Undergraduate Geoscience Research Articles

The Importance of Frequent Engagement With Self-Assessment Resources in Online Learning: A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Approach

This study explored online assessment and highlighted significant assessment strategies, such as capstone projects, quizzes, and self-assessments. Inquiry-based assessment, transformative assessment, and scaffolding with self-assessment resources formed the framework. Our goal was to determine the effects of certain self-assessment parameters on student achievement in online learning, including the frequency of answering online self-assessment questions, the points earned for correct answers, and the time spent answering questions. Data from undergraduate geoscience courses were analyzed using a hierarchical linear model, and the results showed that frequently answering online self-assessment questions is a strong predictor of higher final grades, capstone project success, and quiz results. The frequency of answering online self-assessment questions was a more significant factor than the amount of time spent on these questions and the total points earned. Educators are encouraged to redesign their courses to include self-assessment resources that promote frequent student engagement instead of just one-time interaction.

What does a degree in geology actually mean? A systematic evaluation of courses required to earn a bachelor of science in geology in the United States

Calls have been made to determine optimal learning progressions for geology students so that best practices for teaching content knowledge and skills during an undergraduate degree can be determined. To address these calls, there first needs to be understanding of what courses are required. This study was conducted to provide a systematic evaluation of courses currently required to earn a bachelor of science degree in the field of geology. Once qualifying programs were determined using the American Geoscience Institute’s Directory of Geoscience Departments, an inductive content analysis was used to determine categories representative of the most commonly required geology courses. Testing with an expert panel showed this binning system and codebook to have an interrater reliability (Fleiss’ kappa) of 0.908, demonstrating that they can be applied reliably in future research to assess longitudinal changes in course requirements. The seven most commonly required courses include structure, sedimentology/stratigraphy, introductory courses, general field methods courses, introductory level historical geology courses, mineralogy and petrology. On average, 12.69 geology courses are required for a B.S. degree. A longitudinal comparison is also made here to highlight changes since Drummond and Markin’s (2008) review, which include an increase in the frequency at which introductory, upper level seminar, research based and general field methods courses are required. The results presented provide a snapshot of the current state of the field, and allow for comparisons with content knowledge deemed a priority by the Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education Report.

A Sustainable Extractive Industry Requires Educated Responsible Geoscientists

Most geoscience undergraduate courses are technical with little regard to social responsibility and sustainable development implications. Workshop outcomes have suggested that the introduction of this content into their studies is necessary so that they can apply their technical knowledge in a responsible way. In regard to the extractive industry where most geoscientists in resource rich countries are employed, the industry’s record of social and environmental impact with non–sustainable outcomes, particularly in developing countries are evident. Important extractive industry issues such as sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, social license to operate and free, prior and informed consent for Indigenous People have attracted great attention and scrutiny in the development of industry and government policy and rightful concerns from all stakeholders. There are very few examples of these responsibility and sustainability subjects being introduced in undergraduate geoscience education except in some environmental courses in universities in North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand, but not so well established in developing countries where there is a greater need for this content.

Investigating best practices in utilizing a web-based assessment tool in an introductory geology course: “CLASS,” course setting and course structure

In the past couple of decades, the geoscience education community has made great strides toward investigating how to provide effective student learning experiences in the college setting. While experiences such as student-centered teaching strategies and course design elements are useful for the instructor, they may not make important elements of the learning process itself explicit to the student. As a result, students may navigate a course without timely and necessary feedback related to their learning progress. To help remedy this issue, we designed and developed the Confidence-based Learning Accuracy Support System (CLASS) to provide students explicit feedback related to their mastery of geology content and the accuracy of their perceptions of their abilities. CLASS leverages robust evidence from education psychology regarding student metacognition and self-regulated learning (SRL). We investigated the relationship between students’ judgments of their performance and their actual performance during summative exams in an introductory physical geology course. This study collected student confidence data for every question of students’ midterm exams and compared this confidence to performance via multiple empirically-derived measures of the disparity between students’ perceptions of their performance and their actual performance. In addition to exam-based data, we developed and provided CLASS quizzes (with varying requirements) to provide students with feedback regarding their learning and accuracy during the target courses. Results indicated that students utilizing CLASS performed better than their predecessors for the first two exams and were generally more accurate in their approximations. Overall, results provide support for CLASS’s potential to serve as a tool for increasing student metacognitive awareness, self-regulation and performance in undergraduate geoscience courses.

