning. But field excursions can too often end up as simple show-and-tell events and fall short of implementing effective teaching practices and achieving desired student learning gains. Moreover, logistical and economic pressures tend to discourage or create obstacles for the inclusion of field-based activities in undergraduate geoscience programs, especially in commuter-based colleges and universities. This case study shares how a one-day field trip offered at a commuter-based undergraduate campus of Indiana University was deconstructed to identify content-specific learning outcomes, and then reconstructed to a unit-based learning progression. The site-specific geologic content focused on describing and correlating outcrops of Paleozoic sedimentary strata in the Starved Rock area of Illinois. Shifting from a single-day field trip to a multi-session learning progression focused on instructional scaffolding and emphasized formative assessments that integrate cognitive learning theories including retrieval practice, elaboration, spaced practice and dual coding. Common practices of field geologists such as creating sketches of outcrops (dual-coding) were purposefully integrated as meaningful activities with opportunities for peer mentoring and reflection. Restructuring to a three-week unit included pre- and post-trip assessments to enable instructors to identify and address knowledge gaps and facilitate self-driven learning opportunities for students.

Geology is a subject of low interest for many pupils and teachers. The present study aims at examining the organizational conditions for geology education using the model of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, drawing from the national curricula. The study discusses the possible reasons for the unpopularity of the field worldwide and proposes general recommendations that would contribute to increasing interest in geoscience. The main drawbacks of geology education seem to be the large volume of required knowledge, its thematic structure, and a lack of links to real life. The Czech curriculum is vaguely and theoretically defined, placing demand on pupils, especially in the area of memorizing given information and practically pays no attention to recommended teaching methods. In contrast, the Slovak curriculum better reflects current trends. In general, it is necessary to implement continuous educational support for geology teachers and restructure the geology syllabus so that individual sub-fields are interlinked. Moreover, the learning outcome definition should include action-based education, fieldwork, experimenting, and similar elements.

The underrepresentation of people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds in geology, geophysics, and other STEM programs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is well documented in the United States. Only two universities out of about 107 HBCUs have geology and geophysics degree programs, even though there are over 400 universities in the United States that offer geology and geophysics degree programs. The low presence of these degree programs in HBCUs is a major barrier that has visible consequences. For example, Blacks and other CLD individuals are forced to be intellectually unchallenged, suppressed, and underutilized. Other consequences include low opportunities in college admission, employment, promotion, and life success. How can this problem be solved? This article addresses this question.

The undergraduate geoscience program concludes with a field-based capstone course that equips the graduating geologist with basic field-mapping abilities. However, many of the field-based geoscience programs have been temporarily halted or converted to an online version because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The South Dakota Mines created an online course to fulfill the demand for graduating seniors in the vast discipline of geoscience. Considering that this is a new way of delivering this course, it is important to understand the effectiveness of this online course. Thus, the main goal of the present study is to determine students' online learning satisfaction and its relationship with online learning self-efficacy. A total of 33 students participated in the study. Two instruments were used for this study: one for assessing online learning self-efficacy and the other for evaluating online learning satisfaction. Descriptive statistics and Pearson product correlation analysis were conducted to analyze data. The results indicated that students had high levels of self-efficacy beliefs and their learning satisfaction score was high as well. It was also found that self-efficacy to complete an online course was significantly related to learning satisfaction. Discussion of the findings and suggestions for online teaching and learning are given.

Experimentation is a contributing factor to the interest and meaningful learning of Science. In Geology and Earth Science, the effects of soil textures, settlements, and water-holding capacity are parameters for landslides in Barotac Viejo and other flooded areas. Landslides are triggered during heavy rainstorms, causing severe property damage and casualties. This experimental study aims to determine how these parameters are factors for landslides and give accurate information to Science teachers. The study uses two methods to provide ease and continuity of measurements and settings using the Fourier Transform Infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy in analyzing the soil textures. The Imhoff cone instrument is for the settling and water-holding capacity of the soil. FTIR Soil analysis reveals that contents of clay and organic matter directly affect soil water-holding ability due to the larger surface area. A landslide-prone zone has a lesser settling time except for the sand that settles fastest due to larger masses. This study is crucial for science teachers teaching geology and earth sciences besides forecasting and preventing geohydrological processes and developing better landslide warning strategies to mitigate risks and reduce socioeconomic damage.

The main objective of this study is the design and validation of an educational methodological model based on the use of immersive technological resources (Augmented Reality -- AR) to improve learning processes in secondary education science subjects (Biology and Geology). The process was developed based on three main quantitative studies: an exploratory study, a study of performance divided into three cases studies, and an attitudinal study. The information obtained was completed with a fourth qualitative study of the training of teachers who participate in educational technology. This research provides empirical evidence that allows validation of the methodological model developed to explain key concepts and to improve the level of motivation and acceptance of AR technology by students. The proposed model can induce improvements in educational processes in the field of STEAM when used with an immersive AR technological resource and an adapted digital evaluation system. It also demonstrates that teachers require specific training in connection with the creation and the adequate use of AR educational resources, and of digital evaluation systems as well. The results of this study have important implications for the field of education, demonstrating the potential of AR technology to improve learning outcomes and the need for teacher training in its use.

This article addresses the issue of ethnoknowledge, focusing precisely on ethnoeomorphology in geographic science studies. Reserved a bibliographic review on the subject and methodologically leads us to analyze the national curriculum parameters of Brazilian education around the subject. We consider the existence of popular and cultural knowledge as primary sources to be addressed in teaching and, finally, for a better interpretation of relief.

