Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Comparing Geosciences-Related Engagement Generated During And After The Use Of Multiple Pedagogical Approaches: Animated Videos, Youtube, Interactive Educational Games, Group Discussion And Powerpoint Presentations, Andrew M. Singh, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Ality Aghedo, Jasmin Budhan, Belal A. Sayeed, B'Jorn K. Forde, Krishna Mahabir

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased educators’ reliance on online learning tools such as Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and Zoom meetings to deliver geoscience-related lessons in real-time. Assessments were conducted using introduction to geology, environmental geology, and oceanography - part of the City University of New York's (CUNY) newly implemented pathways curriculum. These general education courses belong to scientific world and life and physical sciences category and are intended for seamless transfer between CUNY campuses. Students, however, have the option to disengage from participation. Students are able to disable microphones and cameras, as well as rely entirely on text-chat if they choose. …

How Education On Climate Change Affects Consumers' Willingness To Participate In Carbon Offsetting Programs?, Leila Halawi, Deanna Demattio

Publications

If airlines could have a better understanding of how to induce sustainable behavior in their customers, they can use these methods when building sustainable initiatives such as voluntary carbon offsetting programs. The purpose of the study was to determine if education on the consequences of climate change affects how consumers behave related to their interaction with carbon offsetting programs. Regional Scenarios were introduced with a natural disaster comparable to the region under review. A multistage sampling technique was utilized in this study. Firstly, using a cluster sample, groups were used rather than individual units of the target population. The results …

Zoo Education Efficacy In The Context Of The Modern-Day Zoo: A Study Of Aza-Accredited Zoos And Education Models, Taylor L. Ruscitti

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

Zoos have become a built-in component of society and play many roles. One of the roles includes being facilitators of education. Education serves to increase the positive public perception of zoos and works to continue to gain funds and support for a zoo’s overall purpose. Through a literature review and analysis, this thesis explores the modern-day context of zoos and analyzes how education can drive the zoo’s mission. The focus will be on Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) accredited zoos. While many other facilities that house an array of animals, AZA …

Shifting Sands: Coastal Dunes In Motion, Elizabeth Davis

Reports

Grades: 5+ Subjects: General Science, Geology, Environmental Science

Students will use “before & after” dune profile graphics to determine how the dune has changed and hypothesize why this change occurred.

How Resilient Is It? The Resilience Quotient Zoning Ordinance, Qiong Wang, Yao Wang

Reports

Grades: 9-12 Subjects: Environmental Science, Earth Science, Oceanography

The Resilience Quotient (RQ) system uses zoning ordinance to address coastal resilience development issues in the city of Norfolk, Virginia. This lesson plan goes through key resilience concepts and its strategies that can promote flood risk reduction, stormwater management, and energy resilience. The activity provides several scenarios to help students understand, simulate, visualize, discuss, and practice how the Resilience Quotient works for coastal developments in the city.

Killer From The Deep!, Tor Mowatt-Larssen

Reports

Grades: 6-12 Subjects: Life Science | Ecology

Explore the deep-sea environment and biological adaptations to living in the deep sea through murder-mystery investigation and graphing activities.

Art And Science: Utilizing Steam Education To Promote Empathetic Scientific Literacy And Global Citizenship, Ali Orsi Davis

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This research expounds on the history of, hurdles facing, and future goals and possibilities for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) education, including how it can create empathetic, scientifically literate global citizens. Reasons for the cultivation of empathy, scientific literacy, and global citizenship in the classroom are numerous; escalating worldwide nationalism, accelerated climate change, and the increased need to address sustainable development and poverty have produced particular urgency for such student development. Science educators today rarely prioritize the “art” in STEAM education, despite a panoply of cognitive benefits including perspective-taking, critical thinking, and increased personal connection to scientific content. Development …

Old Macdonald Had An Aquaculture Farm, Shantelle Landry

Reports

Grades: 6 Subjects: Earth Science | Natural Resources

With this activity, students will learn the importance of aquaculture and how it can be used to manage a resource.

