This study investigated whether an Earth Systems-based course focused on raising postgraduate students' awareness of sustainability, from a systems-thinking perspective, would produce graduates with commitment to drive the sustainability agenda forward with a broad perspective. It investigated students' pre and post-course perceptions of…

There is no doubt that integrated concepts inspire students and take learning to a new level. As we fly, we fly through the magnetic field of the Earth. We used the concepts involved in flying to develop an exercise that bonds geology, physics and life sciences.

This thesis describes the development and deployment of a cyberinfrastructure for distributed high-throughput computations of materials properties at high pressures and/or temperatures--the Virtual Laboratory for Earth and Planetary Materials--VLab. VLab was developed to leverage the aggregated computational power of grid systems to solve…

Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students often participate in programs being evaluated, yet they are generally excluded from being involved in the evaluation process. In addition, the staff of organizations that conduct evaluations are predominately White and often implement research methods that may perpetuate racial biases and unequal power…

Previous work on seductive details has demonstrated that interesting but irrelevant messages hinder students' text learning. Considering that there is little evidence suggesting the relationship between seductive details and prior knowledge, the present study examined how seductive details affect learning in terms of prior knowledge to address the…

There is increasing emphasis on the importance of making Graduate Attributes (GAs) explicit to students as part of their degree programme and the role of students themselves in proactively developing GAs. The aim of the present project was to encourage students to actively develop and reflect upon curricular and extra-curricular attributes at an…

The objective of the present study is to determine the effect of the process of designing a slowmation (SMA) on the development of 21st century skills of "learning and innovation" in 4th grade science class "Light and Sound" and "Planet Earth" units. Study group included 44 students attending 4th grade in two private…

Faculty play an important role in attracting students to the geosciences, helping them to thrive in geoscience programs, and preparing them for careers. Thus, faculty have the responsibility to work toward broadening participation in the geosciences by implementing equitable and inclusive practices in their teaching and their programs. Faculty…

Increasing diversity in the geosciences has remained a challenge, despite large investments made by federal agencies in minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and historically black universities and colleges (HBCUs). With increasing challenges associated with climate and environmental change and severe and frequent natural disasters that…

Internationally, there has been increasing emphasis on the teaching of the academic literacies, particularly reading and writing, in higher education institutions. However, recent research is highlighting the need for more explicit teaching of multimodal forms of communication, such as the visual literacies, in undergraduate courses in a wide…

Geoscientists analyze and integrate spatial and temporal information at a range of scales to understand Earth processes. Despite this, the concept of scale is ill defined and taught unevenly across the K-16 continuum. This literature review focuses on two meanings of scale: one as the magnitude of the extent of a dimension and the other as a…

Engaging students in authentic problem solving concerning environmental issues in near-surface complex Earth systems involves both developing student conceptualization of Earth as a system and applying that scientific knowledge using techniques that model those used by professionals. In this first paper of a two-part series, we review the state of…

Identifying instruments and surveys to address geoscience education research (GER) questions is among the high-ranked needs in a 2016 survey of the GER community (St. John et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a student-centered assessment instrument to measure course experience in a general education integrated…

A simulated physical model of volcanic processes using a glass art studio greatly enhanced enthusiasm and learning among urban, middle- to high-school aged, largely underrepresented minority students in Newark, New Jersey. The collaboration of a geoscience department with a glass art studio to create a science, technology, engineering, arts, and…

Summer camps have proven to be effective tools to engage students in the geosciences. Findings from this study highlight perceptions and experiences of middle school students from predominantly African American school districts in Mississippi who attended a 3-d residence camp focused on increasing interest in the geosciences through an earth…