Most students know that planetary orbits, including Earth's, are elliptical; that is Kepler's first law, and it is found in many science textbooks. But quite a few are mistaken about the details, thinking that the orbit is very eccentric, or that this effect is somehow responsible for the seasons. In fact, the Earth's orbital eccentricity is…

This study is inspired by laboratory studies demonstrating that distributing study sessions over time better supports learning and retention than clustering sessions. We compare two implementations of a multi-day inquiry science unit: in the clustered instruction condition, students completed an inquiry unit in five consecutive class periods. In…

A goal of undergraduate geoscience programs is to prepare students for the geoscience workforce. In order to understand the extent to which programs succeed at this goal, we identified desired workforce skills, compiled undergraduate geoscience program requirements, and mapped workforce skills onto faculty responses to the 2016 National Geoscience…

The next generation of STEM professionals needs to understand interconnections between human and Earth systems to be able to address complex, multifaceted, emerging global environmental issues. Interest in STEM fields and professions can begin in middle school. To educate and connect middle school students to Earth systems and STEM fields, we…

The Polaris Project, a National Science Foundation-funded program at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, aims to comprehensively address minority participation in climate and Arctic science research. The project implemented design principles to recruit, motivate, and retain African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans or Alaskan Natives, and…

Polar research plays a vital role in developing our understanding of Earth's climate system. It is intrinsically interdisciplinary, lending itself to integration into existing undergraduate courses. Here we explore introducing undergraduates to polar research through computational guided inquiry (CGI) modules taught in a variety of courses and…

Situated learning experiences such as research apprenticeships can help connect girls to the sciences, ultimately helping to achieve gender equity in the science workforce. The material resources available in research apprenticeships--such as research equipment, field gear, etc.--may be particularly consequential for building identification with…

In the 21st century, mankind must acknowledge the roles of Polar Regions in global sustainability, especially its interrelationship with Earth's climate system. Notably, dissemination of science knowledge and awareness that arises through education, outreach, and effective communication are key instruments that can help towards environmental…

The article includes the results of theoretical studies of the accuracy of geodetic height survey and marks points on the Earth's surface using satellite technology. The dependence of the average square error of geodetic heights difference survey from the distance to the base point was detected. It is being proved that by using satellite…

The teaching of Earth Sciences (ES) is particularly delicate and seems to be problematic for both learners and Moroccan teachers for multiple reasons. Based on this observation, this study aims at identifying the difficulties related to the teaching of ES by exploring the points of view of the Moroccan teachers toward this field. As an…

Efforts to promote the use of student-centered learning environments in STEM education have been tempered by a lack of professional development strategies that help faculty overcome common barriers to reform. This study investigated the impact that adopting a suite of student-centered teaching materials had on the teaching practices and beliefs of…

The online learning environment can add substantial advantages to learning such as continuous access to material and the ability to foster learning through additional visual supplemental materials, but it can also add further challenges that may not be as evident when teaching traditional, face-to-face courses. An individual's place affiliation…

Using the National Center of Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), this report analyzes data on Native American recipients of bachelor's degrees among 16 physical science and engineering fields. Overall, Native Americans are earning physical science and engineering bachelor's degrees at lower rates than the…

Limited research has been done on the implementation of experiential learning to align with science and engineering practices. This research project developed an instrumental case study to examine the efficacy of an experiential education framework for teaching and learning water science and engineering practices in the elementary science…

The water cycle is a large, complex system that encompasses ideas across the K-12 science curriculum. By the time students leave fifth grade, they should understand "that a system is a group of related parts that make up a whole and can carry out functions its individual parts cannot" and be able to describe both components and processes…