Longitudinal Effects in the Effectiveness of Educational Virtual Field Trips

Virtual and immersive virtual reality, VR and iVR, provide flexible and engaging learning opportunities, such as virtual field trips (VFTs). Despite its growing popularity for education, understanding how iVR compared to non-immersive media influences learning is still challenged by mixed empirical results and a lack of longitudinal research. This study addresses these issues through an experiment in which undergraduate geoscience students attended two temporally separated VFT sessions through desktop virtual reality (dVR) or iVR, with their learning experience and outcomes measured after each session. Our results show higher levels of enjoyment and satisfaction as well as a stronger sense of spatial presence in iVR students in both VFTs compared to dVR students, but no improvement in learning outcomes in iVR compared to dVR. More importantly, we found that there exists a critical interaction between VR condition and repeated participation in VFTs indicating that longitudinal exposure to VFTs improves knowledge performance more when learning in iVR than through dVR. These results suggest that repeated use of iVR may be beneficial in sustaining students’ emotional engagement and compensating the initial deficiency in their objective learning outcomes compared to other less immersive technologies.

Down to Earth: History and philosophy of geoscience in practice for undergraduate education

Undergraduate geoscience students are rarely exposed to history and philosophy of science (HPS). I will describe the experiences with a short course unfavourably placed in the first year of a bachelor of earth science. Arguments how HPS could enrich their education in many ways are sketched. One useful didactic approach is to develop a broader interest by connecting HPS themes to practical cases throughout the curriculum, and develop learning activities that allow students to reflect on their skills, methods and their field in relation to other disciplines and interactions with society with abilities gained through exposure to HPS. Given support of the teaching staff, the tenets of philosophy of science in practice, of conceptual history of knowledge, and of ethics of science for society can fruitfully and directly be connected to the existing curriculum. This is ideally followed by a capstone HPS course late in the bachelor programme.

Motivations for pursuing and challenges to completing geoscience majors at a public university

This qualitative study sought to determine undergraduate students’ beliefs about their motivations for pursuing, and challenges to completing, geoscience majors in a large public university. Eighteen undergraduate students participated in the study and were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. In addressing the study’s research question, the themes that emerged from the data regarding students’ beliefs about their motivations for pursuing geoscience majors centered around their personal interest in general science or geoscience subject matter, their enjoyment of being outdoors, influential individuals in their lives, interactions with other undergraduate geoscience majors, undergraduate student research experiences, influential faculty in advising and instruction, influential courses they have taken, and their plans for post-graduation. The themes that emerged from the data regarding students’ beliefs about their challenges to completing geoscience majors centered on the rigor of geoscience courses, course scheduling, and programmatic issues. Based on these empirical findings, this article provides recommendations that can help to inform geoscience programs in other institutions both across the nation and internationally with regard to advising, dissemination of opportunities for desired field experiences, pathways for transfer students, and critical influences for students who become geoscience majors.

Activation of the Multicontext model in a field-based program for traditionally underserved students

This paper presents results from our multi-year NSF-IRES program: a four-week, field-based summer program involving the participation and mentorship of U.S. undergraduate geoscience cohorts to develop knowledge and skills in sedimentary geology while immersed in an international research collaboration. Student participants in our program are predominantly first-generation college students, largely from historically underrepresented groups in STEM, and most have a “high context” orientation. Academic culture (especially in STEM) tends to favor the “low-context” approach of scientific inquiry (task-oriented, linear, individuated), but many students bring different cultural values from personal or community-based experiences that tend to be higher-context (process-oriented, systems-thinking, integrated). Herein we discuss how activating a Multicontext model—one that recognizes and includes a broader spectrum of “knowing and doing”—resulted in measurable advances, especially for higher-context students, from the first to second year of the program in terms of self-efficacy in field and analytical competencies, as well as in student engagement. To balance cultural frameworks, specific implementations in the field curriculum included (1) a non-linear, learning cycle-structured orientation prior to fieldwork that clearly introduces research objectives early, and promotes scientific inquiry and peer-to-peer interaction, (2) frequent discussions during fieldwork to place low-context tasks such as making field measurements into a broader context, and (3) a pre-defined mini-project option that allows students to set an individual intent for growth as a scientist in this experience. Leaders of similar programs to NSF IRES that support undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in STEM research might enhance program quality, student engagement, and inclusivity by recognizing and adapting to a broader spectrum of culturally-based learning perspectives. This study represents a small segment within the Multicontext system for redefining and expanding diversity and inclusion—a theory that has broad implications for the entirety of academic culture.

