HR: 0800h
AN: ED41A-0245    [Abstracts]
TI: Teaching Quantitative Skills in the Geosciences: Resources for Faculty
AU: * Wenner, J M
EM: wenner@uwosh.edu
AF: University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Geology Department 800 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh, WI 54901
AU: Manduca, C
EM: cmanduca@carleton.edu
AF: Carleton College, Science Education Resource Center, Northfield, MN 55057
AU: Macdonald, R H
EM: rhmacd@wm.edu
AF: College of William & Mary, Department of Geology, Williamsburg, VA 23185
AU: Patterson, S
EM: spatters@carleton.edu
AF: Carleton College, Department of Mathematics, Northfield, MN 55057
AU: McDaris, J
EM: jmcdaris@carleton.edu
AF: Carleton College, Science Education Resource Center, Northfield, MN 55057
AB: Numbers are increasingly a fundamental aspect of our daily environment making the ability to use quantitative skills an important aspect of understanding and successfully inhabiting the world around us. Introductory geoscience courses provide an excellent environment for enhancing students' ability to understand and use quantitative representations. Furthermore, a range of geoscience topics can provide the framework for introduction and development of quantitative skills at both introductory and upper levels. Over the past ten years, four workshops have discussed the importance of teaching quantitative skills in the geosciences and effective methods for doing so. The outcome of these workshops is a collaborative effort to develop and disseminate teaching materials and strategies that link the best practices from the mathematics, education and broader science communities with the experience of geoscience faculty who are leaders in this field. The Teaching Quantitative Skills in the Geosciences website provides a referenced overview of what we mean by quantitative skills and quantitative literacy and their roles in the geosciences; links are provided to methods, activities, and student resources for learning mathematics. A methods section contains examples of how some geoscientists teach certain quantitative skills. Classroom activities cover a wide variety of topics from atmosphere to biosphere to lithosphere and are geared toward both introductory and upper level courses. Students can also review and learn on their own with links to pages developed by mathematics educators addressing particular concepts used in the geosciences. A growing collection of topical pages link strategies for teaching specific quantitative concepts to examples using geoscience context. All of the resources underline the importance of teaching appreciation and understanding of numbers in an increasingly quantitative world and provide a means for both students and educators to become more proficient at quantitative skills.
UR: http://serc.carleton.edu/quantskills/
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting