HR: 1340h
AN: ED33B-1229    [Abstracts]
TI: Teaching about the Early Earth: Evolution of Tectonics, Life, and the Early Atmosphere
AU: * Mogk, D W
EM: mogk@montana.edu
AF: Dept. of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, United States
AU: Manduca, C A
EM: cmanduca@carleton.edu
AF: Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057, United States
AU: Kirk, K
EM: kkirk@carleton.edu
AF: Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057, United States
AU: Williams, M L
EM: mlw@geo.umass.edu
AF: Dept. of Geosciences, Univ. Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, United States
AB: The early history of the Earth is the subject of some of the most exciting and innovative research in the geosciences, drawing evidence from virtually all fields of geoscience and using a variety of approaches that include field, analytical, experimental, and modeling studies. At the same time, the early Earth presents unique opportunities and challenges in geoscience education: how can we best teach "uncertain science" where the evidence is either incomplete or ambiguous? Teaching about early Earth provides a great opportunity to help students understand the nature of scientific evidence, testing, and understanding. To explore the intersection of research and teaching about this enigmatic period of Earth history, a national workshop was convened for experts in early Earth research and undergraduate geoscience education. The workshop was held in April, 2007 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst as part of the On the Cutting Edge faculty professional development program. The workshop was organized around three scientific themes: evolution of global tectonics, life, and the early atmosphere. The "big scientific questions" at the forefront of current research about the early Earth were explored by keynote speakers and follow-up discussion groups: How did plate tectonics as we know it today evolve? Were there plates in the Hadean Eon? Was the early Earth molten? How rapidly did it cool? When and how did the atmosphere and hydrosphere evolve? How did life originate and evolve? How did all these components interact at the beginning of Earth's history and evolve toward the Earth system we know today? Similar "big questions" in geoscience education were addressed: how to best teach about "deep time;" how to help students make appropriate inferences when geologic evidence is incomplete; how to engage systems thinking and integrate multiple lines of evidence, across many scales of observation (temporal and spatial), and among many disciplines. Workshop participants developed a collection of teaching strategies to begin to address the challenge of integrating new scientific advances with effective instructional practices with an emphasis on data analysis and critical review of evidence. The workshop webpage includes the workshop program with links to all presentations and discussion summaries, a collection of recommended readings about early Earth research, ideas for teaching about Early Earth, suggestions on how to teach uncertain science, and classroom activities.
UR: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlyearth/index.html
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting