Redesigning the Large General Education Oceanography Course

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Redesigning the Large General Education
Oceanography Course

• By
• William A. Prothero, Jr

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Collaborators

• Prof Greg Kelly, Graduate School of Education
• Prof. Charles Bazerman, Graduate School of
  Education
• Numerous bright graduate students
• Holly Dodson Cathy Chen
• Allison Takao Julie Esch
• Jacqueline Regev Jose Constantine
• Some of the materials and ideas for this
  presentation were inspired by Daniel Edelson
  (Northwestern Univ) and Curtis Bonk (Indiana
  University)

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Three factors are converging that make this a
very interesting time for education
I. Better Technology
II. Learner Demands
III. Better Pedagogy
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Research into learning tells us

• Students must be challenged and engaged
• Prior knowledge can inhibit deep understanding
• Content learned passively does not transfer well
  to a meaningful situations where it can be
  applied
• Ref How People Learn, National Research Council,
  2000.

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Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice
National Survey of Student Engagementhttp//www.
iub.edu/nsse/students.shtml
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Our Gen Ed Science Courses

• Are often one of the only (or very few) science
  courses non-science majors take.
• Are vital to building a science literate
  electorate.
• Address a need for our population to be informed
  about critical environmental issues.

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Our methods vs our desired outcome

• Our methods do not support our goals
• Currently we emphasize
• Memorization of facts
• Passive reception of information (listening,
  reading)
• Practicing simple skills out of context
• We want citizens who can
• Perform complex tasks
• Gather and synthesize information
• Communicate with others

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What are the activities that scientists engage in?

• Asking questions (posing a problem)
• Collecting evidence (exploring data)
• Discussing, arguing, listening to peers
• Communicating their results
• Writing papers
• Scientific argumentation
• Observe, describe, interpret
• Applying their knowledge to relevant and
  meaningful problems.

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Elements of science process
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Approach for Introductory Oceanography

• Use the practices of scientists as a model for
  class activities
• Learn background knowledge
• Choose a problem that can be solved by the
  available data
• Acquire data
• Discuss preliminary findings with peers
• Present preliminary results
• Publish final paper

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Context

• Large general education oceanography course
• 100-300 students each quarter
• All majors Physics lt--gt Dance
• Freshman thru Seniors

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(No Transcript)
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Relevance to meaningful problems

• Each student joins a group that represents a
  country or region
• Course writing assignments require that the
  student teams (2-4) present the material from the
  viewpoint of the country they represent.

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Benefits

• Greater student engagement
• Appreciation for science process
• Deeper understanding of underlying theory
• Encourages critical thinking about science claims
  in the media

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Student Feedback

• High A B C D E
  Low
• Lecture 17, 10, 27, 18, 27
• Labs 42, 28, 21, 8, 1
• Kyoto Conf 26, 31, 23, 14, 6
• Thought questions 14, 22, 27, 27, 11
• Questions of the Day 9, 25, 27, 23, 16
• Weekly quizzes 18, 33, 25, 15, 9
• Weekly homeworks 19, 28, 27, 15, 11
• Writing assignments 31, 37, 19, 6, 6
• Course was difficult 16, 22, 37, 14, 11
• Interesting and relevant 20, 42, 23, 9, 6
• Worked hard 40, 24, 22, 9, 5
• Learned a lot 28, 30, 14, 17, 11

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Our Dynamic Planet
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MArine Virtual Explorer(MARVE)
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Global Ocean Data Viewer
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WorldWatcher CD
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Fishbanks, a commercial fishing simulation game.
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Internet data resources

• Online data from Lamont, PMEL, and others
• Science and society CIESEN, United Nations,
  CIA Factbook, and many others
• See Mini-studies at http//oceanography.geol.ucsb
  .edu/ for links.

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Challenges students face

• Mastering EarthEd and data browsing software
• Choosing a problem
• Separating observations from interpretations
• Scientific writing and argumentation
• Using/obtaining background knowledge
• Getting appropriate guidance and feedback
• Gaining confidence

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Mastering software

• Lecture time software demonstrations
• Extensive help in Guide window for each screen.
• Scaffolding
• Initial data access is done in section, in groups
• Troublesome operations are included in early
  assignments
• Items
• Each student has a copy of the CD and most
  install on their own computer.
• Software updates are automatically downloaded and
  installed.

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Background knowledge

• Weekly online homework assignments directed at
  the weeks lab activities (auto graded)
• Weekly thought problem assignments directed at
  the lecture content, tightly coupled to lab
  assignments. All answers are posted to an online
  bulletin board. (Graded by TAs or undergraduate
  reader).
• Weekly mini-quizzes (auto graded online).
• Lecture and textbook
• Homeworks and mini-quizzes can be repeated as
  often as desired, with increasing penalties
  automatically applied after the due date.
• Current course grade can be computed at any
  time.

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Separating observations from interpretations

• Realize that the classification of assertions as
  observation or interpretation is context
  dependent.
• In-class Quick Writes provide hands-on
  experience making observations and
  interpretations, and provide material for more
  in-depth class discussion.
• Provide examples of what we consider to be
  observations and interpretations to students.
• Lab section activities include student
  presentations, which provides an opportunity for
  student and TA feedback.

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Framework for writing assignments

• Perspective science advisor to the President.
• Determine which phenomenon, within the scope of
  the writing assignment, most strongly impacts to
  the country the learner is representing.
• Learn the theory
• Find data to support some aspect of the theory or
  its predictions
• Make a scientific argument based on the data,
  that explains the process and impact to the
  students country.
• Supporting activities include
• Class presentations
• Small group discussion
• Final 1800 word paper

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Helping students get started

• Begin with a narrow range of problem choices
• Examples
• lab activity to find the earths plates using
  earthquake data
• Mini-study of a selected small area
• Create a mission
• Students divide into groups that represent all of
  the course topics from the point of view of
  their country. These country groups persist
  during the course.
• Mini-studies
• 2 hr loosely guided group explorations. Students
  form new, temporary groups, each doing a
  different mini-study. They share their expertise
  with their country group members.
• Writing assignments draw from the mini-studies
  for guidance and data sources.

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Example in-lecture activity

• Observe
• Describe
• Pair/share
• In writing
• Interpret
• Explain
• Models diagrams

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Science writing/argumentation

• Carefully written instructions on the structure
  of a science paper
• Rubric that sets clear grading standards
• Make the difference between a book report and
  the use of data clear.
• In-lecture practice activities
• Explicit instruction on elements of a scientific
  argument i.e. what are the issues that must be
  addressed in a science argument?

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Elements of a scientific argument---recognizing
and including statements which

1. include an observation, or description of an
   observation
2. name or classify an observation in terms of
   geological features
3. describe a feature that has been observed and
   classified, or that the author implies has been
   observed and classified, even if supporting
   observations are lacking
4. describe relationships between different observed
   and classified features
5. describe or explain a model or theory
6. describe relationships between and/or observed
   features that match (or disagree with) model
   features

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Summary of important strategies

• Scaffolding of all critical skills
• Software
• Group work and presentations
• Science process and writing
• Clear descriptions of the assignments and grading
• Access to current assignment and course grade(s)
• Rubric for writing assignment grading
• Relevance
• Importance of subject matter to society or the
  students life and interests
• Rewards and accountability
• Performance grades

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The End

• http//oceanography.geol.ucsb.edu