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A science café and a concert with a panel discussion were held with public audiences to communicate information about global change and ecosystem soundscapes. Both events were evaluated through: (i) post-event surveys to measure global change perceptions, awareness, and attitudes; (ii) skin biosensors to measure the engagement levels of a sub-group of attendees; and (iii) post-event interviews with the same sub-group to better understand their reflections on and their own enjoyment and engagement at each event. Results indicate both events were beneficial to attendees, but the combined concert and panel discussion event was more engaging and enjoyable for attendees.

One of the important roles of HE institutions is to train graduates who will smoothly enter the labour market. The literature review demonstrates that one effective method to facilitate this transition is to ensure students acquire professional experience. The aim was to establish the scale and characteristics of employers' demand for work experience expressed in job adverts. The data sample consisted of 17 397 adverts posted over a period of 18 months and addressed to geography, earth and environmental sciences specialists across six European countries. Quantitative analyses demonstrated that over one third of job postings required work experience. Text mining methods of content analysis revealed differences in the structure of high-importance words in adverts addressed to graduates with no, some or short work experience and those addressed to candidates with more extensive professional experience. A hierarchical cluster analysis helped us identify strong relationships between the word 'experience' and other words in specific subsets of adverts. The analysis led us to determine the characteristics of employers' demand for work experience. The results help outline the directions of education policy for HE institutions regarding market-oriented measures aimed at ensuring work integrated learning which can clearly improve graduates' chances on the labour market.

The world is overcoming an unprecedented challenge with the COVID-19 pandemic's worldwide spread. Epidemics and pandemics are part of history. The oldest records are related to the plague of Athens in 430 BC and throughout times numerous other diseases affected humankind, devastating societies. Nowadays, the global world allows rapid communication and potential spread of new pandemics. The Anthropocene epoch, in which humans significantly interfere in the Earth system, can also accelerate their emergence, forcing us to be innovative and proactive. Our enormous scientific and technological development is a huge advantage, providing us with knowledge and various tools to defeat the new incoming threats. Nevertheless, knowing the historical scientific facts is fundamental to understand the present and anticipating the future. Geoethics reflects on the values underlying behaviours and practices that interfere with the way human beings relate to the Earth system. It conceptualises an interdisciplinary approach within geosciences, history, philosophy and sociology and additionally it is closely related to sustainable development. Enhancing awareness of our role as responsible citizens and improving scientific knowledge are essential goals to achieve quality in education and the preservation of life on Earth. Historical scientific events must be harnessed to provide a more holistic and geoethical education.

Through the voices of both faculty and student authors, we discuss the intentional integration of neurodiversity in an undergraduate, community geography research program. This exploratory case study takes conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion from theory to practice presenting the development of an inclusive learning community through the lens of education and geoscience education frameworks. Through multiple perspectives advocating for systemic change for inclusive community geography, this paper presents actionable recommendations others in geography can draw from in their own efforts to broaden participation within geography field programs.

A future instructor's teaching beliefs contribute to whether they will use research-validated teaching strategies. We surveyed and interviewed potential future geoscience faculty as represented by graduate students and post-doctoral scholars to characterize their teaching beliefs, evaluate changes in those beliefs over time, and identify experiences that fostered interest in teaching. This study employed a longitudinal mixed-methods experimental design that began with surveys of more than 600 geoscience graduate students and post-doctoral scholars, continued with interviews of sixty of these participants, and concluded with detailed case studies of ten individuals. Case study interview results indicate that professional development has the largest impact on teaching beliefs. Mentors were also influential but may have had either positive or negative effects on the development of reformed beliefs. Participants' desire to seek a career involving teaching was motivated by their experience as a student, external encouragement, and the potential to have an impact on future students. Our findings indicate that participation in long-term effective professional development, having a relationship with a mentor that views teaching positively, and having opportunities to teach as a PhD student or post-doc contribute to the development of reformed teaching beliefs and foster an interest in teaching as a career.

The Fluid Earth (FE) is an interactive data visualization initially developed for learning about Earth's atmosphere in informal educational settings. In this study, we tested FE in middle school classes to assess student engagement in a formal educational setting. Using a quasi-experimental design, students were assigned to interact with the data visualization website (high interactivity) or prerecorded videos of the visualization (low interactivity). Students who used the website demonstrated greater engagement and perceived learning than students who used videos, but no differences were observed for behavioral intentions to use FE in the future. Results provide preliminary evidence that the interactive interface provided a more engaging educational experience than videos. Findings suggest that interactivity is an important component of science education visualizations, and there is value in creating interactive tools for students to explore geosciences processes and concepts. Additional work is needed to assess the visualization's impact on student learning of content knowledge and its applicability to more diverse student groups.