This study aims to reveal science teachers' performances in designing TPACK-based argumentation practices for teaching geology. This study used a holistic single case study design where thirty-two science teachers participated in a professional development program. All materials such as videos, etc. used by the teachers and the Pedagogical Reasoning Assessment Form (PRAF) were used as data collection tools. Descriptive analysis was conducted through the scoring rubric for lesson plans and content analysis for PRAF. Findings indicated that teachers successfully used TPACK indicators in their lessons. Findings also revealed that although teachers thought that formative assessment could be improved by learning from professional development programs, they did not use technology for assessment in their lesson plans. Related to the argumentation process, teachers tended to construct their arguments with one rebuttal, and they could not use warrants. Moreover, although teachers had high scores in the quality of claim, rebuttal, and backing respectively, they had some problems in presenting data and warrant for the claim. PRAF findings indicated that the TPACK-based Argumentation Practices Professional Development Program (TPACK-bAP PDP) enriched their lesson plans in some aspects.

Conventional letter- or number-based grading systems, though ubiquitous at all levels of education, do not optimize the learning experience. The philosophy of "ungrading" includes a variety of approaches that decenter or even remove numeric or letter scoring of student work in favor of descriptive feedback, opportunities for revision, self-assessment and reflection, and assessment toward mastery. This paper presents one of the few published descriptions of the use of ungrading approaches in geoscience courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. We showcase four approaches, detailing the courses and ungrading structures used, positive outcomes and challenges, and tools that might allow others to apply these methods. We describe (a) mastery and specifications grading, chosen to promote mastery of course materials in mid- and upper-level courses for college majors; (b) labor-based grading used to promote depth of student learning by focusing on revision; (c) collaborative grading utilizing self-assessment and reflection chosen to promote meta-cognition and growth mindset; and, (d) partial ungrading as a means to begin the ungrading process. Importantly, our experiences have led us to recognize the equity that ungrading approaches create, enabling students from different backgrounds, including students of color and disabled students, to find stronger support and build greater competence and confidence in geoscience classes.

A virtual microscope resource was created when face-to-face labs were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 to replicate the learning goals of an introductory petrology course on microscopy. This virtual microscope resource utilized images and videos of thin sections, as well as 3D rock models to allow students to complete labs online. It also incorporated directed questioning and feedback as would be provided by demonstrators (teaching assistants) in a face-to-face lab. Insights obtained from student reflective questionnaires (n = 75) were used to adapt the online resource so that it could be used in conjunction with the face-to-face lab, thus becoming a blended lab resource in the subsequent year. These reflective questionnaires were utilized again to provide feedback on the revised version of the resource for blended learning. Findings showed that students in the blended learning cohort rated the quality of the available online material higher than the previous students. The blended learning cohort appreciated the immediate feedback from the resource, as well as its ability to provide remote access to lab materials. They also gained confidence by being able to review the material multiple times online. We conclude that blended resources are a useful tool in introductory petrology which we hope to see become more commonplace in the future.

Across the landscape of higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused fundamental changes at a variety of scales. To understand which aspects of higher education instruction at the departmental (meso-scale) level were most and least impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, chairs of geoscience departments at public higher education institutions in California (n = 38) were surveyed on the pandemic's impacts on teaching in their departments, and whether those changes persisted beyond Spring 2022. The shift to online teaching was the pandemic's primary impact. The findings indicate that this shift was followed by significant direct and indirect impacts on a variety of departmental and instructional aspects, including assessment methods, course offerings, course structure and organization, enrollment, recruitment and outreach, and student learning, in both positive and negative ways. Conversely, the pandemic had relatively little impact on degree structure and course content. Key pedagogical changes include the increased use of Learning Management Systems (LMSs), non-exam assessment methods, and online and hybrid modalities. The results highlight the need for departmental and institutional support to mitigate negative effects on geoscience in-lab and in-field classes, equity and achievement gaps, graduate student needs, recruitment and outreach efforts, and department chair stress, mental health, and burnout. Continued health and resilience in geoscience departments requires that the pandemic's negative impacts be identified, studied, and addressed by departments, institutions, and professional organizations. Analyzing effects at the meso-scale is an important part of a multi-faceted, multi-scalar assessment of the pandemic's impacts on geoscience education.

A Virtual World, the "Sustainability Hub" island, was developed and widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic, to support schools with distance-learning lessons, and the new mandatory Civic Education curriculum in Italy. Using a gamification approach, students learned about Agenda 2030 and sustainability focusing especially on themes related to geosciences, e.g., global warming, overexploitation of georesources and soil, recycling of critical elements, circular economy, and environmental footprint indicators. After a preliminary test involving 58 teachers, who evaluated the activity, 650 students from four schools in different geographic areas were involved. The students were divided into two groups, one directly accessing the virtual world as avatars (group W), the other participating in a sharing-screen mode (group S). Pre- and post-activity tests and a satisfaction survey were administered to assess learning outcomes and engagement. Questionnaire data analysis revealed good content acquisition for all students, high levels of students' engagement and positive feedback. The evaluation of post- and pre-activity mean score tests highlights significant differences between the two groups, with knowledge gain for the W group being double compared to the S group (22.9 vs. 11.6). This result evidences the positive effect of virtual world activities on learning. Sustainability Hub allowed interactions between students, supporting their social needs in a time of crisis, but it can also represent a valid support to conventional teaching. The engaging environment involved students to discover the many interdisciplinary connections between geoscience and sustainability, making them aware of the central role of geoscientists in the Agenda 2030 goals.

In the Australian state of Victoria, the city of Melbourne endured the world's longest number of lockdown days, with severe government health orders and travel restrictions in place for extended periods of 2020 and 2021. In common with others, we found the provision of field teaching in introductory geology, structural geology, and volcanology, and the online replacement of practical instruction in petrology and petrography to be the greatest pedagogical challenges. We developed and used a range of different virtual field excursions that, given time and travel constraints imposed on us, were necessarily "low-tech" and non-immersive. Despite this, our students largely engaged enthusiastically with the virtual excursions, met many preexisting learning goals, and gained additional skills, particularly in regional-scale geological synthesis. In teaching petrology and petrography online, curated resources improved student understanding of some fundamental concepts, and it was advantageous that students were all assessed using identical imagery, rather than one sample from a non-identical class-set. On the other hand, we found we were less able to train students in the advanced skills of thin section interpretation. Assessment changes associated with online teaching have resulted in a permanent shift from low-level recall-style assessments to instead emphasizing higher-level synthesis and "geological thinking" skills. Our efforts throughout the pandemic demonstrated the value of instructor-student engagement and yielded teaching resources that have subsequently enhanced our face-to-face teaching and increased flexibility for students. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of collaborative teaching practice and we have increasingly seen the benefits of local and national-scale teaching networks for peer support and for resource sharing.

