Using EarthComm Features in Your Classroom

For example, in Earth’s Dynamic Geosphere, Chapter 1: Volcanoes and Your Community, students are asked to create a screenplay for a thrilling yet informative and scientifically correct movie about volcanoes. Students are naturally intrigued by the dramatic effects and forces of natural hazards, and can easily relate to films they have seen that focus on natural disasters (Volcano, Dante’s Peak, Deep Impact, and so on). But unless they live in a volcanic region, it is unlikely that they have contemplated how volcanoes might affect their lives. Writing a story that is set in their community makes students think more deeply about the causes and effects of volcanism, and how volcanoes impact all communities because we live within a set of interconnected systems on Earth. All challenges require that students demonstrate solid understanding of Earth Science concepts and principles.

Another important element of the Chapter Challenge is that it provides opportunities for students with diverse interests and abilities to express their understanding in different ways. Challenges are completed in various ways. All involve writing to one extent or another, but some feature oral presentations, teaching, designing brochures, constructing models, creating web sites, or preparing formal presentations. Students who express themselves artistically will shine in some challenges, while those who enjoy designing and constructing will take a leading role in others.
Challenges are flexible enough to engage students at all levels of high school. Classes ranging from 9th grade integrated science to grades 11-12 honors, studying Earth Science, tested the challenges. Teachers establish different expectations for the students they teach, but the challenge is consistent.

4. Assessment Criteria
The completion of the challenge (the
final report or project) serves as the primary source of summative assessment information. Traditional assessment strategies often give too much attention to the memorization of terms or the recall of information. As a result, they often fall short of providing information about students’ ability to think and reason critically and apply information that they have learned. In EarthComm, the solutions students provide to Chapter Challenges provide information used to assess thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills that are essential to lifelong learning.
Assessment is one of the key areas that teachers need to be familiar with and understand when trying to envision implementing EarthComm. In any curriculum model, the mode of instruction and the mode of assessment are connected. In the best scheme, instruction and assessment are aligned in both content and process. However, to the extent that one becomes an impediment to reform the other, they can also be uncoupled. EarthComm uses multiple assessment formats. Some are non-traditional and are consistent with reform movements in science education that EarthComm is designed to promote. Project-based assessment, for example, is built into every EarthComm Chapter Challenge. At the same time, the developers acknowledge the need to support teachers whose classroom context does not allow them to depart completely from traditional assessment formats, such as paper and pencil tests.

An assessment instrument can imply but not determine its own best use. This means that EarthComm teachers can inadvertently assess chapter reports in ways that work against integrative thinking, a focus on important ideas, flexibility in approach, and consistency between assessment and the inferences made from that assessment.

All expectations should be communicated to students. Discussing the grading criteria and creating a general rubric are critical to student success. Better still, teachers can engage students in modifying and/or creating the criteria that will be used to assess their performance. Start by sharing the sample rubric with students and holding a class discussion. Questions that can be used to focus the discussion include: Why are these criteria included? Which activities will help you to meet these expectations? How much is required? What does an “A” presentation or report look like? The criteria should be revisited throughout the completion of the chapter, but for now students will have a clearer understanding of the challenge and the expectations they should set for themselves.

By the conclusion of the discussion of Assessment Criteria, students should have a clear “road map” of the structure of the chapter. They should have a sense as to why it is important to complete each activity in order to successfully meet the Chapter Challenge. They should be able to describe how each activity contributes toward the long-term goal.

6. Think about It
One of the most fundamental principles derived from many years of research on student learning is that:

“Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for the purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.” (How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice, National Research Council, 1999, P. 10.)

This principle has been illustrated through the Private Universe series of videotapes that show Harvard graduates responding to basic science questions in much the same way that fourth grade students do. Although the videotapes revealed that the Harvard graduates used a more sophisticated vocabulary, the majority held onto the same naïve incorrect conceptions of elementary school students. Research on learning suggests that the belief systems of students who are not confronted with what they believe and adequately shown why they should give up that belief system remain intact. Real learning requires confronting one’s beliefs and testing them in light of competing explanations.

Drawing out and working with students’ preconceptions is important for learners. In EarthComm, Think about It is used to ascertain students’ prior knowledge about the key concept or Earth Science processes or events explored in each activity. Students verbalize what they think about the age of the Earth, the causes of volcanoes, or the way that the landscape changes over time before they embark on an activity designed to challenge and test these beliefs. A brief discussion about the diversity of beliefs in the classroom makes students consider how their ideas compare to others and the evidence that supports their view of volcanoes, earthquakes, or seasons.

The Think about It question is not a conclusion, but a lead into inquiry. It is not designed to produce the correct answer or a debate about the features of the question, or to bring closure. The activity that follows will provide that discussion as the results of inquiry are analyzed. Students are encouraged to record their ideas in words and/or drawings to ensure that they have considered their prior knowledge. After students discuss their ideas in pairs or in small groups, teachers activate a class discussion. A discussion with fellow students prior to class discussion may encourage students to exchange ideas without the fear of personally giving a “wrong answer.” Teachers sometimes have students exchange papers and volunteer responses that they find interesting.

The “humorous illustration” above each Think about It section was designed to stimulate student thinking. In our field test edition of EarthComm, we used photographs of events and processes to stimulate thinking. However, we came to realize that illustrations would provide greater flexibility to stimulate students to begin to make the specific kinds of connections emphasized in each activity. For example, the first activity in Earth’s Dynamic Geosphere Chapter 1 is titled “Where are the Volcanoes?” The Think about It question asks students “Can volcanoes form anywhere on Earth? Why or why not?” While some might argue that a photograph of a volcanic eruption would be most appropriate here, the drawing of a volcanic eruption occurring in a backyard barbeque used in the activity stimulates further thinking: “Could a volcano occur in my backyard?” Most students have experienced a summer cookout, but few have experienced a volcanic eruption. The context of the drawing is more relevant to students and makes it easier to stimulate student thinking about phenomena that they have never experienced.

7. Investigate
EarthComm is a hands-on, minds-on curriculum. In designing EarthComm, we were guided by the belief that doing Earth Science is essential to learning Earth Science. Testing of EarthComm activities by teachers across America provided critical testimonial about the importance of the activities to student learning. In small groups and as a class, students take part in doing hands-on experiments, participating in field work, or searching for answers using the Internet and reference materials. Blackline Masters are included in the Teacher’s Edition for any maps or illustrations that are essential for students to complete the activity.

Each part of an EarthComm activity, as well as the sequence of activities within a chapter, moves from concrete to abstract. Hands-on activities provide the basis for exploring student beliefs about how the world works and to manipulate variables that affect the outcomes of experiments, models, or simulations. Later in each activity, formal labels are applied to concepts by introducing terminology used to describe the processes that students have explored through hands-on activity. This flow from concrete (hands-on) to abstract (formal explanations) is progressive – students begin to develop their own explanations for phenomena by responding to questions within the Investigate section.

Each activity has instructions for each part of the investigation. The community focus of EarthComm makes investigating the world more relevant to students. Have any volcanoes occurred in my state in the past? Have we ever experienced a major earthquake? What mineral resources exist in my community? Activities were designed with regard to the cost of materials and equipment needed. Many resources can be readily obtained in the community (local rock or soil samples, for example) or brought in to school by students (plastic two-liter soda bottles). Materials kits are available for purchase, but you will also need to obtain some resources from outside suppliers, such as topographic and geologic maps of your community, state, or region. The EarthComm web site will direct you to sources where you can gather such materials.

Most Investigate activities will require between one and two class periods. The variety of school schedules and student needs makes it difficult to predict exactly how much time your class will need. For example, if students need to construct a graph for part of an investigation, and the students have never been exposed to graphing, then this may require additional introductory lessons on the construction and interpretation of graphs.
The most challenging aspect of EarthComm for teachers to “master” is that the Investigate section of each activity has been designed to be student-driven. Students learn more when they have to struggle to “figure things out” and work in collaborative groups to solve problems as a team. Teachers will have to resist the temptation to provide the answers to students when they get “stuck” or hung up on part of a problem. Eventually, students learn that while they can call upon their teacher for assistance, the teacher is not going to “show them the answer.” Field testing of EarthComm revealed that teachers who were most successful in getting their students to solve problems as a team were patient with this process and steadfast in their determination to act as facilitators of learning during the Investigate portion of activities. As one teacher noted, “My response to questions during the investigation was like a mantra, ‘What do you think you need to do to solve this?’ My students eventually realized that although I was there to provide guidance, they weren’t going to get the solution out of me.”

Another concern that many teachers have when examining EarthComm for the first time is that their students do not have the background knowledge to do the investigations. They want to deliver a lecture about the phenomena before allowing students to do the investigation. Such an approach is common to many traditional programs and is inconsistent with the pedagogical theory used to design EarthComm. The appropriate place for delivering a lecture or reading text in EarthComm is following the investigation, not preceding it. For example, suppose a group of students has been asked to interpret a map. The traditional approach to science education is for the teacher to give a lecture or assign a reading, “How to Interpret Maps,” then give students practice reading maps. EarthComm teachers recognize that while students may lack some specific skills (reading latitude and longitude, for example), within a group of four students, it is not uncommon for at least one of the students to have a vital skill or piece of knowledge that is required to solve a problem. The one or two students who have been exposed to (or better yet, understood) latitude and longitude have the opportunity to shine within the group by contributing that vital piece of information or demonstrating a skill. That’s how scientific research teams work – specialists bring expertise to the group, and by working together, the group achieves something that no one could achieve working alone. The Investigate section of EarthComm is modeled in the spirit of the scientific research team.

