HR: 17:45h
AN: ED22F-08    [PDF]
TI: Evaluating an Introductory Geoscience Classroom Exercise using Pre- and Post-Exercise Assessments
AU: Shipp, S
EM: shipp@lpi.usra.edu
AF: Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058 United States
AU: * Henning, A T
EM: ahenning@rice.edu
AF: Rice University, Department of Earth Science, MS - 126 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005 United States
AU: Sawyer, D S
EM: dale@rice.edu
AF: Rice University, Department of Earth Science, MS - 126 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005 United States
AB: Discovering Plate Boundaries is a data-rich classroom exercise that has been used successfully in middle school, high school, and college-level science classes. It is an active learning exercise that encourages students to discover the theory of plate tectonics based on their observations of maps containing earthquake, volcano, topography, and seafloor age data. Students and educators have responded with enthusiasm to this exercise, especially the jigsaw component that promotes random group interaction. We now focus our attention on assessing the impact of the exercise on student learning in order to determine whether it conveys sufficient content knowledge. We designed a pre-exercise assessment consisting of questions relating to introductory geoscience concepts, with particular emphasis on plate tectonics. These questions were based on student learning goals for introductory geoscience courses that utilize the Discovering Plate Boundaries exercise. The questions have evolved with repeated use in order to more effectively gauge student knowledge. The pre-exercise assessments have been completed by middle school, high school, and college students, and have identified some common student misconceptions about geoscience. For example, many students believe that earthquakes are a key component of mountain-building, while volcanoes are not. This type of information should be used by the instructor to stress certain concepts during the course in order to address these preconceived notions. A post-exercise assessment consisting of the same questions was administered at the end of the courses and we found that some of the initial misconceptions remained. We conclude that more pre-exercise assessments should be administered in order to establish a database of student misconceptions so that educators can focus instruction in these areas.
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting