Challenges in Student Understanding of Earth Science

What are several challenges students have with understanding earth science?

- engage students in the learning process
- construct knowledge that supports subsequent re-use of the knowledge

What experiences are planned for students learning earth science with WorldWatcher? How do student activities exemplify the objectives? Did the learning environment address the issues or objectives for which it was created?

- meaningful context: real world decisions about the use of natural resources
- inquiry based: computer based and lab inquiry activities, combined with discussions, lectures, readings, written assignments, and oral presentations in an integrated approach that supports robust learning of concepts and practices
- use of technology: software tools allow sutdents to investigate scientific data and to interact with dynamic representations of science processes in the same way that environmental scientists do.

In what ways would you teach the Planetary Forecaster curriculum- differently or the same? What part of the WorldWatcher environment would you change or customize?

The WordWatcher requires special software to be downloaded and installed on the computer which can be complicated for students or school support staff. If this program can be made web-based and even integrated with publicly accessible application such as Google Earth, I believe the students will find even more relevance in understanding earth science.

Judge the relative value of using WorldWatcher for learning about earth science. Select one or two of the process questions that resonate with you and your ongoing critical awareness of the implications technology has for students, teaching practice, curriculum development, and schools, and include your responses as entries in your inquiry e-folio.

Process question 1: What are the pedagogical design principles that shaped the development of the Geode Initiative (previously known as WorldWatcher)?

Please see the previous post on LfU design.

Process question 2: Explain the reasons for integrating digital technology as a key part of this learning experience.

The Progress Portfolio is valuable to allow student's reflective inquiry. It allows the students to record and monitor their investigations. It is a way to allow students to make their thinking visible. One of the activities allow the students to invent their own worlds. They can create the topography of their worlds and also specify the elevation data set. This allows the students to apply what they have learned from an actual world to a new world that has never been studied before, and they need to justify their understanding of knowledge.