Virtual field experiences (VFEs) are augments to traditional fieldwork in the geosciences that are seeing increasing use in college courses. However, VFEs that are not easily located and implemented in courses by geoscience instructors have little to no value. This qualitative, descriptive study engaged five focus groups of U.S. college geoscience instructors from diverse institutions to investigate how they search for, select, and implement VFEs in their courses. Each 1-to-1.5-h focus group session of 3-7 participants was recorded on video-conferencing software and transcribed for analysis. Findings suggest that instructors consider a wide range of digital resources to be VFEs, including YouTube videos, GigaPans, photos, and websites, as well as open educational resources such as immersive virtual field trips. Instructors invest significant time to search for and adapt VFEs to meet their course needs because most available VFEs, although offering quality content, do not closely target instructors' learning goals. Instructors recognize that VFEs provide opportunities for students who may not otherwise be able to go into the field, and often find the resources they intend to use through their professional networks. Results of this study may help other instructors search for and implement VFEs more effectively, and may help VFE developers understand what instructors want from VFEs, thereby enabling them to design more flexible and adaptive resources and market their products in places more easily accessible by instructors.

Engineering projects, such as designing a solar farm that converts solar radiation shined on the Earth into electricity, engage students in addressing real-world challenges by learning and applying geoscience knowledge. To improve their designs, students benefit from frequent and informative feedback as they iterate. However, teacher attention may be limited or inadequate, both during COVID-19 and beyond. We present Aladdin, a web-based computer-aided design (CAD) platform for engineering design with a built-in artificial intelligence teaching assistant (AITA). We also present two curriculum units (Solar Energy Science and Solar Farm Design), where students explore the Sun-Earth relationship and optimize the energy output and yearly profit of a solar farm with the help of the AITA. We tested the software and curriculum units with over 100 students in two Midwestern high schools. Pre- and post-survey data showed improvements in understanding of science concepts and self-efficacy in engineering design. Pre-post analysis of design performance gains reveals that AI helped lower achievers more than higher achievers. Interviews revealed students' values and preferences when receiving feedback. Our findings suggest that AITAs may be helpful as an additional feedback mechanism for geoscience and engineering education. Future efforts should focus on improving the usability of the software and providing multiple types of feedback to promote inclusive and equitable use of AI in education.

Triggered situational interest in introductory courses can encourage student engagement, motivation, and value for the geosciences. In-person labs have traditionally played a unique role in triggering situational interest compared to lectures, but the COVID transition online disrupted these dynamics. We examine students' self-reported situational interest from 6,463 responses to weekly surveys in online introductory geoscience lab courses at five U.S. institutions during fall 2020 and spring 2021. Approximately half of students reported that labs were equally (49.4%) or more interesting (4.3%) online, compared to a hypothetical in-person option. Analysis showed a statistically-significant interaction between student situational interest and the combined effect of 1) the course the students were enrolled in and 2) the topic of the lab session (F (20, 6395) = 4.038, p < 0.001). However, topic and course together explain only about 4% of the variance in the dataset, indicating that other factors have a large role in triggering interest. Students who indicated that labs were less interesting online (46.3%) most often cited not being able to physically interact with instructional materials (56.3%) and difficulty interacting with peers (30.6%). When asked what revisions would increase their situational interest, additional hands-on interaction (22.8%) and increased relevance to their life or future career (20.2%) were the answer choices students selected most frequently. These findings identify modifications and enhancements grounded in students' self-reported interest that can inform the design of online introductory geology labs.

The sudden shift during the COVID-19 lockdown from face-to-face to online teaching clearly impacted degree programmes in Geology characterized by a substantial practical teaching methodology. This study analyses the suitability of online teaching in the degree at Geology of the University of Barcelona by: (a) describing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) from the point of view of online teaching and learning, (b) addressing two surveys to teachers and students to explore the consequences of online teaching on learning and gained competencies, and (c) analyzing pre-, syn- and post-pandemic academic results. Results show that both teachers and students value the learning resulting from online activities and the acquisition of new skills. However, some perceived that critical competencies cannot be achieved online, such as the field and laboratory work required for professional development. Moreover, students had difficulties maintaining attention and starting discussions, while instructors had difficulties properly monitoring students such as to control exam fraud, due to the lack of the necessary tools. Online teaching during the pandemic influenced instructors' grading of students and likely led to some leniency with grading, as teachers admit, consistent with the higher student grades and decrease in second-chance examinations in 2019-20. We conclude that in a potential new online or blended teaching scenario, the full acquisition of practical and communicative competencies is a key point that should be accurately managed in Earth Science degree programmes.

This study developed a VR-based mobile learning system to simulate the natural environment of a geopark for university students to learn geological knowledge. This learning method used a Google cardboard equipped with smartphones, where students can watch stereoscopic scenes and experience virtual environments as if visiting the geopark. In order to evaluate the learning effectiveness of the proposed system, we collected the learning outcomes, learning motivation, and cognitive load of students before and after the learning activity. The results indicated that students had significantly better learning achievement in their comprehension ability and learning motivation after using the proposed system. Therefore, it can be inferred that the VR-based mobile learning system not only helps students restructure knowledge and improves their comprehension skills but also enhances their learning motivation tendencies. In addition, the results showed that the students did not have high intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads but had a high germane cognitive load. This finding implies that the proposed system can promote students' learning without overloading their working memories.

This article draws from a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative research project that aimed to explore how three early childhood centres support children to experience and learn about their local area, including its stories, geology, biodiversity, and cultural meanings. The project helps children envision socioecological futures. This article focuses on one of the research settings that participated in this study, Pakuranga Baptist Kindergarten, and how the pedagogy of listening and an unhurried approach to learning supports children to deepen both their understandings of and connection to place.

