Description

I adapted the Exploring Geoscience Methods module to be an end of course three week capstone in place of a final exam. I used the modules largely as written but in place of essays I generally required students to outline an essay due to classroom time constraints associated with keeping the module entirely in class.

The ISCI 2001 (Integrated Science: Life Science, Earth Science, and Astronomy) course is on a semester schedule and we met twice a week for an hour and fifty minutes. I used the module during all instructional time during the last three weeks of the semester or approximately 15-20% of the semester. All course material had been introduced prior to beginning this module which allowed students to pull from examples when we discussed geoscience methods and how they could be used in the K-5 classroom.

There were no formal assessments of student progress for the module beyond student products from each activity. In the future I might use reading quizzes and protocol quizzes to encourage more student preparation prior to class. Additionally I may also require students to include their lesson and resource summaries in their teaching portfolio assignment (required in place of a final exam).

My goals for the module were for students to build lessons that could one day be used during their teaching careers. I think we were partially successful in this endeavor but few students highlighted this experience in their teaching portfolio assignment (showcase of their best teaching materials from the semester). Moving forward I hope to include this module as a more critical aspect of student teaching portfolios and their teaching philosophy assignments. When scheduling this module at the end of the semester I had envisioned that some would include geoscience teaching in their portfolios but most did not. A few students included observation and modeling in their teaching philosophies but nothing explicit to the module.

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