From School of Rock to Building Core Knowledge: Teaching about Cenozoic climate change with data and case studies from the primary literature
Abstract
The School of Rock (SoR) began in 2005 as a pilot geoscience professional development program for K-12 teachers and informal educators aboard the JOIDES Resolution (JR). Since then, the highly successful SoR program, sponsored by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership's Deep Earth Academy, has conducted on-shore professional development at the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) core repository in College Station, TX, and on the JR. The success of the SoR program stems from the natural synergy that develops between research scientists and educators when their combined pedagogical skills and scientific knowledge are used to uncover a wealth of scientific ocean drilling discoveries and research findings. Educators are challenged with authentic inquiry based on sediment archives; these lessons from the past are then made transferable to the general public and to classrooms through the creation of age-appropriate student-active learning materials (http://www.oceanleadership.org/education/deep-earth-academy/educators/classroom-activities/). This science made accessible approach was the basis for a successful NSF Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) proposal to develop teaching materials for use at the college level. Our Building Core Knowledge project resulted in a series of 14 linked, yet independent, inquiry-based exercise modules around the theme of Reconstructing Earth's Climate History. All of the exercises build upon authentic data from peer reviewed scientific publications. These multiple part modules cover fundamental paleoclimate principles, tools and proxies, and Cenozoic case studies. It is important to teach students how we know what we know. For example, paleoclimate records must be systematically described, ages must be determined, and indirect evidence (i.e., proxies) of past climate must be analyzed. Much like the work of a detective, geoscientists and paleoclimatologists reconstruct what happened in the past, and when and how it happened based on the clues left behind by the events that took place. The exercises are designed to provide opportunities to develop and practice scientific and other life skills. These include making observations, formulating hypotheses, practicing quantitative and problem-solving skills, making data-based interpretations, recognizing and dealing with uncertainty, working in groups, communicating (written and oral) with others, synthesizing data, and articulating evidence-based arguments. The flexible and effective use of these exercise modules with multiple audiences at multiple levels is demonstrated by our classroom testing.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMED53C0818L
- Keywords:
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- 0805 EDUCATION / Elementary and secondary education;
- 0810 EDUCATION / Post-secondary education;
- 0820 EDUCATION / Curriculum and laboratory design;
- 0825 EDUCATION / Teaching methods