HR: 12:05h
AN: ED42A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Learning Science Process Through Data Exploration and Writing
AU: * Prothero, W A
EM: prothero@geol.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California Santa Barbara, 2106 Las Canoas Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93105, United States
AB: One of the most effective ways of teaching science process is to have students take part in the same activities that practicing scientists engage in. These activities include studying the current research in the field, discussing ideas with colleagues, formulating a research problem, making a proposal defining the problem and plan of attack, presenting and writing about the results of the study, and critically reviewing the work of others. An inquiry curriculum can use these activities to guide the scaffolding of assignments and learning experiences that help students learn science process. At UCSB, students in a large general education oceanography class use real Earth data to study plate tectonics, the Indian Monsoon, climate change, and the health of the world fisheries. The end product for each subject has been a science paper based on Earth data. Over a period of approximately 15 years, the scaffolding of activities to prepare each student for the written assignments has been modified and improved, in response to student feedback and their success with the assignments. I have found that the following resources and sequence of activities help the oceanography students write good science papers. 1. Lecture: motivation and the opportunity for feedback and questions. 2. Textbook: background information. It is also possible to get the information from the internet, but unless the scope of reading is strictly defined, students don't know when to stop reading and become unhappy. 3. Online assignments: automatically graded assignments that force the student to keep up with reading. 4. Questions of the day: in-class handouts, with diagrams that the students either complete, or answer questions about. They are handed in and tallied, but not graded. They also inform the instructor of misconceptions. 5. Thought questions: student answers are posted on a threaded discussion list, and are due prior to lecture. The answers provide instructor feedback and guide the lecture. Students see their peers' answers only after entering their own. They can then improve their own answer ("Just In Time Teaching"). 6. Laboratory section activities: these introduce students to the course software, especially the data browsers, and the meaning of the data for the next writing assignment. For each meeting, a group inquiry activity results in a short class presentation by each group. This informs the teaching assistant (who teaches the lab section) of student understanding of the material, helps students become comfortable with the software, and supports students helping each other. 7. Written assignments. The assignments each require an approximately 1100-1600 word paper that includes abstract, introduction, data, interpretation, summary, and references. Images are captured from the data browser and included in the paper. The writing technology has evolved from papers handed in and graded by hand, to fully online hand-in and grading, to calibrated peer review, which was incorporated in the 2005 course. Calibrated peer review has the advantage that students see and evaluate their peers' papers. About 20% of the papers are graded by the instructor, resulting in a much lower instructor grading workload. Also, I suspect that a greater number of very short writing assignments in response to thought questions or min- inquiries might be an effective modification. The new "Learning With Data Workshop" will support many of the inquiry activities described here.
UR: http://earthednet.org/
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 4500 OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting