Barbara J. Tewksbury Department of Geosciences Hamilton College btewksbu@hamilton

1. Having an Impact Teaching Introductory Geoscience with the Future in Mind Barbara J. Tewksbury Department of Geosciences Hamilton College btewksbu@hamilton.edu

2. Intro geo in the curriculum • Not on students’ radar screens • Adequate enrollment is not a foregone conclusion • Every department is under enrollment pressure • Yield of majors is critical • Courses designed to recruit

3. The impact of a course • No surprise that, when asked about the impact of a particular course, we think about • How high were the enrollments? • How many will take more geo? • How many majors did we get?

4. Impact of a course • Spend a lot of time thinking about how we can improve the numbers • What can we do to make courses more attractive? • What can we do to make courses more relevant? • What can we do to hook students?

5. The hook • World Natural Environments • Intro to Environmental Pollution • Sustainable Earth • The Science Behind the Stories • Earth Science and the NYC Urban Environment • Geology and Human Events in Africa and the Middle East • Geological Disasters: Agents of Chaos

6. What we focus on • Spend a lot of time on: • attracting students into our courses • making courses good learning experiences • Focus on short term impact • Hope for long term impact

7. Long term impact – the student perspective • For many, it is the first major exposure to geoscience • For most, it is also the last exposure to geoscience • Most are taking intro geo to satisfy distribution requirements

8. Long term impact – the student perspective • What kind of impact does a course really have over the long term? • Do students give any thought to whether the course • changes their thinking in ways that could benefit themselves and society? • increases their capabilities and adds value to their lives for the future? • Well…

9. Changing courses for long-term impact • Example: gen-ed geo course • Hands-on course, effective, really teaches them about geology Vs. • Similar course but also emphasizes practice in making good decisions with respect to geologic hazards

10. Changing courses for long-term impact • Example: course for K-6 pre-service teachers • Hands-on course, effective, really teaches them about geology Vs. • Similar course but also emphasizes practice in finding out about, evaluating, and summarizing information about local geology, geologic events, etc.

11. Changing courses for long-term impact • Example: gen-ed geo course • Hands-on course, effective, really teaches them about geology Vs. • Similar course but also emphasizes practice in assessing what is science and what is pseudoscience

12. Brainstorming impact ideas • What kind of long-term impact might we want an intro geo course to have? • In what ways could we change their thinking to benefit themselves and society? • In what ways could we increase their capabilities and add value to their lives for the future? • At your table, brainstorm a list of desirable long-term impacts from an intro geo course

13. Achieving long-term impacts • Commonly hope that knowledge confers ability • Course that teaches students effectively only about geology or science will likely fail in long-term impact • If you want to have long-term impact, students have to have repeated opportunities for practice • Directly affects course design

14. Brainstorming how to achieve long-term impact • Choose one or two long-term impacts • Brainstorm ways of giving students repeated practice