For many years, Earth science concepts have been taught as thematic units with lessons in nice, neat chapter packages complete with labs and notes. But compartmentalized Earth science no longer exists, and implementing teaching methods that support student development of holistic understandings can be a time-consuming and difficult task. While…

Visual attention has temporal limitations. In the attentional blink (AB) a stream of stimuli such as letters or digits are presented to a participant on a computer monitor at a rapid rate. Embedded in the stream are two targets that the participant must try to identify. Identification of the second target is severely impaired if it is presented…

Geologic time scale is a very important concept for understanding long-term earth system events such as climate change. This study examines forty-three 4th-8th grade Native American--particularly Ojibwe tribe--students' understanding of relative ordering and absolute time of Earth's significant geological and biological events. This study also…

Laboratory sections of university Earth science courses provide hands-on, inquiry-based activities for students in support of lecture and discussion. Here, I compare student conceptual knowledge outcomes of laboratory sections by administering an independent concept inventory at the beginning and end of two courses: one that had a lecture and a…

This article describes an inquiry-based lesson to deepen preservice teachers' understanding of the spherical Earth model using the Global Positioning System. The lesson was designed with four learning goals: (1) to increase preservice teachers' conceptual knowledge of the spherical Earth model; (2) to develop preservice teachers'…

The National Research Council developed and published the "Framework for K-12 Science Education," a new set of concepts that many states were planning on adopting. Part of this new endeavor included a set of science and engineering crosscutting concepts to be incorporated into science materials and activities, a first in science…

We investigated the effect of modeling and visualization resources on upper-division, undergraduate and graduate students' performance on an open-ended assessment of their understanding of physical hydrology. The students were enrolled in one of five sections of a physical hydrology course. In two of the sections, students completed homework…

The ocean is home to some of Earth's most important producers. Single-celled organisms in the ocean are responsible for more than half of Earth's productivity, as well as most of its oxygen. Phytoplankton are single-celled, plantlike organisms. That is, they have chloroplasts and perform photosynthesis, but are not true plants, which are typically…

This qualitative study examined how college science faculty who teach introductory level undergraduate science courses including the fields of chemistry, biology, physics, and earth science, understand and define science and nature of science (NOS). Participants were seventeen science instructors from five different institutions in the…

This three-lesson sequence, addressing the topic of slow geomorphological change caused by water movement, integrates a Web-based system called Goinquire into a series of activities aimed to help upper-elementary, diverse students improve their observation skills and content knowledge in geomorphology. During the inquiry-based lessons, students…

When viewing objects of different colors, you might notice that some appear brighter than others. This is because light is reflected differently from various surfaces, depending on their physical properties. The word "albedo" is used to describe how reflective a surface is. The Earth-atmosphere has a combined albedo of about 30%, a number that is…

The purpose of this study was to construct an interpretation of lower track science students' notions of expertise in science teaching. Data were collected and transcribed from focus groups, teacher journals, classrooms events, and student artifacts. Students responded to focus group prompts over the course of a years regarding how and why they…

Teachers find the implementation of fieldwork challenging. Therefore, this study investigates two teachers' implementation of theoretical guidelines for student-centered fieldwork activities, following their participation in a professional development course focusing on earth science fieldwork pedagogy. Video observation and instructional…

Scientists, and science in general, move from the unknown to increasing levels of certainty. Teaching students about science means encouraging them to embrace and investigate the unknown, make reliable scientific claims, justify those claims with evidence, and evaluate the quality of the evidence. In all areas of science--and especially in…

The development and delivery of an Earth-science-focused short course designed to prepare Hong Kong students for university level study is described. Earth sciences provide an inspirational and challenging context for learning and teaching in Hong Kong's increasingly skills-based curriculum. (Contains 3 figures and 4 online resources.)