Fieldwork provides opportunities for students to develop employability-enhancing transferable skills as well as technical, discipline-specific skills and disciplinary knowledge. However, the extent to which staff purposely plan transferable skills outcomes of field courses, and, therefore, whether they are communicated to students is unknown. We investigated whether staff intentionally plan transferable skills development opportunities into fieldwork by interviewing academic staff responsible for planning and leading residential field courses at a UK university. We also conducted a thematic analysis of associated module specifications and teaching materials to understand whether transferable skills were signposted to colleagues and students. Our findings show that although most staff recognise that their field courses help students to develop transferable skills, staff awareness of skills and professional development outcomes is narrowly focused on technical skills and discipline-related careers. Furthermore, those transferable skills outcomes that staff are aware of are not fully translated into module specifications and infrequently signposted to students via teaching materials. These findings suggest that transferable skills form a hidden curriculum of fieldwork. To maximise the employability benefits of fieldwork, we recommend that all skills should be signposted to students both during field course teaching and also via the associated teaching materials.

This study summarizes the comparison of interactive lecturing and technology-supported student-centered pedagogy across six semesters of an introductory physical geology course. A multiple linear regression analysis of 967 student scores shows that absent raw exam scores, homework, and in-class attendance, performance on the first exam (score <60%), and pedagogy are the strongest predictors of students' final exam scores. Individual final exam scores showed a significant negative difference between the two semesters with interactive lecturing and the four with student-centered pedagogy. STEM students performed better on average than non-STEM majors; however, this difference became less significant for students who scored <60% in the first exam. Female students scored on average 2% lower than males. We found no evidence that the transition to a swivel-seat auditorium from a fixed seat one in the last two semesters had an impact on the final exam or final grade. We conclude that a student-centered approach that relies heavily on technology does not necessarily imply higher efficacy over interactive lecturing, and that engaging students on how to effectively use learning resources is an important component of active learning.

A quantitative literacy course titled "Computational Geology" has been taught at the University of South Florida for over 20 years at the undergraduate level, largely by the same professor. Due to the extended course tenure, a unique opportunity presented itself to qualitatively study what the perceived broader impacts of the course were on selected alumni from three or more years post-graduation. Viewing data from a 2016 course alumni interview project through a transcendental phenomenological lens, we looked for evidence to describe the lived experiences of nine course alumni. The alumni were baccalaureate geology graduates of USF, at least three years removed from graduation at the time of interview, who had taken and passed the Computational Geology course, and been working in private, public, or academic sectors. We discovered that the course positively impacted students' self-efficacy toward mathematics, nurtured a growing appreciation for using math as a tool to solve problems relevant to the students' personal life and career, and motivated students to learn and appreciate quantitatively literate behaviors and how quantitative literacy applies to their personal and professional life. We assert that instructors who consider the affective domain (i.e., feelings, emotions, and attitudes) while teaching mathematics leverage a powerful approach to impact student learning and incite a long-lasting impact on students' appreciation for quantitative literacy.

An opportunity exists to attract students from historically underrepresented communities into the geosciences, the least diverse of the STEM fields. Home to a diverse population, Riverside County in Southern California supports several community colleges with thriving geoscience programs where students can take a range of geology courses in preparation for a geology major at 4-year universities. The Geoscientist Development (GEODE) Program is designed to recruit and retain students from underrepresented groups into geoscience majors and careers and increase students' interest in transferring from a 2-year college to a 4-year college. In this study, we examined how participation in a 10-week paid research internship affected students' interest in studying and pursuing a degree or career in geoscience. Combining quantitative analysis of Likert-style survey questions and thematic content analysis of open-ended questions, we determined that paid research internships positively impacted students' interest in geoscience and increased their interest in transferring from their 2-year college to a 4-year university. The students reported benefits of new research skills, career preparation, and networking; they struggled with a lack of background knowledge and a lack of research time. These results demonstrate a promising way to strengthen geoscience educational pathways and increase diversity in the geosciences. This program can be implemented at other institutions by forming cross-campus relationships and with relatively small financial commitments.

This article connects instrumental, emancipatory, and critical approaches to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) with the different cultural responses or grand narratives of the Anthropocene: eco-modernist, eco-catastrophist, and eco-socialist. The tensions between these different approaches are explained by ESD's reliance on the ideals of citizenship and the global, which are also at the heart of the Global Citizenship Education (GCE) curriculum. It is argued that the Anthropocene puts into question both ideals, by forcing us to recognise that humans and nonhumans are denizens with limited rights and expanded obligations, all interconnected with each other through the multiple and complex relations of living-together or cohabitation. In this context, ESD needs to move beyond the humanist and liberal ideal of education as a way to form active and engaged citizens able to deal with the global environmental crisis and pursue instead a posthumanist curriculum for Anthropocene Denizenship Education. This proposal aims to overcome anthropocentric pedagogies and encourage learners to develop an embodied, affective, experienced, relational sense of becoming-together with other co-inhabitants of the Earth by cultivating vulner-abilities, attend-abilities, and response-abilities.

Inspired by a theoretical view of knowledge as a resource, this study explored in detail how a student used knowledge as a resource when she engaged in problem-solving about rocks and what she learned as a result of the practice of solving scientific problems. The context of the study was an inquiry project conducted in an earth science course for preservice elementary teachers offered in a university in Korea. In the project, students were given three different rocks and asked to figure out how each rock had been formed. Data included a student's written report about her inquiry and interviews with her, which were analyzed qualitatively. It was revealed that to solve the rock problems, the student used different types of knowledge as resources--everyday knowledge, personally internalized disciplinary knowledge, and externally retrieved scientific knowledge. The ways the student utilized the knowledge involved three distinctive processes--activation, adaptation, and evaluation of the resources, each of which had subordinate processes of using knowledge--elicitation, search, refinement, combination, selection, and deactivation of the resources. As a result of the scientific problem-solving, the student learned the usefulness and value of knowledge, enhanced previous knowledge, and realized both the limitations of her knowledge and the need for learning new knowledge. Based on these findings, the study proposed a new framework that conceptualized science learning as rediscovery (SLR) and discussed science pedagogies suitable to the SLR framework.

