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EOS-SEI: Summary of work to date
There are currently 4 STLFs in EOS: Francis Jones, Brett Gilley, Erin Lane and Josh Caulkins. The STLFs work with the EOS CWSEI department liaison Sara Harris, the EOS Teaching Initiatives Committee, and individual faculty.
Course transformation work
EOSC 111 – Laboratory Exploration of Planet EarthFaculty: Sara Harris (and Stuart Sutherland except 2008 while he is on leave)
STLF: Brett Gilley
- Developed course level goals:
- Make interpretations and draw conclusions based on observations and evidence in an earth system science context
- Apply qualitative and quantitative approaches to earth system data and samples
- Appreciate that earth systems science is exciting and relevant to society and our lives
- Recognize the interconnectedness of earth system science
- Drafted lab level learning goals for all labs
- 3 labs completely rewritten: Plankton, Sediments, and Introduction
- Minor rewrites (for uniform appearance, improved activities, and invention activities), edits, and modification of activities for: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Estuaries, Dinosaurs, Hydrogeology, Minerals, Waves, and Fossils.
- 3 labs identified for rewrites: Fossils and Geologic Time, Estuaries, and Waves
- Developed assessment questions for all labs. Pre/Post Assessments been completed and evaluated for Spring 2008.
- Iteration of Pre/Post Assessment for 5 of the labs completed for Summer 2008 (Intro, Minerals, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Fossils, and waves), pre and post assessments have been administered to students
- Iteration and improvement of the assessments is proceeding for Fall 2008
- Observations of most labs to see students reaction in labs.
- Focus groups and interviews of students completed in spring 2008
EOSC 112 – The Fluid Earth - Atmosphere and Oceans
Faculty: Roger Francois, Leah (May) Ver and Sara Harris
STLF: Ben Kennedy, Erin Lane
- Refocused the class towards a more relevant theme of climate change past and present.
- Developed course level goals and sketched out topic level goals (and hence course structure) for the whole course.
- Currently working in detail on lectures and lecture activities for an individual topic to develop a template for further topics.
- Developed an end of year survey designed to help address questions we have about the course.
- Shown results of end of term survey used this to focus changes in course material and delivery - link here.
- Developed a detailed goal centric template for the lecture structure.
- Created a lecture structure that includes: A) Clicker questions, B) In class think pair share activities, C) Emphasis on relevance to real world, D) Open ended discussion questions, E) Feedback from previous discussion board.
- Further developed discussion board with grade incentives for student participation and feedback.
- Created Introductory class that introduces overall concepts and involves student participation and discussion.
EOSC 114 – The Catastrophic Earth - Natural Disasters
Faculty: Roland Stull, Erik Eberhardt, MaryLou Bevier, and Sara Harris
STLFs: Francis Jones (primary), Brett Gilley and Ben Kennedy also involved
Students:
-
Jamil Rhajiak (Undergrad student, involved with interviews & focus groups),
- Eva Schaffer (Undergrad summer student working on development of the Questions Database)
- Updated the end-of-term evaluation questionnaires for students and administered the survey to roughly 850 students at the end of Fall and Spring terms. The purposes are to (a) provide feedback about how well aspects of the course are helping students learn and how well the students feel they understand the material, and (b) serve as a prototype for end-of-term surveys in other courses in the Department. More details are on the feedback page.
- Classroom observations to document several aspects of how this course operates have been carried out, mainly in the Spring term.
- Learning goals at the course level and topic level have been developed and refined.
- Developing in-class activities to foster significant interaction between professor and students. Activities include improved clicker questions and “think-pair-share” 5-minute paper problems. Use of video was modified from 15 min “movies” to short clips which are tightly coupled with the lecture content.
- A database of exam questions for this course (and others) is being developed (the Questions DB project).
- Just-in-time teaching (JiTT) will be implemented for the first time in Fall 2008.
- JiTT is being accompanied with a change in textbook, to one consisting of custom content provided by a major publisher.
- Student interviews and focus groups were conducted to gain a better understanding of the student experience in the course, what they are learning, and what they are having difficulty learning. More details are on the feedback page.
- Adjusting content to focus on newly developed course-level goals (particularly in the “Storms” module, which used to focus on atmospheric physics).
- All clicker questions used in spring 2008 were compiled into one document along with bar-graphs summarizing student responses. Ask F. Jones for details.