Three elements to increase diversity

Workforce Diversity Women remain underrepresented in STEM career pathways. Mentoring is a promising intervention to increase the representation of women, but mentorship programs vary in complexity, cost, and scalability. Hernandez et al . performed a randomized experiment with female undergraduate geoscience majors to identify the critical elements of a successful mentorship program. A combination of inspiration through exposure to female role models in the geosciences, inoculation through training on how to grow a mentor network, and an introduction to a local female geoscientist mentor were all necessary for success. These three elements can be easily adapted and widely implemented across scientific disciplines to support undergraduate women at the start of, and throughout, their STEM careers. Commun. Earth Environ. 1 , 7 (2020).

Comparing desired workforce skills and reported teaching practices to model students’ experiences in undergraduate geoscience programs

A goal of undergraduate geoscience programs is to prepare students for the geoscience workforce. In order to understand the extent to which programs succeed at this goal, we identified desired workforce skills, compiled undergraduate geoscience program requirements, and mapped workforce skills onto faculty responses to the 2016 National Geoscience Faculty Survey categorized by respondent-provided course names for majors-level courses (n = 1037). We used a Bayesian statistical model to determine the posterior probability of students practicing desired workforce skills in undergraduate geoscience programs, using program profiles as the model prior, conditioned by the likelihood of a student practicing workforce skills in each course category based upon survey responses. Probabilistic Monte Carlo simulations of students in each example program were used to calculate the likely number of courses in which a student practiced each skill. Activities to help students develop skills related to geologic reasoning, working as part of a team, quantitative skills (algebra), applying skills in new scenarios, evaluation of scientific literature, temporal thinking, spatial thinking, written communication, and managing uncertainty are frequently encountered by students; on average, students encounter these activities at least seven times during an undergraduate program. In contrast, students encounter activities to help them develop an understanding of societal relevance and systems thinking, on average, fewer than three times during an undergraduate program. Our results provide a snapshot, via instructors’ reporting, of the state of workforce skill development across undergraduate degree programs, and both the approach and data set can be built upon for future studies.

Sociohydrologic Systems Thinking: An Analysis of Undergraduate Students’ Operationalization and Modeling of Coupled Human-Water Systems

One of the keys to science and environmental literacy is systems thinking. Learning how to think about the interactions between systems, the far-reaching effects of a system, and the dynamic nature of systems are all critical outcomes of science learning. However, students need support to develop systems thinking skills in undergraduate geoscience classrooms. While systems thinking-focused instruction has the potential to benefit student learning, gaps exist in our understanding of students’ use of systems thinking to operationalize and model SHS, as well as their metacognitive evaluation of systems thinking. To address this need, we have designed, implemented, refined, and studied an introductory-level, interdisciplinary course focused on coupled human-water, or sociohydrologic, systems. Data for this study comes from three consecutive iterations of the course and involves student models and explanations for a socio-hydrologic issue (n = 163). To analyze this data, we counted themed features of the drawn models and applied an operationalization rubric to the written responses. Analyses of the written explanations reveal statistically-significant differences between underlying categories of systems thinking (F(5, 768) = 401.6, p < 0.05). Students were best able to operationalize their systems thinking about problem identification (M = 2.22, SD = 0.73) as compared to unintended consequences (M = 1.43, SD = 1.11). Student-generated systems thinking models revealed statistically significant differences between system components, patterns, and mechanisms, F(2, 132) = 3.06, p < 0.05. Students focused most strongly on system components (M = 13.54, SD = 7.15) as compared to related processes or mechanisms. Qualitative data demonstrated three types of model limitation including scope/scale, temporal, and specific components/mechanisms/patterns excluded. These findings have implications for supporting systems thinking in undergraduate geoscience classrooms, as well as insight into links between these two skills.

