Using Student-Generated Concept Sketches for Learning, Teaching, and Assessment in Structural Geology Courses Barbara J. Tewksbury (Hamilton College) Stephen J. Reynolds and Julia K. Johnson (Arizona State University)

How geologists use sketches and illustrations For recording observations and ideas For organizing knowledge For conveying ideas to others

How geologists use sketches and illustrations We are actively engaged in creating sketches and illustrations They become an integral part of constructing our own knowledge and conveying knowledge to others

How do we ask students to use sketches and illustrations? To receive knowledge we ask students to learn from diagrams in books To reproduce knowledge at a rote level we commonly ask students to draw labeled sketches

What do we know about how students use illustrations in textbooks? Many students skip illustrations entirely without seeing them as more than pictures Most students do not know how to interpret or use scientific illustrations (Lowe, 1989, 1993; Schwartz, 1993) Many students can easily label a diagram by rote but be unable to articulate concepts

Reynolds and Jackson’s work How to make illustrations an effective part of the learning process? How to help students use illustrations as part of constructing knowledge? How to make a student’s experience with illustrations more like ours?

Reynolds and Jackson’s work Explored concept mapping Students organize own knowledge as network of linked concepts; demonstrable learning gains (e.g., Esiobu & Soyibo, 1995) Argued that concept maps fail to adequately address spatial relationships important in geology

Reynolds and Jackson’s work Developed idea of a concept sketch Sketch or diagram concisely annotated with short statements describing processes, concepts, and interrelationships shown in the sketch Builds on value of concept mapping

What does a concept sketch look like? (Reynolds and Jackson, in press)

Features of a concept sketch More than a simple labeled diagram Combines identifying and linking key concepts while retaining spatial relationships among concepts

(Reynolds and Jackson, in press)

Reynolds and Jackson’s work Instructor-generated diagrams Most successful for student learning if students construct own captions Forces students to think though key features and processes Student-generated diagrams Students must make decisions about what to draw Forces students to think more deeply about concepts

Reynolds and Jackson’s work Using concept sketches In class As homework preparation for class On exams

My experience Steve described idea to me at end of April last spring I decided to try it in the field and for final project in my structural geology course

My experience Gave one homework assignment to teach students how to do concept sketches Students had no problem figuring out what to do

My experience In the field, students: Made concept sketches at each outcrop Took notes in concept caption form In the lab, students: Examined samples and thin sections from the outcrops

My experience Assignment for final project: Create a set of concept diagrams, with a short introduction, to illustrate the structural features and geologic history of Glens Falls/Whitehall area, with an emphasis on deformation mechanisms and causes of deformation. Integrate field and laboratory observations.

Results I was struck by: How natural it seemed to my students to make concept sketches How much more complete their observations and notes were in the field How much I learned from reading concept captions about what they knew How much most of them enjoyed the process

More information on concept sketches TSG Resource Site ructure/presentations.html Scroll down to Short Demonstration Sessions, S1B Article in press in JGE Reynolds, Stephen J. and Jackson, Julia K., in press, Concept sketches – using student- and instructor-generated, annotated sketches for learning, teaching, and assessment: Journal of Geoscience Education.