1. ESST Participant Field Data
Combining research and pedagogy in a field-based inquiry at a temperate peatland
FROBURG, Erik1,2, VARNER, Ruth2, BRYCE, Julia3, HALE, Stephen R.1, JOHNSON, Joel3 and GRAHAM, Karen1,4 (1) Joan and James Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Education, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, (2) Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS), UNH, (3) Dept. of Earth Sciences, UNH, (4) Dept. of Mathematics, UNH.
Introduction
Research Site
Inquiry meets Research
The University of New Hampshire’s Transforming Earth System Science Education (UNH TESSE) program is designed to enrich the Earth System Science (ESS) content knowledge and inquiry-based pedagogical skills of in-service and pre-service teachers who either currently teach or plan to teach earth science curricula. This goal is promoted through authentic research experiences coupled with assignments that ask teachers to apply their new understanding of pedagogy and content in the classroom. Teachers participate in an intensive 2-week summer course—Earth Systems Science for Teachers (ESST)—which provides foundational ESS content instruction and a series of field experiences that highlight different aspects of the research process. The culminating field experience provides an opportunity for the participants to conduct an investigation that is a condensed version of the full scientific research process, while modeling the pedagogical context of a K-12 classroom.
Sallie’s Fen, a 1.7 ha nutrient poor fen located in Barrington, NH USA (43°12.5’ N, 71°3.5’ W) where biogeochemical research has been supported by several programs including NASA’s Terrestrial Ecology Program, NSF’s Ecosystem Science Program (J. Bubier Mt. Holyoke College) and NSF’s Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) Program. Carbon dioxide and methane fluxes and a suite of environmental data have been collected at this site since The fen serves as a research and educational field site for undergraduate and graduate courses and student theses.
Throughout the ESST course, we work with participants to view all research activities through the lens of the NRC’s Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry and their Variations (NRC, 2000). Use of this framework ensures that teachers become accustomed to including all five features of the research process, and that explicit decisions are being made regarding how the level of student versus teacher direction relates to the specific research being conducted and the learning goals of the given classroom. In the context of the Sallie’s Fen final inquiry, the steps were:
Learner engages in a question: Participants are presented with an overview of the research site, the type of research that has previously been done at this site, the existing data that is available, and the means of data collection that are available. They work in groups, devising both a research question and hypothesis.
Learner gives priority to evidence: Participants spend the majority of a day at the field site collecting their own data. In cases where they will be utilizing other data—such as those collected automatically by instrumentation—they familiarize themselves with the instrument(s), site, and experimental design.
Learner formulates explanations from evidence: Participants work as a group to analyze their data. Varying levels of support are provided, depending of the complexity of the analysis and the background of the participants.
Learner makes connections to existing scientific knowledge: Participants are provided with appropriate background literature. Due to time constraints, this aspect of the inquiry is less developed.
Learner communicates findings: Groups give “science talks” to the rest of their cohort, and to program staff. Expected content of talks includes background information, methods, research question and hypothesis, data analysis, results, and areas for further study.
Data collection methods available to participants include:
Methane flux via an automated chamber system and LI-COR 6262 infra-red gas analyzer.
Carbon Dioxide flux via manual chambers and a LI-COR LI-840A infra-red gas analyzer.
Water analysis via a YSI 556 handheld with temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and salinity probes.
Quadrat and plant species identification key.
Summary
The final inquiry experience of the ESST course provides teachers with the opportunity to conduct a learner-directed inquiry at a long-running biogeochemical research field site. Because our program’s primary goal is to increase teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, we designed the program to balance the authenticity of the science being conducted with the contextual structure of the K-12 teaching environment. The end result is an experience that provides teachers with an opportunity to conduct research in a manner that is translational to their teaching.
Pedagogical Framework
Our goal of providing a final inquiry experience for participating teachers is premised on the prevailing best teaching practices that promote inquiry-based learning as a means to engaging students in authentic scientific research in a classroom setting [National Research Council (NRC), 1996 & 2000; American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, 2009; Llewellyn, 2005]. We also recognize that previous scientific research experience increases the quality and likelihood of implementation in a teacher’s classroom (Windschitl, 2004). As such, our program provides a research experience that is authentic from a scientific perspective, yet remains aligned with many of the structures and limitations of a K-12 classroom environment.
Citations:
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (2009). Benchmarks for science literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Llewellyn, D. (2005). Teaching high school science through inquiry. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press and NSTA Press.
National Research Council. (1996). National science education standards. Washington, D.C. National Academy Press.
National Research Council. (2000). Inquiry and the national science education standards: a guide for teaching and learning. Washington, D.C. National Academy Press.
Windschitl, M. (2004). Folk theories of ‘‘inquiry:’’ how preservice teachers reproduce the discourse and practices of an atheoretical scientific method. J Res Sci Teach 41(5):481–512.
ESST Participant Field Data
Acknowledgements: Support for this program is from the National Science Foundation’s GEO-Teach program grant GEO : “UNH GEO-Teach: Transforming Earth System Science Education (TESSE)”