Over the past decade, geospatial technologies have emerged as a tool for developing spatial reasoning and cognitive processes. While the foundational Learning to Think Spatially report from the National Research Center (2006) launched research into the use of geospatial technologies in isolation, more recently, cloud-based simulation software have begun to partner with geographic information system (GIS) databases to aid instructional designers in creating simulations in fields such as geology and geography. Both of these use cases -- traditional geography instruction and immersive simulations -- undervalue the potential of GIS to address larger issues within the Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) field. This conceptual paper seeks to present the potential of GIS systems as a designerly tool which can be used to reduce the cognitive load of communicating with very complex data sets and effectively show how information dynamically changes over time. Provisioning contextual analysis as a central skill of the designer may lead to more inclusive designs than a focus on adding steps to process-based models or focusing only on tools.

A day-long geoscience educational module, "Sharing and Learning: The Natural Environments of Acoma Pueblo," provided an opportunity to explore the various connections that Acoma Pueblo community members make between their cultural values and geologic concepts. The purpose of such an exploration is to make explicit the cultural understandings of the geologic environment that bring meaning to the Western scientific knowledge, for both future Acoma Pueblo community members and other Indigenous scholars. A mixed-methods approach [sequential transformative design] was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data during the project concerning participants' sense of place and perception of geoscience concepts in relation to Acoma Pueblo cultural values. Indigenous research frameworks informed the analysis of the datasets and provided opportunities during the module for Western science to enhance the Indigenous knowledge system celebrated within the Acoma Pueblo community. In this article, we focus on the analysis of the qualitative portion of the larger mixed-methods study. The qualitative data analysis of a group interview after implementation of the Sharing/Learning program distinguished six primary themes: Traditional Knowledge, Western Geoscience, Education, Stories, Natural Resources, and Geoconnections that persisted throughout the group interview. Results from the study support the idea that a brief intervention which presented geoscientific information alongside Traditional Knowledge did have an impact, with newly recognized "geoconnections" as evidence. Furthermore, engaging Indigenous communities through connections between culture and geoscience has the potential to foster respectful relationships between academic researchers and Indigenous community members, especially when research practices are informed by Indigenous research frameworks. These respectful relationships are the foundation for authentic future research collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples.

Geological skills such as interpreting outcrops are often taught during fieldwork. However, recent advancements in digital technologies and the demand for more inclusive and accessible learning has provided an opportunity to teach these skills in virtual field trips (VFT). The Iceland VFT was developed to teach students about volcanic features and processes in Iceland and help students develop geological skills within a third-year, classroom-based, physical volcanology course. To determine the effectiveness of the VFT at aiding the development of student interpretation skills, we calculated the learning gains from an applied sketching exercise administered pre- and post- VFT, where students were asked to sketch a photograph of a lava flow outcrop and interpret flow shape and features from a range of different perspectives. The largest learning gains were for lava flow interpretation in map-view (0.40) followed by lava flow interpretation in side-view (0.31). Student responses to a post-VFT evaluation exercise indicate that the instructional/360 videos and the 3D landscape and rock models allowed students to spatially explore volcanic features within the landscape which aided their ability to interpret what the lava flow outcrop within the applied sketching exercise might look like in multiple perspectives. We conclude that the VFT supported students' geological interpretation of lava flows and recommend that virtual fieldtrips with interactive spatially challenging exercises can be used to improve students' conceptual understanding of content delivered in lectures and laboratories as well as preparation or reinforcement of fieldwork.

This study examines the epistemic disciplinary knowledge that students consider when addressing a real food emergency that requires their engagement in inquiry and argumentation practices. The study comprised two phases: (1) designing an experiment to study the emergency and (2) evaluating the real outcome of the emergency. The participants were 10th and 11th grade students (15-17 years old) working in small groups in the subject of Biology. Their conversations were examined through discourse analysis, for which two rubrics were developed, one for each phase of the task. The design phase related to the scientific practice of inquiry while the evaluation phase related to the scientific practices of inquiry and argumentation. The results suggest that not all the epistemic disciplinary knowledge promoted by the task was taken into consideration by students, especially in relation to the reproducibility of experiments and its feasibility to solve socio-scientific issues. This implies that epistemic disciplinary knowledge must be addressed in the classroom through an explicit-reflexive approach. Further directions and implications for biology teaching are provided.

A curriculum is generally regarded as an instructional plan that describes what, why and how students should learn. In this comparative study, we analysed the Czech and Slovak intended curricula of science subjects (physics, chemistry, biology, geography, and geology) and mathematics by comparing their national curriculum documents in terms of learning outcomes at the lower secondary level (ISCED level 2). Our analysis showed significant differences in the number of obligatory learning outcomes, which were much higher in the Slovak curriculum than in the Czech curriculum. The structure of these outcomes also differed across subjects and between countries. Nevertheless, the cognitive demands of the learning outcomes analysed using the revised Bloom's taxonomy were similar in the two countries, but metacognitive knowledge and higher-level cognitive processes were rarely represented in either. Additionally, by inductive content analysis of the Slovak curriculum document, we identified two significant groups of cross-curricular requirements, namely outcomes related to scientific inquiry and outcomes requiring working with information. Overall, these learning outcomes are underrepresented in both analysed documents (particularly in the Czech document) even though the skills that these outcomes develop are in high demand in the current context.

Cirques are often the most representative and numerous landforms in alpine glaciated watersheds. The readily mappable and measurable nature of cirques (especially aspects and floor elevations) may yield information about the climatic, geologic, and topographic conditions that created them. These ubiquitous landforms are the foci of an alpine glacial geomorphology exercise in an intermediate-level, university geomorphology course. The exercise involves a step-by-step approach using topographic maps and remotely sensed imagery to identify and map cirques, measure cirque aspects and floor elevations, and plot and analyze the resulting data. Students interpret their mapping and analysis results in the context of published literature, ultimately incorporating all into a research paper. Student comments and self-evaluations over time show that the exercise is an effective tool for learning glacial geomorphology, topographic map, and remotely sensed image analysis, data analysis, and report writing.

This article responds to Olof Franck's vision of a less didactic and more creative approach to Education for Sustainable Development. We consider how a multidisciplinary applied theatre project, bringing together Earth Sciences, Ancient Rock Art, storytelling, digital technology, and drama education knowledges and techniques can foster a more creative approach. The article is rooted in our analysis of the "African Rock Art: protecting the past, facilitating the future" project. We reflect on the challenges and possibilities of engaging with issues of climate crisis, responsibility, agency, and action in the Korogocho informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.

Background: The substantial growth in gamification research has connected gamified learning to enhanced engagement, improved performance, and greater motivation. Similar to gamification, personalized learning analytics dashboards can enhance student engagement. Objectives: This study explores the student experiences and academic achievements using a gamified dashboard in a large, introductory STEM course. Methods: We examined two groups of students enrolled in different sections of a one-semester-long physical geology course with a total enrollment of 223 students. The only difference between the groups was that one had access to the dashboard. The data collection included students' assignments, overall performances, and exam scores. Students in both sections completed a Science Literacy Concept Inventory survey at the beginning and end of the term. Additionally, students completed an end-of-term survey containing open-ended questions on their experience and interactions with specific elements. Results: Students shared mostly positive comments about their experience with the dashboard, and the final grade of students with access to the dashboard was 13% higher, on average, compared to their peers in the non-dashboard section. Conclusion: With low costs and little time invested, gamified dashboards could have a significant impact on student performance in large STEM lecture courses.

More than a half century has passed since the first integration of problem-based learning (PBL) in higher education teaching. Despite the extensive investigation focused on this pedagogy, rigorous research on the impact of PBL in civil engineering is limited. Thus, this study aims to provide a thorough evaluation of students' perceptions of PBL in a civil engineering course. The course was designed based on best practices from the literature while addressing, with the intent to minimize, the inhibitors of PBL success indicated in past research. The semester-long project was focused on creating an artifact to demonstrate geological phenomena chosen by the students, to then be displayed in an exhibition. The course included formative and summative assessments of students' performance throughout the semester. Data was collected and analyzed methodically from over 150 students from two cohorts, one with a one-year post-course perspective, using a survey. The results indicate high satisfaction with several aspects of the course, including the perception of soft skill development. The analysis also showed that students from an ethnic minority group had significantly higher satisfaction and perceived benefit from the course. These findings demonstrate the possibility of turning a theoretical civil engineering course into a valuable PBL course, suggesting that PBL may promote greater equality for ethnic minority groups.

This paper reports on a service-learning component introduced in an upper-level undergraduate geology course. Students identified rock types used by a local countertop manufacturing company and made fliers describing their mode of formation. Students then completed a final rock identification exam. To assess the effect of participating in the service-learning on students' rockidentification abilities, an Independent Samples t-test was used to compare scores of students that completed the course to those from previous semesters who did not participate in service-learning. Students who participated in service-learning achieved higher final rock identification exam test scores (M = 91.71, SD = 1.59) in comparison to those who did not take part in any service-learning activity (M = 80.36, SD = 1.88), t (19) = 4.59, p < 0.05. Service-learning projects that involve local geology related industries, thus, can facilitate knowledge sharing between the University and the community.

This study contributes to the literature by shedding light on students' learning by examining and comparing students' gestures in two educational contexts: geological field trips and classroom-based modeling activities. This study engaged 10 middle-school students in two different geological field trips and two classroom-based modeling activities and employed a hermeneutic approach to understand students' use of gestures in both settings. Using multimodal interaction analysis (MIA) students' gestures were explored to understand how students created and conveyed meaning using verbal and nonverbal interactions. The study found students' gestures conveyed scientific content and differing social roles in the two settings. The results suggest the frequency and type of gestures used in each setting may be complementary to students' development of accurate models. This study presents new classification criteria and characteristics to identify students' gestures. This study demonstrates gestures can be an important resource for learning when students are engaging in modeling activities.

Today, earth sciences engineering education programs face with serious problems. It is often not possible to provide experience on different geographical environments or materials. Considering these problems of earth science related engineering education programs, virtual reality environment potentially can provide technology enhanced training alternatives. However, in the literature there are not many studies showing how virtual reality can enhance the earth science related engineering education programs. Accordingly, the aim of this mapping of the literature and systematic review study is to explore studies dealing with virtual reality in the earth sciences engineering education programs. Through a rigorous screening process, the first search in the Scopus database provided 150 studies, where 19 of them were selected in the course of this study and the mapping of the literature report was drawn with all these articles. Additionally, with seven of these articles a systematic review is conducted. The mapping of the literature report shows that studies on this topic have increased in recent years and have been published in a variety of journals. The number of China and USA origins studies are remarkable among the examined studies, which are predominantly in the fields of mining engineering and geological engineering. As a result of the in-depth analyses, the systematic review report indicates that virtual reality applications in the earth sciences engineering education positively contribute to the learning outcomes and experiences of students/trainees from different perspectives.

Currently, it is considered fundamental to improve students' views of the nature of science (NOS) in science classes. In addition, models are also important in science education, not only as contributors for students to develop their views of the NOS, but also for them to develop conceptual knowledge, as well as inquiry skills. Teachers greatly influence students' learning experience. With the aim to improve prospective science teachers' views of the NOS and about models, and to better understand the factors that mediate the translation of their views into their classroom practices, a research project was conducted. An intervention programme was applied, and prospective science teachers' classes were observed. Data were collected, encompassing a diverse set of data sources: (i) questionnaires and interviews (given to prospective science teachers before and after the intervention programme); (ii) prospective science teachers' lesson plans and portfolios: (iii) videotapes and observations of the classroom instruction; (iv) and, lastly, final interviews were given to both prospective science teachers and their school supervisors. Although prospective science teachers have improved their views regarding the NOS and models, they taught about the NOS and used models in very different ways. Some factors that mediate the translation of teachers' views and some educational implications will be discussed.