Emotional Response To Climate Change Learning: An Existential Inquiry, Jennifer Hutchinson

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study aims to explore and explain the existential underpinnings of learning about climate change and potential emotional responses to climate change learning. Undergraduate students in environmental sciences and studies classes at the University of Washingrounded theory on in Seattle, WA participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants were asked about their experiences learning about climate change and how they responded emotionally to the learning. This dissertation examines the responses from those interviews and builds a theory out of the data analyzed. Constructivist Grounded theory as outlined by Kathy Charmaz (2014) was used to analyze the interviews. Codes were created and …

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Whose Fish? Subjects: Life Science, Environmental Science, Marine / Ocean Science, Shelby White

Reports

This activity invites students to assume the role of various stakeholders in fisheries management and actively discuss the influence of economics, ecology and human interactions in decision-making.

Students will demonstrate their argument for/against a certain regulation by participating as a specific stakeholder (i.e. commercial fisher, recreational fisher, scientists/researcher, environmental group, management agency, and citizen). Students will recognize that stakeholders tend to advocate based on their individual needs, often making it difficult for proposed policies to satisfy the needs of all stakeholders and achieve sustainability goals.

Recruiting And Retaining K9–16 Students Through Field- And Laboratory - Based Geoscience Experiences, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Arif M. Sikder, Krishna Mahabir, Ality Aghedo, Charren Cabaroy, Mildred M. Selby, Gugu Ginindza, Leonardo Sanchez

Publications and Research

Since 2004, we have been directly involved with the GSA to provide access and opportunities for K9-16 students, particularly those interested in the broader aspects of geoscience-related topics, to present their field-and- laboratory based research outcomes at professional conferences and to learn from each other. So far, well-over 400 students from the U. S. and abroad have taken advantage of this opportunity and participated our topical sessions. It is quite gratifying to report that many of these students, as a result of their attendance at the GSA conference, felt a continuing need for exposure to high-level professional venues with effective …

Fossils On The Floor In The Nebraska State Capitol: A Coloring And Activities Book, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Conservation and Survey Division

The Nebraska State Capitol is a wonderful place. This building is home to great treasures of art owned by the people of Nebraska. The floor of the Capitol Rotunda has beautiful works of art. Maybe you have seen this art. Small pieces of two kinds of rocks make pictures of people, their tools, the natural resources they used, and pictures of fossil animals and plants. These kinds of pictures are called mosaics [moe ZAY icks]. The animals and plants follow one another in a curved ribbon around the floor. In that ribbon of pictures are many kinds of fossil animals …

Why Teach Science? Helping Teacher Candidates Frame Instructional Decision Making From Moral And Ethical Perspectives, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin

Faculty Publications

This qualitative research project’s overarching goal was to explore ways to help primary grade teacher candidates (re)kindle a conception of teaching as a moral enterprise involving ethical choices and enactment of one’s values. In the context of a science methods course, we explored the research question: What happens to the commitments toward science instruction of pre-service elementary teachers when we help them view science instruction as an act of caring? Our findings suggest that for many, this approach helped students take a moral stance, articulate an ethical position regarding educational issues, and use these perspectives to inform decision-making at the …

The Watershed Game: Land Use & Water Quality. Subjects: Environmental Science, Marine/Ocean Science, Life Science/Biology Grades: 9-12, Shanna Williamson

Reports

This lesson plan is a hands-on activity that allows students to explore how water and nutrients are transported from a watershed with three different land cover types and eventually ends up in a nearby stream.

Wonderful Wetlands: Why Do We Need Them And What Can They Do For Us? Subjects: Environmental Science, Marine/Ocean Science, Life Science/Biology Grades: 9-12, Amanda Knobloch

Reports

This lesson plan introduces students to a variety of different types of wetlands and how they function in the coastal environment. Students will work through activities that illustrate the economic importance of wetlands and the services wetlands provide, as well as building conceptual models of wetlands to illustrate these points.

