College students’ accounts of carbon transforming processes in socio-ecological systems.

1. College students’ accounts of carbon transforming processes in socio-ecological systems.  2009 NARST Poster Written by: Hartley, L., Wilke, B., Schramm, J., & Anderson, C. W.  (Michigan State University) Culturally relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacy Long Term Ecological Research Math Science Partnership April 2009 Disclaimer: This research is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation: Targeted Partnership: Culturally relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacy (NSF-0832173). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

2. Pre-test Are college students prepared to understand ecosystem carbon cycling? Why it’s important and how principled reasoning can help. Laurel Hartley1, Brook Wilke2, Jonathon Schramm3 and Charles W. Anderson3 1Dept. of Biology, University of Colorado, Denver 2Crop and Soil Science, Michigan State University 3Teacher Education, MSU Introduction Results • Most college student answers were a hybrid of scientific reasoning and informal accounts (Fig. 3). • Students demonstrated similar types of reasoning, both correct and incorrect, across the range of institutions. • Despite the fact that the type & frequency of active instructional interventions used by participating faculty varied, the majority of students saw significant learning gains pre- and post-instruction for both matter- and energy-focused questions (Fig. 3). • Our results both corroborate patterns in student thinking identified in previous studies and lead to further hypotheses about student reasoning (Table 1). A larger range of trends and further questions from this data can be found in our accompanying paper. • Reasoning about the intersection of social and ecological systems requires an • understanding of the carbon cycle. • We investigated college students’ ability to trace matter and energy through processes that generate, transform and oxidize organic carbon at multiple scales. • Our work builds on current learning progression development for K-12 students’ reasoning about carbon (see other poster in this section; Mohan et al.). • Our work focuses on college student understanding of • Principles: Conservation of Matter and Energy • Processes: Generation, Transformation, and Oxidation of Organic carbon • Scale: Atomic-molecular, Cellular, Organismal, Ecosystem • Carbon-transforming processes are a prominent part of college-level biology curricula, but ideas are typically presented in disconnected ways. We believe that teaching students to explicitly and continuously apply the principles of conservation of matter and energy can lead to a deeper understanding of processes across multiple scales. Fig. 3. Proportions of students responding with various reasoning strategies for testing on matter and energy before and after instruction. ‘No Data’ primarily means that a student either skipped the question or answered “I don’t know.” • This approach contrasts principled, scientific reasoning with informal or force-dynamic reasoning (Fig. 1). • Objectives: • Look for patterns in student reasoning related to principles, processes, and scales and generate hypotheses for further research. • Examine the effects of instruction on student understanding of carbon related processes. Fig. 1. Contrasting account frameworks for reasoning about ecological processes. Methods • We developed diagnostic question clusters (DQCs) to investigate college students’ reasoning about the carbon cycle. DQCs included 7-10 multiple-choice, true/false and short-answer questions about single processes (e.g. respiration) and multiple processes (e.g. respiration and photosynthesis) posed at scales from molecular to ecosystem. • Faculty from 8 institutions (research universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges) administered 4 DQCs, two focused on carbon cycling and two on energy flow, to 267 students in biology and ecology courses. One carbon and one energy DQC were used as pre- tests. Some form of inquiry-based instruction on the topics followed, with details of implementation at the discretion of the faculty. All four DQCs were then administered as post-tests, allowing analysis of differences among students both pre- and post-instruction, as well as between institutions, course types, and pedagogical approaches. • For further details about the DQCs and • particular items, please see our web site at: http://demos.patrickgmj.net/griffithdemo/ • At one university, interviews were conducted • to further explore student responses to written questions. Table 1. A selection of results for each principle from both overall written scores and individual assessments. The last column indicates the type of questions for further study that are emerging from this dataset. Conclusion Despite the fact that the principles of matter and energy conservation across multiple scales are fundamental to understanding biology, and particularly ecology, this research indicates that students are not as well-grounded in those principles as faculty often assume. By helping to diagnose this “hidden curriculum” for faculty, DQCs can be an effective tool on which to base further instructional interventions. Fig. 2. Description of DQC development process.