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Enhancing Geoscience Teaching with Diverse Data Sets

Learn how to incorporate diverse data sets into your geoscience courses to engage students, promote active learning, and enhance understanding of complex concepts. Explore resources, activities, and strategies for effective use of data in academics.

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Enhancing Geoscience Teaching with Diverse Data Sets

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  1. Preparing for an Academic Career in Geosciences Workshop: Summer 2014 Incorporating Data into Undergraduate Courses • Rachel O’Brien, Allegheny College

  2. Data sets are flexible • Data and assignments can be tailored to reach a broad range of student groups K-12 Graduate courses • Can be used in one class/lab session or throughout an entire course

  3. Data sets are cost-effective • Majority of online sources are now free • Simple, low-cost field and lab work Data sets are concept-effective • Allow for compare/contrast work at a range of spatial & temporal scales • Single or multi-concept patterns

  4. Data sets are engaging • Allow students the opportunity to practice science and promote active learning Data sets are real • Require students to grapple with issues of complexity, uncertainty, and outliers

  5. Ocean Circulation Profiles Classic textbook Pacific high latitude Atlantic low latitude http://www.epic.noaa.gov/epic/ewb/

  6. Data sets are diverse in topic , scope, and format • Data from new research • Field work and/or lab work in your course • A genuine research experiment • Data from published literature • Journal articles, government documents, NGO reports • Recreate/rediscover research results and test hypotheses

  7. Data sets are diverse in topic , scope, and format • Online datasets • Site specific, regional, and global databases • “Mine” the site for data that can help you teach particular concepts and/or skills

  8. A great place to start http://serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/index.html

  9. Data sets are not stand alone resources • Design how you’ll use data • Identify clear student learning outcomes regarding content, concepts, and/or skills • What steps in the process are most important for your students to practice? (collection and reduction vs. analysis and reporting) • How will you address uncertainty, outliers, etc.?

  10. Data sets are not foolproof • Logistics • Work through all steps of the process ahead of time • Envision and create “Plan B” • Evaluation/assessment Did the use of data help student learning? How will you know?

  11. Earthquake Data USGS Earthquake Hazards Program & SCEC So. California Earthquake Center

  12. Hydrologic Data USGS Water Resources Division

  13. Satellite ImageryNASA Earth Observatory

  14. Sample Activity: Radiation Budget Learning Outcomes: 1. Construct global and local energy budget from observed longwave and solar radiation. 2. Relate results to spatial and temporal variations in Earth’s temperature. Time: Takes about 3 hours for students in teams, requires familiarity with GIS or MyWorld A complete description of this activity is available at SERC, called Earth’s Energy Budget by Dave Dempsey

  15. Sample Activity: Ice Core Analysis Learning Outcomes: 1. Graph profiles of ice core data using Excel 2. Relate changes in profile to past variations in CO2, temperature, and climate cycles Time: Takes about 4 hours A complete description of this activity, called Vostek Ice Core by Robert MacKay, is available at SERC

  16. Exploration activity • Choose a course you would like to teach • Identify student learning outcomes that result from working with the data • Determine the duration of time needed to complete the activity • Identify a website with datasets that could be used in the course –OR- identify new datasets that the students can generate –OR- find an existing activity you can use on the SERC website

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