In this study, we analyzed the literature on teaching or learning on a topic in Earth science, environmental science, or climate change between 1995 and 2017. We investigated the length of the intervention, intervention setting and instructional level, instructional purpose, pedagogical framing and pedagogical methods (including what materials and activities students used), degree of inquiry afforded to students, and student outcomes. The literature reveals that instructors are attempting to move beyond didactic practices by incorporating new pedagogical methods into existing courses they teach or revamping whole courses at the departmental level. In general, study authors frame their innovations in terms of a need to address student engagement; however, the extent to which studies explicitly link engagement and learning outcomes is mixed. In addition, while study authors express the goal of adopting active learning pedagogies, their theories of change are mostly unexamined. Finally, few researchers reported results relating directly to specific populations of interest, especially those underserved in STEM. We suggest several areas in which further research is needed.

This paper examines the creation and negotiation of disciplinary culture, through ethnographic fieldwork about socialization in a critical learning environment: scientific fieldwork. Field-based science has received scant research attention relative to its importance as a degree requirement, a professional rite of passage, and a site where sexual harassment and assault are disturbingly commonplace. We conducted a comparative ethnographic case study of two field-based geoscience courses, one each for undergraduate and graduate students. The data include 264 hours of participant-observation and 34 interviews with students and faculty. Three prominent qualities of the culture -- eroding temporal and spatial boundaries, navigating challenging conditions, and normalizing alcohol -- reflect and/or reinforce disciplinary norms of informality, togetherness, and toughness. We observed these qualities and norms could be leveraged for exclusion or inclusion; they are tools that, together, create a gendered disciplinary culture. Some women resisted the narrow definition of these norms, reframing toughness to include mental toughness, for example. Implications for course design and field leadership, as well as the possibilities and limits of disciplinary cultural change, are discussed.

Scientists rely heavily on tree-ring records to better understand climate variability of the past millennium. Tree rings can also be utilized to give students a window into paleoclimate research, the methods scientists use, and the importance of scientific findings. Here, we present five online labs that introduce undergraduate students to the field of dendrochronology. Students learn about foundational tree-ring concepts and are guided to use many of the same tools and strategies as scientists, including exploring important field sites, measuring tree-ring data from those sites, using online paleoclimate databanks, and evaluating climate trends and extremes. The labs have been classroom tested and were modified based on a professional assessment, and faculty and student reviews. Faculty and student surveys and student lab grades show that the majority of students were able to meet the learning goals of the labs. Students reported that they felt they were working as scientists would, and, after completing the labs, that they better understood tree-ring science methods and applications. These materials were developed collaboratively with faculty input from a variety of institutions to have broad appeal and allow for use in a variety of classroom settings.

Groundwater is a critical component of the global water cycle and standards-based topic within science education. However, students articulate an array of ideas about groundwater systems, including their natural and human elements. One way to support students' learning about groundwater systems is through the use of data-driven, computer-based modeling tools in technology-enabled science learning environments. To use models to reason productively about groundwater, students must be able to interpret the relationship between the model and the phenomena it represents. Here, we report findings from a study conducted in 7th-grade classrooms (n = 209) during implementation of a 3-week curriculum module designed around a data-driven, computer-based groundwater modeling tool -- the Hydrogeology Challenge. Students completed a series of tasks using the model to reason about and engage in problem-solving about a real-world, scenario-based water challenge. Here, we focus on how students relate -- or map -- elements of the model to the components of the authentic water-related phenomena they represent. We conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses of student artifacts and interviews. Findings suggest that students could more easily interpret and understand model elements which represent human dimensions of groundwater systems, such as wells, than they could elements that represent natural dimensions and processes, such as contour lines or groundwater flow direction. These findings provide important insights into students' model-based reasoning about groundwater and teaching and learning about coupled human-hydrological systems.

Water sciences education is paramount to sustainable groundwater resource management, especially of drinking water, but misunderstandings about groundwater among non-experts remain widespread. Groundwater residence is an especially challenging concept to learn because it is not directly visible in typical circumstances. The present study uses a quasi-experimental research design to compare the impacts that two instructional sequences have on improving students' conceptual understanding of groundwater residence and aquifers. Both instructional sequences are designed to use active learning, but only one solicits and engages students' preconceptions. The theoretical framework for this study is the knowledge integration perspective of conceptual change. As such, this study considers cognitive, temporal, and social dimensions of learning. To assess students' learning, concept sketches were analyzed using diagrammatic and textual content analyses, normalized learning gains were calculated, multiple-choice items were scored dichotomously (i.e., scored as either correct or incorrect), free-response items were scored for partial credit, and classroom observations tracked social interactions. We found significantly larger learning gains when students' preconceptions were explicitly incorporated into the instructional sequence compared to when they were not taken into account. We also found the prior-knowledge instructional sequence (PKIS) positively impacted both Caucasian and non-Caucasian students as well as male and female students. Our findings indicate that actively engaging students' prior knowledge in the ways that were researched herein can be a high impact teaching practice and is worthy of future research in other specific domains beyond groundwater residence and aquifers.

The vast extent to which quantitative prerequisites vary among post-secondary geoscience programs often presents a challenge for educators and students alike in courses for which math and physics are foundational. This study discusses the design of GEOAppS, a suite of educational numerical models, and its application toward lowering the barrier-to-entry for quantitative concepts in an upper-level post-secondary coastal processes course. GEOAppS is a software package, built in MATLAB®, that provides animated visualizations of course concepts through a graphical user interface. Nineteen students enrolled in the course participated in this study, which used a within-subjects experimental design, in which students alternated between experimental and control treatments, to evaluate the efficacy of GEOAppS at facilitating student understanding of quantitative concepts. GEOAppS was used as the experimental instructional intervention, while complementary, static visualizations (paper handouts) composed the control treatment. For each instructional treatment, students' learning outcomes were evaluated by: (a) a written exercise completed concurrently to the treatment, and (b) a course quiz administered the following week. Results indicate that students' performance on the written exercises was higher when using GEOAppS than with static visualizations; however, no significant difference between the two treatments was present in the delayed testing quiz scores. Additionally, the data suggest the existence of aptitude-treatment interaction, in which lower-performing students benefited more from GEOAppS than high-expertise students. An end of study survey of student perceptions showed that most students perceived greater learning from GEOAppS and preferred using the models to the static visuals.

Topographic maps are a common form of 3D surface elevation data represented as a 2D display. Despite their use in geoscience courses, many students find learning to effectively read and interpret these maps challenging. Here, we present a tool for teaching topographic map interpretation using 3D printed terrain. The terrain was 3D printed from a portion of the quadrangle map used in an introductory earth science course for non-science majors. Students placed the ~12 cm square terrain directly on the corresponding area of the paper topographic map, in order to see the landscape. Student learning was compared between an original version of the topography lab and the same lab with the addition of the 3D printed terrain, using the Modified Topographic Map Assessment (MTMA) administered as a pre- and posttest with each group. As measured by pretest scores on the MTMA, students in the original (n = 54) and 3D print terrain tool (n = 24) groups had comparable incoming topographic map interpretation skills (t(75) = 0.98, p = 0.33). Pre- to posttest MTMA scores did not significantly improve in the original lab group (M = 0.63, SD = 3.13, t(53) = 1.48, p = 0.15) but did in the 3D print terrain group (M = 1.96, SD = 2.97, t(23) = 3.23, p = 0.004) with a moderate effect size (d = 0.53). Results of this pilot study suggest that 3D printed terrain shows promise as a teaching tool that could be adapted to multiple uses including K-12 classes and upper division earth science courses.

Fall 2020 presented myriad challenges for teachers trying to plan curricula to meet students' social-emotional and learning needs following an unprecedented spring and summer of isolation and loss due to the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (Rivera and Wallace 2020). The result of creative planning and adjusting of curricula for remote instruction led to a new component of thinking about differentiation: Beyond differentiating to students in the classroom, teachers were and continue to differentiate to students in different learning environments. The unit presented in this article is an example of how the authors reimagined their Earth and Space Science class for ninth- and tenth-grade students for remote instruction that included strong data analysis and critical-thinking components. As written, the unit emphasizes building a strong classroom community online, creates opportunities for students to follow their own curiosity, and teaches transferable skills--specifically argumentative writing skills--that will support students' success across subject areas.

Model-based inquiry (MBI) is an instructional framework designed around the construction, revision, and testing of models by students to make sense of and explain a phenomenon (Windschitl et al. 2008). Focusing on explaining natural phenomena provides a specific context for students to learn and apply scientific understandings to and can help engage students in scientific practices (Passmore et al. 2013). The Earth's systems MBI unit is connected with the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) and incorporates elements of ambitious science teaching. This article provides an example model-based inquiry unit in which students collaborate to construct, revise, and test models as they seek to explain a natural phenomenon, Arctic amplification, a phenomenon where the Artic is warming twice as fast as the global average.

Permafrost is any soil or surface deposit in an Arctic or alpine region at some depth below the surface at which the temperature has remained below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) continuously for a long period of time. The amount of carbon dioxide and methane stored in permafrost is nearly twice the amount in the atmosphere and, as the ice melts, these greenhouse gases escape, warming the planet. Locally, the land surface is disturbed, the water cycle changes, and ecosystems are disrupted. Changes to the atmosphere are invisible and permafrost forms in distant polar regions, so it is difficult for people to see changes that result from melting permafrost. Building a model in the classroom connects students with a visual representation of permafrost and provides observations of physical and thermal changes. This article describes a lesson in which students begin by examining why the melting of permafrost matters. Next, they construct a physical model of permafrost in the classroom that provides insights through observation, data collection, and comparison to authentic permafrost data. In addition to constructing a realistic physical model, students use technology to measure temperature. The lesson concludes with students interpreting data from Alaska to identify patterns and estimate the rate of change.

In a series of 12 project-based learning lessons, a group of seven fifth-grade students who live 200 miles from the coast explored their personal connections to the ocean. After completing a unit on the role of water in Earth's surface processes, the students investigated ocean acidification and how this pervasive ocean problem impacts their local community. The use of project- and place-based learning allows students to experience the impact of our actions on the environment; discover a link between their communities and the ocean; and form a meaningful emotional relationship with the ocean that empowers them to take action on sustainability.

Using cross-grade peer mentoring as an integral component to field trip experiences can help educators realize the learning potential of nature-based experiences. When young students are paired with older students, Socratic peer dialogue deepens interest, investment, and ultimately ownership of new learning. Using peer-supported inquiry experiences has been a positive way to enhance the effectiveness of field trips in achieving multiple learning outcomes.

In this article, the author describes an activity using physical models -- each a clear plastic box enclosing a miniature coastal town, complete with real water in the "ocean." This activity shows students a natural cause-and-effect relationship that is scientifically simple, yet even many adults don't grasp the worldwide implications: When one system changes, it causes a change in other Earth systems. When the temperature of Earth's ocean changes, it alters the water cycle in predictable, yet underappreciated ways. The author has taught this investigation when addressing the "Next Generation Science Standard" Earth's Systems. It demonstrates one way the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere impact each other. As students discover the ocean influences climate, they use the good science and engineering practice of using models to explore and explain.

The inclusion of engineering in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as a key component of K-12 science learning has provided both opportunities and challenges for elementary teachers. One challenge is integrating the design thinking processes that undergird engineering with core science concepts and current issues facing scientists and the broader world (NRC 2007). The study of oceans, waves, and shorelines allows children to explore factors that impact both humans and the environment and provides a context for authentic engineering challenges that are accessible to elementary students. The engineering challenges the authors present here were integrated into a larger unit on living shorelines. The ideas were originally developed as part of a teacher professional development institute in which K-5 teachers explored the local shorelines of the San Francisco Bay Area and engaged in engineering challenges to better understand the role of engineering in the NGSS. The engineering challenges were then piloted with children at a science camp for grade 3-7 students and then taught as part of the science curriculum in a fourth-grade classroom. In each of these settings, the driving question was: How do we engage with the coastline in ways that benefit nature and humankind through engineering design?

As one of the STEM disciplines with the lowest percentages of minoritized students and professionals, faculty and administrators in the geosciences have an opportunity to address racism within the context of their classrooms and campuses. In response, a group of community college geoscience faculty from disparate institutions across the U.S. came together to participate in the Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE) program. This chapter describes how the group explored instructional, curricular, and institutional changes in practice and policies for a more inclusive geoscience community and gathered best practices into a resource document (https://bit.ly/2YCURGE).

Providing pathways that support geoscience transfer students from two-year colleges (2YC) to four-year colleges and universities (4YCU) addresses enrollment challenges, diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, and helps build the 21st-century geoscience workforce. Building bridges between 2YC-4YCU programs can happen in various ways, all of which support students, strengthen geoscience programs, and help 2YC geoscience faculty feel less isolated. We present three regional examples of how 2YC geoscience programs have developed bridges with 4YCU partners. While these examples are geoscience-specific, they are broadly applicable to all STEM fields looking to engage and support transfer students.