EOSC 210 – Earth Sciences for Engineers
Faculty: Erik Eberhardt and Ulrich Mayer
STLF: Brett Gilley
- Developed course-level goals:
- Recognize and differentiate the adverse effects that earth processes can have on engineering designs and vice versa
- Use case histories to demonstrate how unrecognized geologic factors have led to past failed engineering designs, cost overruns, fatalities, and environmental problems and how we have learned from these past mistakes.
- Relate the effects that large scale and long term geologic processes can have on specific site conditions
- Distinguish various rock and soil types, their mechanical and hydrologic properties, and their significance to different types of engineering projects
- Explain that rock and soil properties can vary with space and time and how this makes them difficult to characterize
- Communicate confidently with geoscientists when working together on a project
- Observe our planet from a more enthusiastic and informed perspective to aid in the process of becoming a responsible professional
- Draft learning goals for all lectures
- Identified potential cases for later development into Case studies: Subsidence in Mexico City or remediation – groundwater; Importance of mineral variation in drilling operations; Residual Soils – Hong Kong, Singapore; Environmental aspects of locating minesites; Coal mining in Eastern BC (or Bellingham) for structure; Richmond- Earthquakes; Gravel source case – for glaciers; Trans arctic pipeline for permafrost; Mississippi – fluvial, New Orleans – coastal, Sea to sky highway for landslides; Alp transit base tunnels; Deciding on one for Dams
- Looking for good case studies for: Metamorphic rocks, Sedimentary rocks, Igneous rocks, Hydrogeology, Geologic time, Plate tectonics,
- Identified Course framework (Fookes – Site total geologic history ) – Prior to undertaking engineering project you must to consider the total history of the site.
- Completed student focus groups on last year’s course.
EOSC 212 – Imaging the Earth
Faculty: Mark Jellinek, Michael Bostock
STLF: Francis Jones
This course is already highly interactive, and aims to strength student's higher level scientific reading and thinking skills using general articles on Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. Aspects of Team Based Learning (TBL) are already used in the course. Therefore, the project’s aims are:
- to ensure the course is aligned with the Department’s curricular context,
- to improve and broaden the assessment options,
- actively foster improvement of scientific reading and thinking skills, and assess this learning;
- for each module, provide better guidance for students on what to focus upon when reading,
- develop course guidelines to enhance transfer to new instructors,
- consider opportunities to study how students develop high level cognitive and metacognitive skills,
- develop ways of helping weekly guest speakers align their contributions to the course goals, and to assess student learning from these guest speakers.
Work completed to date includes:
- Course-level goals have been developed which focus upon high-level scientific reading, thinking and communicating skills.
- Content specific goals have also been developed for several 1-2 week modules.
- A revised pedagogic and learning strategy for the first module is nearing completion (June 2008).
- Subsequent modules will be modified according to the resulting template, and will involve other faculty who give “guest lectures” in this course.
EOSC 220 – Introductory Mineralogy
Faculty: Stuart Mills, Ken Hickey, Mati Raudsepp, Lee Groat, Greg Dipple
STLF: Ben Kennedy, Erin Lane, Brett Gilley, Josh Caulkins
Graduate student: Jackie Dohaney
- Developed course level goals for the laboratory and lecture component of the course.
- Developed a new structure of the course and labs insuring a direct correlation between laboratory assignments and lectures.
- Conducted focus groups and email questionnaires and rejected the immediate introduction of a new course textbook in favor of directed weekly reading.
- Jackie Dohaney has developed a new, detailed and innovative laboratory structure introducing tested effective learning strategies.
- Jackie has also produced a template laboratory assignment and marking strategy.
- Email questionnaires were designed and sent to students and their responses collected in order to direct the course restructuring.
- Jackie also wrote the first two new laboratory assignments and quizzes, all directly tied to goals.
- Gave these laboratories to a group of students, conducted a focus group.
- Jackie wrote up the pedagogy behind the new labs and the results of the focus group LINK HERE
- Stuart Mills has developed goal-based, more interactive lectures, that will act as a template for the rest of the lectures.
- Created a lecture structure that includes: A) Clicker questions, B) In class think pair share activities, C) Emphasis on relevance to real world, D) Open ended discussion questions, E) Feedback from previous discussion board
- Recruited guest lecturers to give a goal-based guest lecture that is integrated into the course.
- Continued progress writing both new style lectures and labs, with Jackie, Stuart and the guest lecturers.
