Rebecca Boger

Place-Based Geosciences Courses in a Diverse Urban College: Lessons Learned

ABSTRACT Recognizing the need to attract more students, especially those from underrepresented groups, a team of college faculty and experienced New York City Department of Education (DOE) Earth Science Teachers redesigned the two foundational Earth and Environmental Science courses required for all teacher and science major students in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES). These two foundation courses have been taught in a survey style with broad, but shallow, content. The redesign team worked together to place greater emphasis on science process skills, technology, and discovery and chose air quality and beach morphodynamics as integrating topics for skill and content development throughout the courses. Students conducted long-term, place-based research within the city in ways that allowed them to apply the scientific method and develop skills necessary for practicing geoscientists, which included conducting online data searches, performing statistical analyses, graphing, using geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS), and making and giving presentations. Students used research-grade equipment, scanning electron microscopes (SEM), survey instruments, and petrology microscopes to collect and analyze their data. Iterative evaluations were conducted on the courses to provide guidance on ways to improve, and they formed the basis for course revisions in more-advanced courses.

Strategies for teaching to a changing world: lessons from Arusha, Tanzania

Environmental degradation, lack of educational resources and extreme poverty characterize many countries in Africa. These issues require teachers to prepare students to understand, address and solve these and other challenges facing societies in the twenty-first century. Using the environment as an authentic and integrating context, a team of scientists and educators developed a teacher professional development workshop model that actively engages teachers in the science process while learning science content and research techniques. Over 50 primary and secondary school teachers from three countries in Africa attended the workshop which was convened in Arusha, Tanzania. Although the workshop team included members from Africa, most were from the United States with varied experience working in Africa. The team viewed this workshop as an opportunity to assess the process of workshop model development and implementation in order to glean lessons that could then be applied to other professional development opportunities in Africa. To help assess the process, internal organizing discussions, participant surveys and teacher focus group discussions were used. Results from the surveys and discussions indicate that the workshop had a positive impact on the teachers and instructors suggesting that workshop materials and pedagogical approaches have a high probability of being implemented in African classrooms.

Integrating Geoscience Research in Primary and Secondary Education

The Monitoring Seasons Through Global Learning Communities project, also known as Seasons and Biomes, engages primary and secondary students in earth system and environmental science research in the learning of science in schools. The overall goal of this inquiry- and project-based International Polar Year (IPY) project is to increase precollege students’ understanding of the earth system. This project brings together students, educators, communities, and scientists in locally and globally relevant studies and provides opportunities for students to participate in IPY activities during and beyond the fourth IPY and to contribute to earth science studies. Seasons and Biomes primary approach is through teacher professional development (PD) workshops. We developed a PD workshop model that combines earth system science content, measurement protocols, a student scientific investigation model, and best teaching practices. We conducted regional, national, and international PD workshops for educators and scientists who in turn teach their students and/or train other teachers/trainers. More than 1,400 teachers and trainers in 50 countries have participated in Seasons and Biomes PD workshops, reaching more than 21,000 students. Students also participated in global learning community projects such as Pole-to-Pole Videoconferences, the Ice e-Mystery Polar e-Book project, GS-Pals (school to school across countries, web-based discussions and collaborations facilitated by GLOBE Alumni), and Mt. Kilimanjaro expeditions (mountain trek and virtual journey). Integrating geoscience research in precollege schools has resulted in numerous student research projects as well as data contributions to ongoing studies of the earth system. Additionally, project evaluation results and evidence submitted by teachers on student learning suggest high program implementation and understanding of earth system science and the science process.

Landscape Transformation During Ceramic Age and Colonial Occupations of Barbuda, West Indies

ABSTRACT This research documented the history of landscape transformation on the island of Barbuda in the Lesser Antilles, Caribbean through cross-disciplinary research approaches. Excavations confirmed a human presence for the seasonal exploitation of conch meat and other molluscs during the Archaic Age (c.3000–500 BC), but more substantial impacts to terrestrial ecosystems likely began during the Ceramic Age (c.500 BC–AD 1500). Our combined sedimentary and charcoal records revealed that human-induced environmental transformations began with Ceramic Age peoples as they cleared vegetation for settlements and gardens with intentional burning. Sedimentary charcoal indicated a dramatic decline in fire during post-Ceramic Age abandonment, continuing through the Colonial Period, as the dominant human activities shifted to herding, farming, and selective wood harvesting. Historical sources showed that during the Colonial Period (post-1492), the island was intermittently settled until the mid-seventeenth century, while the Codrington family of Antigua held the lease to the island from 1681 to 1870. They used the island for farming and stock-rearing, exporting meat and draught animals along with lime, timber, and subsistence crops. Macrocharcoal recovered from Colonial Period archaeological sites reflect the use of a variety of local species and wood imported to the island or harvested from shipwrecks.