Engaging students in ethical decision-making: a case study from an undergraduate geoscience course

The teaching of ethics in science within the disciplines provides an avenue to deepen students’ scientific understanding and to develop their critical thinking skills. This study showcases a module which connects ethics to science within a large introductory geoscience course. The module components, a tutorial plus homework assignment and an exam question, require students to decide on ethical issues using a 5-step approach that mirrors the scientific decision-making process. The assignment is graded using a developed rubric. An analysis of exam question responses reveals that students correctly identify stakeholders and mention contributions by geoscientists, but have difficulties recognizing their own assumptions. Furthermore, many acknowledge the complexity of the ethical issue at hand. The module provides an example of how disciplinary instructors can include ethics in their teaching and assess students’ ethical decision-making process.

Barriers to fieldwork in undergraduate geoscience degrees

Fieldwork is an integral part of geoscience subjects, but changing career pathways and student demographics have major implications for the future of compulsory fieldwork. The ways in which fieldwork is taught and the learning outcomes it fulfils urgently need updating.

Faculty self-reported use of quantitative and data analysis skills in undergraduate geoscience courses

Quantitative literacy is a foundational component of success in STEM disciplines and in life. Quantitative concepts and data-rich activities in undergraduate geoscience courses can strengthen geoscience majors’ understanding of geologic phenomena and prepare them for future careers and graduate school, and provide real-world context to apply quantitative thinking for non-STEM students. We use self-reported teaching practices from the 2016 National Geoscience Faculty Survey to document the extent to which undergraduate geoscience instructors emphasize quantitative skills (algebra, statistics, and calculus) and data analysis skills in introductory (n = 1096) and majors (n = 1066) courses. Respondents who spent more than 20% of class time on student activities, questions, and discussions, taught small classes, or engaged more with the geoscience community through research or improving teaching incorporated statistical analyses and data analyses more frequently in their courses. Respondents from baccalaureate institutions reported use of a wider variety of data analysis skills in all courses compared with respondents from other types of institutions. Additionally, respondents who reported using more data analysis skills in their courses also used a broader array of strategies to prepare students for the geoscience workforce. These correlations suggest that targeted professional development could increase instructors’ use of quantitative and data analysis skills to meet the needs of their students in context.

Motivators and inhibitors to change: Why and how geoscience faculty modify their course content and teaching methods

The call to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education can be answered by undergraduate faculty modifying their course content and teaching methods to generate better student outcomes. The National Geoscience Faculty Survey—administered in 2004, 2009, 2012, and 2016—provides evidence that the vast majority of geoscience faculty recently modified their course content in a variety of ways, and about half recently adjusted their teaching methods toward more student-centered approaches. Respondents from across many different subgroups (e.g., institution type, position, and class type) are equally likely to modify content, perhaps reflecting the importance of current events, societal issues, and recent research findings to undergraduate geoscience education. In contrast, whether a respondent modified his or her teaching methods in the last two years varies strongly across subgroups. Two predictors of whether respondents modified their teaching methods is whether they also modified content, with respondents who changed their course content almost twice as likely to have also changed their teaching methods and how frequently they speak to colleagues about teaching, with more frequent discussion correlated with a higher percentage of faculty changing teaching methods. A major inhibitor to making course modifications is time constraints, and the promotion and tenure process may play a role in inhibiting change. The results indicate that the geoscience community approach of embedding discussions of teaching methods within workshops, webinars, and modules that primarily focus on teaching specific content may be an effective means of improving STEM education more broadly.

An Evolutionary Leap in How We Teach Geosciences

New research into the ways that students learn and apply their knowledge is changing teaching methods and undergraduate geoscience course content.

A quantitative investigation of geoscience departmental factors associated with the recruitment and retention of female students

Women are underrepresented in many undergraduate geoscience programs. Some departments are more successful at recruiting and retaining female students than others. To understand why, we investigated potential differences between more and less successful geoscience departments in terms of social support, institutional supports, institutional barriers, perceived connection to instructors, and transformative experiences. We collected data from 2,041 undergraduate geoscience students enrolled in six geoscience departments at public, four-year institutions across the United States. We recruited two departments that were successful at graduating a high percentage of female students compared to the national average (high-success sites), two departments with a moderate percentage (medium-success sites), and two with a low percentage (low-success sites). Students at high-success sites reported greater institutional supports, greater perceived connection to instructors, and lower institutional barriers than did students at medium- and low-success sites. Nonmajors at high-success sites reported higher levels of transformative experience than nonmajors at low-success sites. No significant differences were found between medium- and low-success sites. Across all sites, female students perceived less of a connection to their instructors and endorsed a lower level of transformative experience than did male students. We did not find gender differences in terms of the other factors. We also did not find gender by site interactions, suggesting that the success of high-success sites in recruiting and retaining women was associated with supporting all students. These results suggest departments can increase effectiveness in recruiting and retaining female student by increasing institutional supports, reducing institutional barriers, connecting with students, and fostering transformative experiences.

