Collaborative Research: Using MARGINS Research Data Resources in the Classroom: Developing and Testing Multidisciplinary Mini-Lessons

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Geology (42)This collaborative project is generating and testing a set of multidisciplinary course materials, called MARGINS Mini-Lessons, that repurpose the rich data and visualization resources that have been developed by projects supported through the NSF-MARGINS Program for use in introductory and upper level undergraduate courses. The Principal Investigators, all members of the MARGINS Steering Committee and/or the MARGINS Education/Outreach Advisory Committee, are engaging the MARGINS academic community in this effort through a MARGINS Education Mini-Workshop. There, participants gain insight into the current state of the four MARGINS Science Initiatives, and the varied data repositories and information resources housing MARGINS results. Workshop participants are identifying key content areas to address with Mini-Lessons, and are participating in their development and testing in concert with the Principal Investigators and the module assessment team. Several different varieties of MARGINS Mini Lessons are being developed, based on successful models, including 4-6 large-scale lessons. A resource and support team, comprising members from the MARGINS Education/Outreach Advisory Committee, is working with Mini-Lesson developers to ensure that the completed modules follow best educational practices and are effectively tested and assessed. Smaller-scale ideas arising from the workshop are being produced as shorter Mini-Lessons, and supported through standardized online assessment resources that instructors can use to test their effectiveness and report back results. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its mining of the extensive MARGINS data repository for interdisciplinary educational materials that will bring the realities of modern earth science into undergraduate courses. The broader impacts of this project lie in its efforts to build a broad-based educational community of MARGINS researchers and educators through the module development processes. The modules themselves are being used in a range of undergraduate geoscience courses on both two- and four-year college campuses, and are reaching diverse student audiences.