This paper studies Greek junior high school students' alternative ideas, both initial and synthetic, on geodynamic phenomena. It comments in detail on students' concepts on Earth structure, earthquake occurrence, volcano formation, and relief change. Additionally, it attempts to trace and interpret how and why these ideas form (concept development), presenting that initial and synthetic ones are indissolubly attached and utterly directed by environmental interaction. Data analysis verifies that curriculum inadequacy and false scientific terminology in textbooks enforce the generation of alternative ideas. New synthetic alternative ideas on geodynamic phenomena are presented which are mainly characterized by intermittent and fragmentary perspective. Furthermore, the characteristics of both initial and synthetic alternative ideas are outlined, giving emphasis on the facts that students represent geodynamic phenomena as instantaneous events and that they are able to describe the repeatability of the phenomena, but they show difficulty in capturing their continuity. Finally, more factors that control alternative idea development on geodynamic phenomena are highlighted--such as (i) lack of continuous thinking, (ii) distribution, intensity and frequency of geodynamic phenomena, and (iii) current affairs (i.e., pollution, technology evolution, human intervention)--hoping that their revelation will lead to alternative ideas' decomposition and thus to pure scientific knowledge.

The main objective of this experimental study was to reveal the importance and effectiveness of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based materials in the course of the earthquake topic to high school 10th grade students. The selected topic of the study was "The relationship between faults, plate movements and earthquakes in Turkey". The study was designed according to the pretest-posttest control group pattern. For this purpose, two homogeneous classes with 20 students each were selected via convenience sapling method in Çamardi 75th Year Martyr Lieutenant Mehmet Erdem Multi-Programme Anatolian High School in Nigde province of Turkey. One of the classes was considered as the experimental group and the other control group. The data were collected using a multiple-choice test comprising 27 questions developed in line with the Geography Education Curriculum of the Ministry of Education by the researchers. Within the content of the study; following the pretest, the control group was taught via conventional method and materials. And the experimental group was taught utilizing the materials prepared by GIS with ArcGIS 10.2 software indicating the relationship between the distribution of active faults and historical earthquakes (with magnitudes 5 and more) in Turkey. After posttest, the data obtained were analyzed through t-test in SPSS 22.0. The results revealed that the experimental group had higher score than the control group, which showed the significant effect of GIS based materials on student success. It was also determined that GIS based activities significantly increased the achievement level of the students compared to the conventional methods, and GIS platforms had significant potential in secondary school geography courses as an effective educational tool.

This study investigated the implementation of a place-based socioscientific issue curricular unit designed to improve rising middle school students' abilities to think critically about the pros and cons of hydraulic fracturing and engage in evidence-based reasoning on whether the practice should be banned in Massachusetts. Forty-three rising middle school students from a summer enrichment program for science, mathematics, reading and writing operated by a non-profit organization in the northeastern United States participated in this study. The instructional unit exposed the students to information and activities on hydraulic fracturing for five consecutive days (50 minutes each day). The findings from this study showed that through productive socioscientific issues pedagogy, the students used the evidence collected from their investigation to engage in evidence-based reasoning about the cost and benefits of hydraulic fracturing on the public health, economy, and the environment. The students used their understanding of the science and engineering practices to construct valid arguments on whether or not hydraulic fracturing should be allowed in their state. The results further indicate that the use of socioscientific issues as a critical pedagogical strategy can equip students with the skills necessary for them to become better advocates for themselves and their communities.

Collaborative teamwork is fundamental to successful research and is a desirable skill set for employers. Yet students receive little training in how to effectively work in teams. This article presents the preliminary design and implementation of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) in biology, geology, and environmental engineering in which student teams address questions related to their discipline while contributing to a shared research project. Team science training in communication, research planning, and conflict resolution was embedded into CURE classes at a regional R2 university. Although barriers to this approach were present, evidence in the form of writing prompt scores and team science products suggested student understanding of effective teams and the benefits of working with individuals within and across disciplines to solve complex problems increased.

Calls have been made to determine optimal learning progressions for geology students so that best practices for teaching content knowledge and skills during an undergraduate degree can be determined. To address these calls, there first needs to be understanding of what courses are required. This study was conducted to provide a systematic evaluation of courses currently required to earn a bachelor of science degree in the field of geology. Once qualifying programs were determined using the American Geoscience Institute's Directory of Geoscience Departments, an inductive content analysis was used to determine categories representative of the most commonly required geology courses. Testing with an expert panel showed this binning system and codebook to have an interrater reliability (Fleiss' kappa) of 0.908, demonstrating that they can be applied reliably in future research to assess longitudinal changes in course requirements. The seven most commonly required courses include structure, sedimentology/stratigraphy, introductory courses, general field methods courses, introductory level historical geology courses, mineralogy and petrology. On average, 12.69 geology courses are required for a B.S. degree. A longitudinal comparison is also made here to highlight changes since Drummond and Markin's (2008) review, which include an increase in the frequency at which introductory, upper level seminar, research based and general field methods courses are required. The results presented provide a snapshot of the current state of the field, and allow for comparisons with content knowledge deemed a priority by the Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education Report.

Spatial skills are embedded in all aspects of the geosciences. The teaching and learning of spatial skills has been a challenging, but vital, endeavor. To support student learning of spatial skills in undergraduate courses, we designed scaffolds for spatially dependent content in a mid-level geoscience course using playdough to allow students to model and manipulate geologic structures and processes. Using a semester-long geology course as a case study, we explore the ways in which students reported playdough supported their learning of geoscience content during the course. Students found the playdough most helpful for visualizing geologic structures, such as faults and domes, which students were then able to encode into their long-term memories, or "mental libraries," for application to new contexts on assessments later. The playdough was more helpful at the start of the course when students were grappling with introductory course content and skills. Later in the course, the need for the playdough as a scaffold faded, as intended. Most students eventually sought new scaffolds, such as three-dimensional block models, which illustrate more complex and sophisticated structures and processes. Therefore, we see playdough as a useful scaffold for students in the early stages of spatial and geologic skill development as it aids students in developing both sets of skills. It is easy to utilize, inexpensive, portable, widely available, and familiar to most students.

