Analyzes narrative essays--stories of rock formation--written by pre-service elementary school teachers. Reports startling misconceptions among preservice teachers on pebbles that grow, human involvement in rock formation, and sedimentary rocks forming as puddles as dry up, even though these students had completed a college level course on Earth…

Argues that it is possible to evaluate the excellence of academic documents involving the study of geosciences K-16 by using the Geoscience Academic Excellence Model which was developed by scientific societies including the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences. (Author/YDS)

Describes a mathematics and science project designed to help students gain some familiarity with constellations and trigonometry by using the TI-83 calculator as a tool. Specific constellations such as the Big Dipper (Plough) and other sets of stars are located using stereographic projection and graphed using scatterplots. (MM)

Students live in a world that is powered by petroleum and other energy resources to an unsurpassed degree. The United States today consumes more than 24% of all the energy used in the world--and about 60% of this energy is provided by petroleum (oil and natural gas). The availability of abundant, inexpensive energy is the main reason that the…

Prelingual deafness and developmental dyslexia have confounding developmental effects on reading acquisition. Therefore, standard reading assessment methods for diagnosing dyslexia in hearing people are ineffective for use with deaf people. Recently, Samar, Parasnis, and Berent (2002) reported visual evoked potential evidence that deaf poor…

Suggests that instructors can foster the growth of thinking skills and promote science literacy by incorporating active learning strategies into the classroom. Describes situations in which a variety of learning strategies were incorporated into large earth science courses for non-majors. Improvements in student achievement, retention, and logical…

Balls made of modelling clay (Plasticine[TM]) can be used to generate a classroom discussion about the scientific evidence used to determine the structure of the Earth. This allows pupils to appreciate how evidence is used to support hypotheses and to distinguish fact from hypothesis. It also provides opportunity to correct misconceptions held by…

This article explores issues related to the choice of goals and approaches for advancing sustainability in higher education through research. The paper argues that diverse nature of the questions, issues and problems facing advocates of sustainability in higher education requires a willingness to adopt an eclectic approach to the choice of…

By using stream restoration as a seminar theme, geography faculty can create a topical course that helps provide a shared intellectual agenda for both physical and human geography students, while highlighting the holistic strengths of our discipline. Although it is not necessary that faculty have prior knowledge about the topic, a willingness to…

George Roberts has been teaching ninth-grade Earth science in Gardston, Iowa, for 10 years. This year, as chair of the Gardston High School's science department, he agreed to have all the English Language Learner (ELL) students assigned to his classes. George's goal was to learn more about the needs of these students and arrive at a set of…

This report describes an inquiry-based Earth systems curriculum and strategies for teaching diverse students, which were embedded in the curriculum. The curriculum was implemented with 5th-grade students with varied linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds in five schools in a large, southeastern U.S., urban school district. At the end…

Geoscience topics are playing an increasingly important role with regard to the future of our planet. Consequently, they have been moving into the educational foreground because of their societal relevance. The question is, however: Are pupils interested in these topics? This is important didactically, for interest is both a prerequisite and a…

In this study we inquired into the qualifications of public secondary school teachers by examining whether or not teachers met the No Child Left Behind Act's ([NCLB] 2002) definition of "highly qualified" immediately prior to the law's enactment. We examined this by core academic subjects (English, social studies, math, and science) and,…

This study examines the possibilities of differential impacts on students' earth science learning outcomes between different preferred-actual learning environment spaces by using a newly developed ESCLEI (Earth Science Classroom Learning Environment Instrument). The instrument emphasizes three simultaneously important classroom components:…

Conversational technologies such as email, chat rooms, and blogs have made the transition from novel communication technologies to powerful tools for learning. Currently virtual worlds are undergoing the same transition. We argue that the next wave of innovation is at the level of the computer interface, and that mixed-reality environments offer…