National Geoscience Faculty Survey 2016: Prevalence of systems thinking and scientific modeling learning opportunities

Scientific modeling and systems thinking (SMST) is central to the geosciences, yet few studies have documented how and to what extent undergraduate geoscience courses emphasize SMST, as well as factors that might help explain or predict these trends. Here, we present research based on data (n = 2056) from the most recent (2016) administration of the National Geoscience Faculty Survey, administered to a national sample of postsecondary geoscience instructors in the United States. We investigated instructor- and course-related variables as they relate to a set of 9 survey items that serve as a composite measure for SMST. Significant variation was observed in reported frequencies of individual SMST practices in undergraduate geoscience courses. The highest levels of reported SMST were associated with faculty from atmospheric and environmental sciences, those who emphasized research-based, student-centered pedagogical practices, those who recently made changes to both course content and teaching methods, and those who reported high levels of engagement in instructional improvement activities (workshops, presentations, seminars). Reported SMST practices were similar for faculty identifying as geoscientists and geoscience education researchers, and both were significantly higher than for teaching-focused faculty who do not conduct research. A linear regression model including variables found to be significant in the analyses was able to predict 17% of the overall variance in reported SMST practices. These findings illustrate the importance of instructors’ disciplinary orientation and active engagement in instructional innovation as related to SMST, and provide important points of impact for enhancing SMST in undergraduate geoscience courses through course design and faculty development. However, the relatively modest predictive power of the regression model indicates there are many other factors influencing SMST that warrant future research.

Motivation and Connection to Earth on Geology Field Trips in New Zealand: Comparing American Study Abroad Students with Local Undergraduates

Field education is a critical and enriching component of the undergraduate geoscience curriculum, enhanced when combined with a study abroad program. The affective domain – defined in geoscience as emotion, motivation, and connection to Earth – is an integral part of the field experience. Using questionnaire data collected at the start of two geoscience field trips, this study compares motivation and connection to Earth of study abroad students from the United States with local New Zealand students. Results show that study abroad students have more expert-like motivations and ecological worldviews, and are more attached to and see more positive and diverse meanings in the field area. To take advantage of this and improve student outcomes, we recommend that this study abroad module be adapted to be more applied, environmentally-focused, and place-based. Findings highlight the importance of teaching and learning to specific study abroad students, rather than applying unchanged curricula from local institutions.

Undergraduate geoscience education research: Evolution of an emerging field of discipline‐based education research

AbstractDiscipline‐based education research (DBER) conducted by faculty within geoscience departments can address identified needs in undergraduate geoscience education. This study explores the evolution of undergraduate geoscience education research (GER) from 1985 to 2016, primarily in terms of the types of published research and secondarily in terms of the insights this literature offers on the evolution of GER as a scholarly discipline. Stokes’ (1997) quadrant model of research types is used as a theoretical framework for the former and Kuhn's (1970) model of disciplinary paradigm for the latter. An exploratory sequential mixed‐methods approach to a systematic literature review of 1,760 articles is utilized. The period 1985–2000 is characterized by proto‐research as evidenced by the abundance of instructive and informational education articles rather than research articles. From 2000 to 2011, GER underwent a growth period characterized by the presence of applied, use‐inspired, and pure basic research. The period 2011–2016 appears to be a period of relative steady‐state conditions in the normalized number of GER publications per year. Existing gaps in knowledge about geoscience education, the evident unfamiliarity with education and social science research methodologies among authors of GER articles, and efforts to build consensus about what GER is and how to conduct it suggest that GER is preparadigmatic or at a low paradigm state. That is, GER is an immature discipline as far as the evolution of a discipline goes. A path forward is proposed for the continued evolutionary growth of GER. This study provides new perspectives on the emergence of GER as a discipline that can be used as a basis for studies on cross‐disciplinary DBER comparisons.