Scaled analog modeling ("sandbox modeling") allows deformational processes, such as the development of a mountain belt, to be observed in real time in a classroom setting. However, the actual learning gains from exposure to sandbox modeling in geology courses in higher education settings have not been explicitly studied. We begin to investigate the possible effects of incorporating a sandbox modeling activity on geologic understanding in an upper-level tectonics class. The designed activity utilized a cycle-based learning approach, where the 11 participating students predicted outcomes of different deformation experiments and then evaluated and revised their predictions in the light of their experimental observations. Scored predictive sketches and a spatial visualization test administered before and after the sandbox activity demonstrate improvements in geological understanding of deformation, the influence of different mechanical properties on deformation style, and penetrative thinking skill. The observed gains were particularly marked for students who had poorly developed penetrative thinking skills prior to the activity. These results indicate that the use of sandbox models in the classroom may have a measurable effect on penetrative thinking skills and geologic understanding, particularly in students with less expertise. However, further study is required to test if these effects can be reproduced, and shown to be statistically significant, in larger groups of students.

In the past couple of decades, the geoscience education community has made great strides toward investigating how to provide effective student learning experiences in the college setting. While experiences such as student-centered teaching strategies and course design elements are useful for the instructor, they may not make important elements of the learning process itself explicit to the student. As a result, students may navigate a course without timely and necessary feedback related to their learning progress. To help remedy this issue, we designed and developed the Confidence-based Learning Accuracy Support System (CLASS) to provide students explicit feedback related to their mastery of geology content and the accuracy of their perceptions of their abilities. CLASS leverages robust evidence from education psychology regarding student metacognition and self-regulated learning (SRL). We investigated the relationship between students' judgments of their performance and their actual performance during summative exams in an introductory physical geology course. This study collected student confidence data for every question of students' midterm exams and compared this confidence to performance via multiple empirically-derived measures of the disparity between students' perceptions of their performance and their actual performance. In addition to exam-based data, we developed and provided CLASS quizzes (with varying requirements) to provide students with feedback regarding their learning and accuracy during the target courses. Results indicated that students utilizing CLASS performed better than their predecessors for the first two exams and were generally more accurate in their approximations. Overall, results provide support for CLASS's potential to serve as a tool for increasing student metacognitive awareness, self-regulation and performance in undergraduate geoscience courses.

The geoscience community has begun to grapple with the whiteness of the community and the harm and erasure of Indigenous communities done by earth and environmental scientists. We have come to understand that to recruit and retain Indigenous students, geoscience education needs to be culturally responsive by explicitly centering Indigenous students. This has created a great need for guidelines about how to approach and evaluate educational programs that are designed for Indigenous students, and/or use Traditional Knowledge. There are many recent initiatives, especially those led by Indigenous scientists and faculty, that have done this well. We present here a newly developed rubric and systematic review of publications about Indigenous geoscience initiatives for K-12, college education, and professional training. Our evaluation examines the implementation of the program, its content, approach (i.e., if the program used Indigenous ways of learning and knowing or taught Indigenous concepts in a western education framework) and research design. The goal of this review is to identify further areas of research, areas that need improvement, and to develop recommendations for similar future initiatives. Overall, the articles reviewed herein are consistently implementing multiple epistemologies, and explicitly centering and validating Indigenous culture. However, there is work to be done to improve the ways similar programs address racism, Indigenous identity, sovereignty, and data sovereignty moving forward.

The comprehension and calibration of 54 undergraduates were investigated as they read excerpts from an introductory geology textbook on weather and soil in print and digitally. All excerpts were approximately 1600 words in length and contained a graph, a diagram, and three photographs that complemented or extended the written text. Each student read two texts with medium and topic counterbalanced. Prior to reading, the students completed a demographic survey, rated their topic familiarity, and completed two topic knowledge pretests. They next read one chapter on either weather or soil in print or digitally and then answered a series of short-answer questions. The questions drew on content from the written text only, visuals only, or both. The same procedure was then repeated in the other medium. Analyses indicated processing multimodal texts in print was significantly more advantageous than processing those same texts digitally, and this difference was more pronounced for questions focused on visuals only. Students' self-rated topic familiarity was compared to their demonstrated topic knowledge for weather and soil and their predicted comprehension performance was compared to actual comprehension performance. Results showed that undergraduates' calibration was poor overall, but comprehension was overestimated more often when students read multimodal texts digitally.

Teamwork has been identified as an essential employability skill and learning outcome in the geosciences, especially during fieldwork. Although specific teamwork skills have been identified in prior research, few studies to date have addressed how students develop or use these skills during their educational preparation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, including the geosciences. In this paper, we use a descriptive, qualitative embedded, single-case study to explore how geoscience students develop teamwork skills during a hydrogeology field course in the absence of any explicit instruction about teamwork, using a theoretical lens of input-process-output taxonomy of teamwork skills. We collected data using the Geoscience Teamwork Observation (GTO) protocol and verified findings against focus group discussions held after each week of team observations. We identified that students do use a wide range of teamwork skills in the absence of instruction on teamwork, and these skills changed across different teams and under different contexts during fieldwork. Student teams most frequently used skills of communication, leadership, peer-mentoring and teaching, and coordination. Skills related to goal identification, information synthesis and organizational management were utilized least often. We recommend instructional strategies that explicitly treat teamwork skills as learning outcomes, prior teaching of teamwork as part of fieldwork, and using observations as a strategy for teaching and assessing teamwork during fieldwork. We also provide a shared approach for evaluating teamwork skills to enhance workforce preparation and draw attention to key issues relating to creating effective teamwork outcomes during fieldwork.