October 26th Assignment

The purpose of this task is for you to become more familiar with how InTeGrate modules are structured and the features you can expect to see in all InTeGrate developed materials. To do this, you will take a closer look at one module (A Growing Concern) and answer a series of questions in this forum. *Note that while we are focusing on one module as a whole for this exercise, you do not need to adopt an entire module for your course; you are welcome to mix and match units from multiple modules.*

If you want the gory details about how these materials were developed, you are encouraged to read about the InTeGrate Materials Development and Refinement Rubric.

1. Home Page: The home page for each InTeGrate module has some standard features to help orient you to the module. What pieces of information on the “A Growing Concern” home page do you find most useful?
2. Guiding Principles: Read the page titled “Instructor Materials: Overview of the Growing Concern Module” and briefly describe how the module meets one of the InTeGrate guiding principles listed below.
   • Connect geoscience to grand challenges facing society
   • Develop students' ability to address interdisciplinary problems
   • Improve student understanding of the nature and methods of geoscience and developing geoscientific habits of mind
   • Make use of authentic and credible geoscience data
   • Foster systems thinking
3. Units: Modules are broken up into a series of 3-6 units, each with a separate page that has a standard layout. Units are typically intended for use in a 50-minute class period and can contain pre-work and follow up assignments. Choose one of the units in “A Growing Concern” and explore the information provided. If you were going to teach this unit next week, do you have all the information you need? What do you find confusing or missing?
4. Assessment: InTeGrate modules have both formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments are provided throughout the units and allow you to give feedback to students as they are developing their knowledge and skills. Summative assessments serve as the full module assessment and as such are much larger in scale.  What is the summative assessment for “A Growing Concern”? What is one example of a formative assessment in “A Growing Concern”?
5. Instructor Stories: InTeGrate materials were developed by teams of faculty at different institutions. Even though each author taught the same material in the pilot phase of development, as instructors he or she may have implemented modifications for a particular course. Choose the instructor story for “A Growing Concern” that you think is most relevant and read it. What insights did you gain from reading the instructor story?