To raise Earth Science (ES) interest in pre- and in-service K-12 teachers, we incorporated ES into an environmental education (EE) course for this audience. The approach recognizes the growing interest in EE, and the focus on inquiry and student-centered learning in British Columbia schools. This case study examines the impact of this innovation on participant attitudes to and interest in ES, and their confidence to teach ES in their own (future and present) K-12 classrooms. Earth science was incorporated into three of six modules of EDU452 Environmental Education at Simon Fraser University. We ran two pilots with 52 participants in summer 2018 and 2019. Research methods included field observations, student interviews, final portfolios, and a pre- and post-course survey. We found that incorporating ES, while increasing student interest in ES and raising awareness of relevance of ES to our lives, did not result in a similar high confidence level to teach ES. Students acknowledged that further ES instruction would be needed. Students recommended that ES be incorporated into all the course modules in the future. Constructivist and place-based learning were widely accepted by participants for offering personal ownership of learning, engaging experiences, and learning relevant to local settings and issues. Inquiry learning was reported to promote student interest in and enjoyment of ES. Careful design of leading questions and guidance during the inquiry process to accommodate individual's prior exposure to ES and conceptual difficulty of ES topics are recommended.

An important challenge for the geoscience community is developing engaging, accessible, and effective experiences within introductory courses, which are often gateways to geoscience majors. This study evaluates low-barrier-to-entry and flexible assignments focused on a pedagogical innovation: faculty replaced one of their usual course components (research paper, lab, etc.) with a Student-Produced Audio Narrative (SPAN) assignment. SPAN assignments require students to engage with geoscience content by telling a scientific story using simple audio-recording and production techniques. The hypothesis is that SPAN assignments will increase students' personal connection to geoscience course content. The pilot study included 8 faculty and 693 students across a range of institution types, course structures, class sizes, and content topics during the control and implementation semesters. The study evaluated student responses to SPAN assignments both quantitatively, using a pre/post survey, and qualitatively, using semi-structured interviews. Survey results show that students experienced positive changes in the categories of personal relevance, sense of curricular innovation, and future intentions to study science. Interview results indicate that much of the increased senses of innovation and personal relevance came from the creativity and choice the students experienced during the SPAN assignment. Taken together, these results indicate that SPAN assignments are innovative to students and effective pedagogical tools that can positively change students' perceptions of their learning environment and attitudes toward science.

Natural selection is a fundamental scientific process, yet students and educators alike demonstrate misconceptions of the process. Though images are used often in science to facilitate learning, it is less common to assess learners' understanding through their own drawings. This study utilizes a multiple-choice assessment of evolutionary processes and a drawing prompt to investigate participants' abilities to draw the process of natural selection. We analyzed multiple-choice assessments and drawings from 109 geoscientists from a range of career levels. Drawings were coded for the presence of six components of natural selection. We found that geoscientists scored better on the six-point multiple-choice assessment (mean = 4.2, SD = 1.1) than on the six-point drawing score (mean = 3.0, SD = 1.8). A regression analysis was performed on drawing scores to explore predictors of more complete drawings. Higher multiple-choice scores were a significant predictor of higher drawing scores. The regression analysis also indicated that women scored significantly higher on their drawings. Our results suggest that drawings may be useful assessment tools for measuring understanding of natural selection, and that images used in teaching natural selection are recalled by learners when drawing natural selection. The mismatch between recall and scientific models suggests modifications to artwork used in instruction might be beneficial.

Although many have suggested the use of games to motivate active learning, studies that evaluate the learning outcomes of games with high school students are scarce. Here, we present the evaluation of the board game "Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized" as an active learning tool to teach fossilization and Earth systems thinking with rising 12th grade learners in GeoFORCE Texas, a summertime outreach program of the Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin. The educational activity was evaluated with two groups (n1 = 22, n2 = 27). During the activity, an observation protocol was implemented; prompts to evaluate learners' behaviors and instructor behaviors were included in a form that a trained observer filled out while the learners played the game. Learning outcomes were assessed with a 2-page paper survey immediately following gameplay; survey questions are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. "Strategizing" was the most common learner behavior observed during the activity and the majority of behaviors can be considered "active learning". The results from the survey show that after playing the game learners were able to apply paleontological knowledge to tasks that involved establishing cause-effect relationships and Earth systems thinking. Our results provide evidence that board games (as educational strategies) are effective active learning tools that foster student development of scientific skills. Cooperative learning was observed, which we suggest is a key benefit for diverse classrooms. Findings were used to guide the refinement of the high school-level version of "Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized", as well as a scaffolded teaching module with formative and summative questions for use in a classroom setting.

