An international survey of geoscience education has been carried out jointly by UNESCO and the International Geoscience Education Organisation (IGEO) to address the question of 'How does school-level Earth science education compare across the globe? The survey gathered data from experts in 51 countries, comprising more than half the global…

"Leave no alternative science idea unchallenged!" could be the slogan of this second edition of "Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 2." Like the others in the bestselling series, this book is loaded with classroom-friendly features to pinpoint what your students know (or think they know) so you can adjust your teaching…

A material commonly known as Flubber, with properties that are excellent for teaching about glaciers, has been widely used in geosciences education. Yet, the original recipe contains borax, which has health risks that should be avoided. A new recipe is shared containing low-cost, readily available ingredients that produces a reformulated Flubber…

Results from a national needs assessment survey advertised through science teacher networks with the title "Polar Education--Teacher Input Needed" showed that the majority (90%) of teachers that responded are teaching about polar topics or polar regions. We received 508 responses from elementary to post-secondary teachers across the…

In this study, we analyzed the literature on teaching or learning on a topic in Earth science, environmental science, or climate change between 1995 and 2017. We investigated the length of the intervention, intervention setting and instructional level, instructional purpose, pedagogical framing and pedagogical methods (including what materials and…

A day-long geoscience educational module, "Sharing and Learning: The Natural Environments of Acoma Pueblo," provided an opportunity to explore the various connections that Acoma Pueblo community members make between their cultural values and geologic concepts. The purpose of such an exploration is to make explicit the cultural…

Background: The Classroom Observation Project employs direct observations of geoscience teaching across the USA using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) to quantify the use of reformed teaching practices. We report on 345 RTOP observations used to evaluate the extent of teaching reform when curricular materials developed as part of…

This ethnographic multiple-case study examines how undergraduate students are socialized into the disciplinary norms, values, and practices of a geoscience course at a Canadian university. Transcending logocentric assumptions about academic discourse, this article advances a broader domain of inquiry----"multimodal academic discourse…

Recent reform efforts in science education include a focus on science practices. Teachers require support in integrating these practices into instruction. Multimedia educative curriculum materials (MECMs), digital materials explicitly designed to support teacher learning, offer one potential resource for this critical need. Consequently, the…

Efforts to promote the use of student-centered learning environments in STEM education have been tempered by a lack of professional development strategies that help faculty overcome common barriers to reform. This study investigated the impact that adopting a suite of student-centered teaching materials had on the teaching practices and beliefs of…

Learning with Web-based geographic information system (Web GIS) can promote geospatial thinking and analysis of georeferenced data. Web GIS can enable learners to analyze rich data sets to understand spatial relationships that are managed in georeferenced data visualizations. We developed a Web GIS plate tectonics simulation as a capstone learning…

As society becomes more technological, the need for scientific literacy grows . Part of scientific literacy is understanding the nature of science, which can be revealed, in part, by learning the historical context of current science concepts. History of science can be taught using scientific inquiry, scientific argumentation, and authentic…

STEM educational reform encourages a transition from instructor-centered passive learning classrooms to student-centered, active learning environments. Instructors adopting these changes incorporate research-validated teaching practices that improve student learning. Professional development that trains faculty to implement instructional reforms…

This study reports on a case study-based curricular intervention designed to help undergraduate engineering students make connections between geoscience and its applications. Teaching through case studies resulted in a measurable and significant improvement in the confidence that students had in their ability to apply geoscience concepts in an…

We all experience firsthand many of the phenomena caused by Earth's Place in the Universe (Next Generation Science Standard 5-ESS1; NGSS Lead States 2013) and the relative motion of the Earth, Sun, and Moon. Young children can investigate phenomena such as changes in times of sunrise and sunset (number of daylight hours), Moon phases, seasonal…