8. Reflecting on the Activity and the Challenge
Each activity contributes to the solution of the Chapter Challenge. This feature gives students a brief summary of the activity. It helps students to relate the activity that they just completed to the “big picture.” Teachers also find this section useful for students who were absent for an investigation. In situations where students cannot make up the investigation (after school or during off-hours), teachers can use this section to provide an overview of what was missed. Although reading about the main point of an activity is a poor substitute to actually doing it, teachers find that the overview helps them deal with the reality of student absences and the hectic pace of school schedules.

9. Digging Deeper
This section provides text, illustrations, data tables, and photographs that give students greater insight into the concepts explored in the activity. Words that may be new or unfamiliar to students are defined and explained (so-called Geo Words). These are words that geologists use when discussing the concepts presented. This is not the same thing as stating that Geo Words are “important words,” or “words to be memorized.” Teachers use their own judgment about selecting the Geo Words that are most important for their students to learn. Teachers typically use discretion and consider their state and local guidelines for science content understanding when assigning importance to particular vocabulary, which in most cases is very likely to be a small subset of all the Geo Words introduced in each chapter.

Teachers often assign Check Your Understanding questions as homework to guide students to think about the major ideas in the text. Teachers can also select questions to use as quizzes, rephrasing the questions into multiple choice or “true/false” formats. This provides assessment information about student understanding and as a “motivational tool” to ensure that students complete the reading assignment and comprehend the main ideas.

This is the stage of the activity that is most appropriate for teachers to explain concepts to students in whole-class lectures or discussions. References to Blackline Masters are available throughout the Teacher’s Edition. They refer to illustrations from the textbook that teachers may photocopy and distribute to students or make overhead transparencies for lectures or presentations.

10. Understanding and Applying What You Have Learned
Questions in this feature ask students to use the key principles and concepts introduced in the activity. Students are sometimes presented with new situations in which they are asked to apply what they have learned. The questions in this section typically require higher-order thinking and reasoning skills than Check Your Understanding. Teachers can assign these questions as homework, or have students complete them in groups during class. Assigning them as homework economizes time available in class, but has the drawback of making it difficult for students to collectively revisit the understanding that they developed as they worked through the concepts as a group during the investigation. A third alternative is of course to assign the work individually in class. When students work through application problems in class, teachers have the opportunity to interact with students at a critical juncture in their learning – when they may be just on the verge of “getting it.”

11. Preparing for the Chapter Challenge
This feature suggests ways in which students can organize their work and get ready for the challenge. It prompts students to combine the results of their inquiry as they work through the chapter. Another one of the important principles of learning used to guide the selection of content in EarthComm is that:“To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.” (How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice, National Research Council, 1999, P. 12.)

This phase of an activity (Preparing for the Chapter Challenge) is an important metacognitive tool that makes students examine what they have learned in the activity and then think critically about the usefulness of the results of their inquiry. The process of synthesizing what they have learned in order to solve the Chapter Challenge forces students to take stock of their learning and evaluate whether or not they really understand “how it fits into the big picture.” It is important for teachers to guide students through this process with questions such as: “What part of your work best helps you to solve the challenge? How does what you learned help you to solve the challenge? How does this assignment relate to the criteria that we established for your chapter report? Are you making the best possible use of the evidence you have gathered?”

12. Inquiring Further
This feature provides lots of suggestions for helping students to deepen their understanding of the concepts and skills developed in the activity. It also gives students the opportunity to relate what they have learned to the Earth system. Teachers should review the suggestions and consider how the time available in class, the specific resources available to their students and/or in the school, and the needs and abilities of their students. Some of these suggestions make for excellent “do at home” investigations or Internet and library-based research projects. Some teachers assign Inquiring Further as “extra credit” projects. Some of the suggested activities in Inquiring Further may have particular relevance to your community. In such cases, make every attempt to integrate the activity into your instruction.

The most common complaint teachers make about Internet-based research stems from a concern about the limited amount of time students have available at school computers. The EarthComm web site has been designed to help students focus their research. By providing specific links helpful to each Inquiring Further activity on the site, students will gain access to useful information from stable web sites without spending time searching for information.

(Reference: How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice (1999) Suzanne Donovan, John Bransford, and James Pellegrino, editors. National Academy Press, Washington, DC. 78 pages. The report is also available online at http://www.nap.edu.