Improvisational or "improv" theater is a live form where the elements of a scene are made up during the performance. Research in various academic disciplines has found the use of improv in classrooms beneficial. However, there is no such literature of use in the geosciences. Presented here are the results from two semesters of nearly daily usage of improv games in upper division geoscience courses (Mineralogy and Petrology). Results from a student perception survey indicate agreement in the usage of these games toward: 1) fostering a community of practice, and 2) developing students' transferable skills. The former benefits learning in the course and may increase retention of a more diverse student body. The latter prepares students to be adaptable in a dynamic workplace, preparing future scientists to contribute to societal challenges. The role improv might play in a classroom that employs active learning strategies is also discussed.

Active learning research emerged from the undergraduate STEM education communities of practice, some of whom identify as discipline-based education researchers (DBER). Consequently, current frameworks of active learning are largely inductive and based on emergent patterns observed in undergraduate teaching and learning. Alternatively, classic learning theories historically originate from the educational psychology community, which often takes a theory-driven, or deductive research approach. The broader transdisciplinary education research community is now struggling to reconcile the two. That is, how is a theory of active learning distinct from other theories of knowledge construction? We discuss the underpinnings of active learning in the geosciences, drawing upon extant literature from the educational psychology community on engagement. Based on Sinatra et al. engagement framework, we propose a model for active learning in the geosciences with four dimensions: behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic. We then connect existing literature from the geoscience education community to the model to demonstrate the current gaps in our literature base and opportunities to move the active learning geoscience education research (GER) forward. We propose the following recommendations for future investigation of active learning in the geosciences: (1) connect future GER to our model of active learning in the geosciences; (2) measure more than content learning; (3) document research methods and outcomes with effect sizes to accumulate evidence; and (4) prioritize research on dimensions of active learning essential to the geosciences.

This paper explains and analyses a virtual gamification experience developed by a teaching group from the University of Catania (Italy) and the University of Cordoba (Spain). A competition based on professional tasks about hydrological planning was implemented in two subjects on Hydrological Sciences. The teaching experience was designed to improve the acquisition of technical knowledge and skills needed for hydrological studies, promote the management of ICT and increase international cooperation between different universities; all aimed at making students more employable. The experience is transferable to different academic levels. Following the philosophy of soccer leagues, the students solved and presented the exercise by teams of two students. Through videoconference, the presentation and the explanation were done so the fans in each country supported their teams. The students found it a very challenging experience but at the same time, some of them were aware of their needs of improving technical knowledge, particularly Geographical Information Systems, and English language skills. Updating of tools and the schedule within the different academic calendar were their main organization handicaps. The main outcome of the presented experience is that social energy and enthusiasm associated to popular activities such as soccer led to improve the interest and the motivation of the students in challenging technical contents as well as teamwork and language transversal competences.

We report on data collected at 3 time points during a 1-year intervention designed to teach a purposive sample of geoscience faculty members (n = 29) from 27 universities throughout the United States how to identify and address issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in their departments. For the intervention we used mixed-reality simulations to help participants practice specific skills to address common situations in geoscience departments. The intervention also included an intensive 3-day workshop and 3 journal clubs. Using a Bayesian analytical approach we explored: (a) general trends in participants' self- and collective efficacy for identifying and addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion over a 1-year period; (b) relationships between self-efficacy and collective efficacy; and (c) demographic factors that explain variation in self- and collective efficacy. Results showed that self- and collective efficacy rose sharply from preintervention to 5 months after beginning. Although both self- and collective efficacy retreated toward baseline at the 1-year mark, only 1-year self-efficacy was still credibly higher than preintervention. Also, preintervention self-efficacy predicted 5-month collective efficacy. Efficacy beliefs varied as a function of race/ethnicity. Only collective efficacy varied as a function of academic rank. We discuss these findings in relation to social-cognitive theory and the literature regarding the use of digital learning environments to address diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This study investigated the effects of the use of Augmented Reality (AR) on the academic performance of students, as well as perceptions that were following the use of this new technology resource. The participants were students of primary education in Spain, which were assigned to an experimental group and a control group. Contents related to the topic Representation Earth were created, and were held with the collaboration of teachers using tablets to display bookmarks. To analyze the results collection tools of quantitative and qualitative data are used, a pre-test and post-test on the subject explained. I was done and Likert questionnaire on aspects of the use of the AR was given and an in depth interview was done teachers. Used tools of collection of data quantitative and qualitative to the deal are of a design quasi-experimental. In order to analyze the data, the statistical software SPSS 23 was used. The use of the AR as a teaching tool sheds results that reveal that the performance and the acquisition of knowledge of students improves significantly, being reflected in the ratings that were higher. The process of teaching and learning is perceived as positive, incentive and facilitator in the acquisition of knowledge.

