[G-04] Geoscience education from elementary school to university students

[G04-09] A Modern Approach to Teaching Geoscience Courses

*Masato Yanagida¹, Kim Nielsen¹ (1.Utah Valley University)

Keywords:geoscience, education, computational methods, modern pedagogy

Modern pedagogy studies have shown that engaged learning practices are superior in comparison to traditional lecture style formats. Examples of engaged learning practices often used in geosciences are think-pair-share, group activities with inquiry learning, jigsaw learning, hands-on practices, and interactive problem solving. While these various learning approaches enforces critical thinking and problem solving, the course materials used often lack a critical component in modern science: the ability to solve problems using computational approaches. Even at university levels this is not a standard learning objective. Furthermore, the assessments of these modern practices are often using a traditional assessment format consisting of homework, midterm exam, and final exams.

In this presentation, we will show how computational approaches can be incorporated into the high school as well as university level curriculum together with a more suitable assessment approach known as competency grading or standard-based grading. The computational aspect of the course material is utilizing Jupyter Book, a tool to publish e-books/e-notes with embedded python computational support. As part of this demonstration, we present three examples of course material applicable to geoscience education including full lesson plans including learning outcomes, lecture notes, video material, in-class activities, and assessment plan.