A highly controlled laboratory experiment was conducted that suggested computer-based image training of rock classifications can provide a useful supplement to physical rock training. Two groups of participants learned to classify samples of 12 major types of rocks during a training phase. One group was trained using computer images of the rock…

Teaching ecosystem services provides an ideal opportunity to use inquiry-based learning to help students make connections between ecological, geological, and social systems. The idea of ecosystem services, or the benefits nature provides to society, has emerged as a key concept in a host of environmental fields and is just beginning to gain…

Using an ALTA II reflectance spectrometer, the USGS digital spectral library, graphs of planetary spectra, and a few mineral hand samples, one can teach how light can be used to study planets and moons. The author created the hands-on, inquiry-based activity for an undergraduate planetary science course consisting of freshman to senior level…

To support teachers in enhancing ocean literacy, the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) has developed a series of portable, hands-on science kits on selected topics in oceanography. This paper provides an overview of kit content, describes how the kits were developed, and evaluates their efficacy as a curriculum…

Curriculum materials designed to provide students with practice interpreting plotted evidence of global climate change were developed using graphs from the scientific literature and tested with one hundred urban high school students from a high-poverty school in a major northern city in the US. The graph interpretation lessons followed a…