There is a growing need for public understanding about groundwater resources. Knowing what groundwater and aquifers are is fundamental to understanding more complex issues such as groundwater quality and availability. However, groundwater and related concepts are among the topics that instructors most struggle to teach. Although constructivist theories suggest that students' preconceptions or misconceptions can be used as teaching tools, the question about exactly how remains. A resource perspective on this question states the first step involves understanding students' preconceptions. To gain a deeper understanding of college students' pre-instructional mental models about groundwater residence, 215 students enrolled in introductory-level environmental geoscience courses taught at two large US state universities were surveyed. An open-ended questionnaire asked participants to draw and label a concept sketch. Follow-up interviews asked participants to elaborate upon their concept sketches. Eight categories of mental models emerged from the analysis of the collected data. These results were interpreted through the lens of cognitive schema theory, which generated to four patterns of mental models. These patterns emphasize key aspects of students' pre-instructional mental models about groundwater residence. Instructors can use this information to design instructional activities about groundwater and aquifers using a resource perspective.

In an attempt to evaluate the impact of the use of a simulation on the learning concepts of relative dating, a study was carried out with first year students at the Technical High School of the city of Taza (Morocco). The method of the study was semi-experimental research design with pre-test and post-test. The study used two groups including the experimental (n = 16) and control (n = 16) groups. The learning outcomes of both groups of students were compared and analysed for significance using the Student's t-test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The findings showed that the integration of a simulation of relative chronology can have a positive effect on students' learning if it is properly integrated at an appropriate time during the students' training.

The aim of this study was to enhance the student's concept mastery and embedded spiritual attitude in the learning of earth science with the help of visualizations and authentic data analysis using GrADS. 23 pre-service physics teachers in Bengkulu, Indonesia participated in this study. This study used mixed methods with embedded experiment design. Multiple choice questions were used to collect the concept mastery data; questionnaires and open ended questions were used to collect data about spirituality attitude. The students' testimonials about the learning program were explored by using open ended questions. The multiple choice questions were analyzed quantitatively while the observation, questionnaire, and open ended questions were analyzed qualitatively. The results show that the students' concept mastery improve from no mastery to mastery with the average N-gain being 0.8 (high). The students got implicit values that had an impact on their spirituality of awareness and belief in the divinity of God. Similar research about embedding the spiritual aspect in the learning of earth science has not been reported widely.

The 2018 Cleveland conference screened a documentary film titled "Symbiotic Earth: How Lynn Margulis Rocked the Boat and Started a Scientific Revolution." NAMTA conference participants enjoyed this memorable premier event in honor of Lynn Margulis, her symbiotic worldview, and her intimate community of scientific stars. This article is taken from a series of interviews in a book titled "Talking on the Water" and is substituted for the aforementioned video.

As online coursework become more popular, students with disabilities that need vocabulary support for reading comprehension will be among the increase in cyber school students. Researchers have some evidence that certain types of vocabulary support strategies are more efficacious for students with disabilities. The purpose of this article is determining if what was known about strategies for supporting vocabulary was being applied to online learning coursework. A content analysis of types of vocabulary and types of support strategies was performed on science courses from three online course vendors. The results of this study indicate a need for online course vendors to pay more explicit attention to the types of words supported and the strategies they use to do so and for those who support online learners (teachers, parents) to be more proactive about vocabulary support deficiencies that are likely to be present in the courses.

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that is gaining traction in K12 education. Whereas well-designed and engaging VR experiences may be considered educational, teacher educators with content-area expertise are uniquely positioned to analyze the actual content provided by those experiences when determining VR's educational value. However, at this point, no methodologies have been developed for that purpose. In response, this article describes a content analysis approach that teacher educators can use for determining the educational value of VR's content. To present it, this article first provides an overview of research about VR in education followed by a call for teacher educators to engage this work. It then describes the content analysis approach for VR using step-by-step procedures along with an accompanying example. The article concludes with implications for teacher educators to use when evaluating VR's content with their preservice teachers and areas for future research.

Have you ever noticed trash collecting in streams or waterways? How does trash influence our environment, and what can be done to enact change? These are questions middle school students explored as the authors launched the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) task. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch activity involves an urgent environmental issue that students can discuss. It engages students in the interpretation of visual data, measurements, units, and the area of regular and irregular figures.

Simple energy balance models of planetary systems are of fundamental importance to understanding equilibrium temperatures. Most textbooks that discuss energy balance take a further step and include the effects of an atmosphere on the surface temperature. It is noticeable, however, that in such discussions of planetary surface energy balance some fundamental physical characteristics of energy balance are incorrectly portrayed, but rarely commented upon. Here it is shown that zero-dimensional energy balance models with either one or two atmospheric layers will necessarily lead to results that lack correct physical content, although they may or may not give temperature results that are numerically approximately correct. Ignoring the role of convective heat transfer and having even rough magnitudes of both upward- and downward-welling long-wavelength radiation wrong means that fundamental physical processes are missing. Adding a third atmospheric layer to a simple model that also includes a stylised representation of convection can restore both reasonable numerical accuracy and the correct physical properties, while at the same time being simple enough for easy physical interpretation.

In this paper, we present a physical modeling activity whose objective is to allow students to determine the differences between a disk and a sphere using pure scientific criteria. Thereunto, we reproduce the Sun-Earth-Moon system with low-cost materials and compare the illumination effects on the Moon considering two possible shapes for it (a sphere and a disk). The analysis is based on the shape of the terminator line produced in each case as a function of the illumination angle. The results obtained are first discussed and then applied so that one can interpret the observed patterns in the illumination effects of other celestial bodies, such as Venus or even the Earth. Thereby, the activity can be very useful to unmask the unscientific idea of flat Earth. The entire activity is easily replicable and it may be useful to promote a more realistic view of science and its methods.

Music cannot be separated from its historical, geographical, and cultural context; therefore, it is important that students be taught music from a variety of genres, cultures, and historical periods relevant to the music to which they are introduced. In this article, I introduce an interdisciplinary approach through contextualization of the content of music, using it to lead to the study of related works in various disciplines. Using a song inspired by Indonesia's Solo River, a lesson sample demonstrates teaching strategies that motivate students to engage in integrative thinking. By exploring music's connection with relevant subjects to teach about the natural environment, this contextualized lesson presents a global learning experience to broaden students' knowledge of the world. Contextualizing the content of Bengawan Solo illustrates how history and culture shaped the song and demonstrates how this work can be used as a springboard for students' exploration of its history, geography, and ecology.

This article seeks to use Dewey's interpretation of pragmatism and education as a model for how dominant notions of school exemplify a e. The article argues that Dewey sought to commodify nature as a tool for human progress. This aspect of Dewey's beliefs is further demonstrated in the kind of schooling that is being implemented through globalization. The article draws on Indigenous concepts of the nature and the Earth, for decolonizing science instruction in an elementary classroom.

This text is a simultaneously personal and political commentary on those who inhabit the border between worlds, such as those now at war in a viral assemblage. Starting from a general intention of shifting curricular responses away from instrumental and technical solutions toward cultivating the ability to act and think in times of uncertainty, the argument developed here is that the need to respond to the COVID-19 crisis involves repositioning curriculum and responsibility as caring for the Earth. The article creates a dialogue between cosmoecological alliances of different onto-epistemological practices and formulations that expand the ethics of care for other-than-humans. The central issue is to defend reimagining the relationship between curriculum and subjectivity within interdependent stories on the planet. We do this in order to develop a sort of vaccine to prevent curricular imagination from becoming captive to the geometric coordinates of the economization of life.

Rainfall is a key process in the water cycle, the most structured scientific knowledge about water movement on Earth. Nevertheless, despite being a common topic covered in school science, it entails several cognitive difficulties for young children. This study uses a pictorial task and semi-opened questions to examine primary (11/12 years old) and secondary (12/13 years old) students' understanding of the elements and processes involved in the hydrologic cycle and how they are integrated into their explanations regarding the rainfall phenomenon. Overall, we have found that the studied children's (n = 246) conceptual knowledge increases with age. However, they have an incomplete perception of the mechanism of rainfall and its integration into the water cycle. In fact, not all the students have a cyclic notion of water dynamics; they also miss the inclusion and role of groundwater in water systems and present misconceptions regarding key processes, such as condensation and evaporation. Regarding the two diagnostic tools (drawings and questionnaires) used to study children's understanding, although questionnaires seem more appropriate for assessing lower conceptual levels, each methodological approach is useful for detecting different key concepts and misconceptions related to the rainfall phenomenon and related water cycle. Consequently, a mixed research design using different methods is advised for a comprehensive study of students' conceptions.