- Began work with Erin, Brett, and Jackie on marking rubric and instructions for student poster and mineral book projects.
EOSC 221 – Introductory Petrology
Faculty: Mary Lou Bevier, Maya Kopylova
STLFs: Brett Gilley
Grad Stud: Kirsten Hodge
- Developed course level goals:
- Describe the modal mineralogy and texture of a rock.
- Classify (assign complete names to) rocks, using published schemes employed by professionals.
- Use fundamental petrographic observations to identify minerals and rock textures in thin section.
- Describe rock-forming processes.
- Evaluate the petrogenesis of rocks and rock associations in a plate tectonic context.
- Assess or evaluate how petrology transfers to other fields of study.
- Developing lab learning goals and redesigning lab activities, the new activities will tie more closely into both the course framework and the development of petrologic skills.
- Developed lecture level goals and linkages to lab activities.
- Pre/post assessment administered and evaluated in Spring 2008
- Undertook small study comparing student success to which first year courses they have taken (and at which institution).
- Labs are being mostly redesigned. Drafts of Labs 5 – 8 are complete
- Rough drafts (outlines of activities) complete for labs 1 – 4
- Draft lecture level goals have been completed
- Focus groups with past and present students completed in Fall 2007.
EOSC 322 –Metamorphic Petrology
Faculty: Greg Dipple
STLFs: Erin Lane
First teaching term during transformation was January - April 2009
EOSC 355 – The Planets
Faculty: Catherine Johnson
STLFs: Francis Jones
New course, first taught January - April 2009
EOSC 211 – Computer Methods in Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty: Rich Pawlowicz & Catherine Johnson
STLFs: Josh Caulkins
Initial work January - August 2009
EOSC 323 – Tectonic Evolution of North America
Faculty: Jim Mortensen
STLFs: Brett Gilley
First teaching term during transformation was January - April 2009
Other courses
Several courses are getting "unofficial" support with establishing learning goals, archiving for transfer to new instructors, or in other ways.
These include eosc116, eosc252, eosc350, eosc324, envr200 and envr300.
Overarching project components
Research projects: Please see the EOS-SEI research page.
Curriculum Development
Faculty: All members of TIC (chair Sara Harris) and Curriculum (chair Susan Allen) committees
STLF: Francis Jones
Undergraduate Student: - Jamil Rhajiak (interviews and focus groups of service course students)
- Two aspects of curriculum review and development are (a) service courses, and (b) degree program streams (of which there are 17). We have started by focusing upon service courses.
- Completed interviews of faculty involved in courses for non-science majors to determine the curriculum goals.
- Undergraduate student Jamil Rahjiak conducted student interviews and focus groups between February and May, to gain perspectives on EOS courses taken by non-majors.
- The EOS Teaching Initiatives and Curriculum committees have jointly developed a 4-year plan for involving Faculty and eos-sei staff in curriculum review and development for all programs.
TA Training
Faculty: Sara Harris
STLF: Brett Gilley
- The Fall 2007 cohort of the TA training course was smaller than expected, but a great success for the participants.
- Working with Physics and Astronomy to develop a Teaching Attitudes Survey
- Developed course level goals
- Create an environment conducive to learning for diverse groups of students
- Develop strategies for fostering student inquiry and independent learning while meeting students’ need for support
- Formulate learning objectives for TA-led activities
- Engage in critical reflection on your teaching practice
- Evaluate and provide feedback to students and peers
- Design and implement mini-lessons using the frameworks provided
- Draft schedule for September offering
- Advertising to all incoming grads
- Identified Head TAs for the fall offering.
Attitudinal survey
Faculty:
- Data from the Fall Term non-majors courses has been analyzed and is quite favorable.
- Student interviews were performed to validate the survey and unvalidated questions were removed as were questions with too high (90%) agreements with experts.
- Expert answers have been validated by faculty completing the online survey.
- The early semester survey was completed and the end of semester survey is currently up and running.
Faculty development and other project components
Faculty: Sara Harris and many other faculty members.
- See also the EOS-SEI research page.
- See also the EOSSEI-Times newsletter, and Faculty Resources.
- Broader departmental involvement is being fostered via brown bag seminars, the bulletin board, and paper of the week. Seminar topics have included Discussion of clicker questions, attitudinal survey report, end-of-term surveys, improving science article reading skills, and others.
- Occasional workshops on teaching / learning topics are presented for EOS, UBC, and wider audiences.
