Building Quantitative Skills of Students in Geoscience Courses: An NAGT Workshop to Examine Successful Practices and Promote Course and Curricular Revision

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Geology (42) This award supports a workshop, Building the Quantitative Skills of Students in Geoscience Courses, that will be offered in the summer of 2000. In the last century, the geosciences have changed from being a predominantly descriptive to a more quantitative science. However, many geoscience courses, particularly those at the entry-level, are non-quantitative, many faculty have little experience in effectively incorporating quantitative exercises into entry-level courses, and many students do not feel confident about their ability to use mathematics to solve geoscience problems or to make well-informed decisions as effective citizens. Thus, a central question facing geoscience education is the role of quantitative skills development in geoscience courses. The National Association of Geoscience Teachers workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to learn about best practices and current issues in building the quantitative skills of non-majors and majors, revise a particular course to more effectively use quantitative problems to promote deeper understanding of geoscience, develop specific activities and assignments for that particular course that engage students, and address other issues associated with teaching mathematical skills in context. Workshop presenters will share inquiry-based activities and assignments that are data-rich and promote active learning. Workshop participants will leave the workshop with specific strategies for developing, implementing, and assessing exercises that will build the quantitative skills of students and use effective pedagogies, all with an aim of improving student learning in geoscience courses. The workshop participants include geoscience and mathematics faculty members from a variety of institutions, including two-year institutions, and some geoscience graduate students. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend in teams that might include faculty members from paired two-year and four-year schools, geoscience and mathematics education faculty from the same institution, or a graduate teaching assistant and a geology faculty member. Presenters include geoscience and mathematics faculty from two-year and four-year colleges/universities. Issues addressed in the workshop include the specific quantitative skills to be developed, strategies to most effectively teach such skills, standards for teaching mathematics developed by the mathematics and mathematics education community, examples of best practices with a particular emphasis on entry-level geoscience courses, strategies to support students in learning more quantitative skills, and models for collaboration between geoscience and mathematics/mathematics education programs, various assessment strategies, and other related topics. Following the workshop, participants and presenters will submit activities, assignments, and problems sets to be included in an electronic publication to enable wide dissemination of workshop results.