Collaborative Research: EHR-Polar DCL: Addressing the Technical and Narrative Challenges in the Undergraduate Science Classroom

特拉华大学(UD)和高露洁大学的研究人员将在媒体上修订和实施一门关于极地科学的课程。该课程将使学生掌握技术技能，包括使用结对编程方法教授的计算机编程技能，以评估媒体报道的地球科学数据，并将使用传达科学信息的叙述将这些数据置于个人背景中。在该项目的整个过程中，约100名非地球科学专业的学生将沉浸在一门以学生为中心、数据驱动的课程中。评估将侧重于提高学生分析和理解数据含义的能力，以及课程材料向不同机构转移的能力。该项目的影响将远远超出获奖期，通过继续在密歇根大学和高露洁大学提供课程和教学内容，通过NSF赞助的科学教育资源中心(SERC)作为地球科学教育工作者的主要渠道分发课程和教育学内容，以及通过在主要地球科学会议上为新的和现有的地球科学教师提供专业发展讲习班。将为非STEM专业学生设计并实施一门新的极地科学课程。这门课程基于认知主义和建构主义的结合，并采用量化指标来评估学生在技术和叙事挑战上的进步。评估将涉及这样的假设，即学生接触配对编程教学法将提高他们的技术数据获取和解释技能，以及假设学生接触发展的叙事结构练习将显示出更好的视角选择技能，并将能够更好地理解呈现数据的叙事语境。该项目由极地计划办公室和本科生教育部门共同资助。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Researchers at the University of Delaware (UD) and at Colgate University will revise and implement a course on polar science in the media. The course will equip students with the technical skills, including computer programming skills taught using a pair-programming approach, to evaluate geoscience data reported in the media and will place this data within a personal context using narratives that convey scientific information. Over the course of the project, ~100 non-geoscience major students will be immersed in a student-centered, data-driven course. Evaluations will focus on improving students' ability to analyze and understand the implications of data and on the transferability of the course materials to different institutions. The impact of this project will extend well beyond the award period through continued offerings at UD and Colgate University, by distributing the course and pedagogy content through the NSF-sponsored Science Education Resource Center (SERC) as the primary conduit to geoscience educators and through professional development workshops offered to new and existing geoscience instructors at major geoscience conferences. A new polar science course for non-STEM majors will be designed and implemented. The course is based on a combination of cognitivism and constructivism and with quantitative metrics for assessing student progress on technical and narrative challenges. Evaluations will address the hypothesis that student exposure to a pair-programming pedagogy will improve their technical data access and interpretation skills and the hypothesis that students exposed to developed narrative structure exercises will demonstrate improved perspective-taking skills and will be able to demonstrate better understanding the narrative context in which the data are presented. The project is co-funded by the Office of Polar Programs and the Division of Undergraduate Education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.