1. A systems approach to transformative change in teaching about Earth
Cailin Huyck Orr
Ecological Society of America meeting
July 2016

2. NSF’s STEP Center in the Geosciences
What is InTeGrate?
NSF’s STEP Center in the Geosciences
A 5-year community effort to improve Earth literacy and build a workforce prepared to tackle environmental and resource issues
InTeGrate supports integrated interdisciplinary learning about resource and environmental issues across the undergraduate curriculum to create a sustainable and just civilization.

3. Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth for a Sustainable Future
Environmental science must come together with other disciplines as our nation and the world struggle with significant environmental and resource challenges.
Meeting these challenges will require a savvy public, a new kind of workforce, and a broader understanding of Earth by all who engage these issues
Gloss this quickly – the point is that geoscience is important both for the workforce and broad literacy
USGS
Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia

4. A systems model for transformation of individuals, institutions, and the scientific community
Programs/
Institutions
Community/
Network
Courses

5. Preparing students for the future
Curricular materials that …
Engage all students in a variety of settings
Address grand challenges society is facing
Use rigorous science
Use best practices in learning
Are adaptable and adoptable by instructors
How do we ensure that all of these conditions are met in the materials we develop?

6. 1. Design of development teams
Three instructors from three different institutions
Assessment consultant
Web consultant
Team leader

7. 2. Goals are encoded in a materials design rubric
Guiding Principles
Learning Objectives and Outcomes
Assessment and Measurement
Resources and Materials
Instructional Strategies
Alignment

8. Guiding principles
Address one or more environmental grand challenges facing society
Develop student ability to address interdisciplinary problems
Improve student understanding of the nature and methods of geoscience and developing scientific habits of mind
Make use of authentic and credible data to learn central concepts in the context of Earth science methods of inquiry
Develop students’ ability and propensity to use systems thinking
 scientific thinking skills

9. The Rest of the Rubric
Drawn from high-impact practices and research on learning
Based on a backward design model
Learning objectives and outcomes
Assessment and measurement
Resources and materials
Instructional Strategies
Alignment

11. Six modules that have gone all the way through this process
Six modules that have gone all the way through this process. Hannah is going to talk about one of them

12. Guiding principles
Address one or more geoscience-related grand challenges facing society
Develop student 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 to learn central concepts in the context of geoscience methods of inquiry
Develop students’ ability and propensity to use systems thinking
 geoscientific thinking skills
These are the guiding principles you’ve already seen, are familiar with as part of the rubric. I’ll go through a few examples of how our modules address these guiding principles.
We know in particular that NSF is very interested in seeing the use of data and all of the modules do this really well. It was very hard to pick a specific example because they were all so different and well-incorporated.

13. (some of the) Datasets used in modules
CDIAC Vostok Ice Core
Critical Zone Observatories
NWS Hurricane Tracks
Mean Sea Level Data
STELLA archive data
US Census Data
USDA-NCSS Soil Surveys
EPA Environmental Justice
Global Volcanism Program
Volcanic eruption datasets
IPCC reports
NCAR community climate models
NSIDC Greenland ice sheet
Tropical cyclone intensity
NOAA
Digital elevation data
Sea surface temperature
Wind and pressure
Tide records
USGS
Earthquake and shaking data
Seismic hazard maps
Land use and land cover
Stream discharge
Water resources & quality
So instead I’ll give you an overview of just some of the datasets that are used. I urge you to explore the modules on your own and see how these are incorporated.

14. Guiding principles
Address one or more geoscience-related grand challenges facing society
Develop student ability to address interdisciplinary problems
Improve student understanding of the nature and methods of geoscience and developing scientific habits of mind
Make use of authentic and credible data to learn central concepts in the context of geoscience methods of inquiry
Develop students’ ability and propensity to use systems thinking
 scientific thinking skills
Another guiding principle – addressing interdisciplinary problems.

17. Guiding principles
Address one or more geoscience-related grand challenges facing society
Develop student ability to address interdisciplinary problems
Improve student understanding of the nature and methods of geoscience and developing scientific habits of mind
Make use of authentic and credible data to learn central concepts in the context of science methods of inquiry
Develop students’ ability and propensity to use systems thinking
 scientific thinking skills
Another guiding principle – addressing interdisciplinary problems.

19. A systems model for transformation of individuals, institutions, and the geoscience community
Programs/
Institutions
Community/
Network
Courses

20. Develop a new vision for developing Earth savvy in higher education
Within and beyond geoscience departments
Within and beyond single institutions
Up to $50K to support design and development

21. A systems model for transformation of individuals, institutions, and the geoscience community
Programs/
Institutions
Community/
Network
Courses

22. In-gathering…

23. People come to us.

25. Guiding principles
Address one or more environmental grand challenges facing society
Develop student ability to address interdisciplinary problems
Improve student understanding of the nature and methods of geoscience and developing scientific habits of mind
Make use of authentic and credible data to learn central concepts in the context of Earth science methods of inquiry
Develop students’ ability and propensity to use systems thinking
 scientific thinking skills