Experiential Learning Opportunities Through Nasa Stem Content Allows Greater Grass Root-Level Understanding Of The Present Day’S Extreme Climate Change Scenario, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer, Matthew Khargie

Publications and Research

The NASA MAA (MUREP Aerospace Academy) project at York College has demonstrated a track record of providing experiential learning opportunities (ELO) to its participating students. ELOs associated with MAA are designed to increase learners’ involvement, knowledge, comprehension and application of learning in one or more STEM subjects/disciplines. They involve inquiry-and-activity-based learning approaches designed for the level of the learner to inspire, engage, and educate while progressively challenging each student. ELO activities enable learners to acquire knowledge, understand what they have learned, and apply that knowledge through inquiry-based tasks. Specifically, we are prepared to address the following priority: Encourage, increase, and …

Exploring Elementary Students’ Agricultural And Scientific Knowledge Using Evidence Centered Design, Molly R. Brandt

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The public is more disconnected from agriculture than ever. Americans are two to four generations removed from the farm, and a majority of Americans, even in rural agricultural states have no direct link to agriculture. As a result, the public lacks the knowledge and appreciation of the food, fuel, and fiber it demands. The National Center for Agricultural Literacy (NCAL) uses National Agricultural Learning Objectives (NALOs) to measure student’s agricultural knowledge. The purpose of this project is to develop assessments aligned with the NALOs and to use results from the assessments to further understand students’ agricultural literacy. This study focuses …

The Promise Of An Energy Tracker Curriculum For Promoting Home-School Connections And Youth Agency In Climate Action, Elizabeth M. Walsh, Derek Jenkins, Eugene Cordero

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Formal classroom learning experiences that support sustainable behaviors outside the classroom necessarily must bridge students’ home and school lives, as knowledge and practice learned in the classroom is implemented outside of school. To this end, we study the impact of the Green Ninja Energy Tracker curriculum, which uses students’ home energy data in the classroom to promote engagement in climate change and conservation behaviors. Data is drawn from class observations, a focus group, and pre- and post- surveys of a pilot implementation of this curriculum in a diverse 12th-grade Earth Science classroom at an alternative school. We investigate what factors …

An Interpretive Plan Guide For Wilderness Park In Lincoln, Nebraska, Rachel J. Ward

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

Wilderness Park, located in Lancaster County, Nebraska, is a public park of unique ecological and historical value to the city of Lincoln and to the surrounding region. The natural and historical features of the park present an opportunity to communicate environmental and historical topics that are relevant on local, national, and global levels, as well as inspire a lively sense of pride in the community. The problem is that many topics relevant to Wilderness Park are not currently being interpreted at the park, and that there are relatively few interpretive resources available to park visitors.

The purpose of this project …

An African-Centered Approach To Land Education, Salvotore Engel-Dimauro, Karanja Keita Carroll

Publications and Research

Approaches to environmental education which are engaging with place and critical pedagogy have not yet broadly engaged with the African world and insights from Africana Studies and Geography. An African-centered approach facilitates people's reconnection to places and ecosystems in ways that do not reduce places to objects of conquest and things to be exploited for profitability and individual gain. Such an approach offers effective critiques of settler coloniser perspectives on the environment and deeper understandings of the relationship between worldview and ecologically sensitised education. Through examples from Africana Studies and Geography, this article provides an introduction to how an African-centered …

Assessing The County’S Readiness For A Climate Related Event, Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve In Virginia

Reports

Grade Level: 9-12

Subject Area: Earth Science, Environmental Science

Students will participate in a role playing scenario in which they represent different stakeholder groups, including emergency responders, land planners, and watermen. Using a variety of provided resources, students are given a task to present on, whether it be creating an evacuation route for their county and identifying shelters, establishing new areas for development, or locations for the best catch of crabs in the year 2050.

Lesson plan has 2 parts.

Making Connections Between Science And Equity: A Motivation To Teach Science In Elementary Grades, Grinell Smith, Colette Rabin

Faculty Publications

Teacher quality is among the strongest correlates of student outcomes. However, only about a quarter of the nation’s elementary teachers consider themselves qualified to teach science. In this descriptive and exploratory study, we investigated whether helping pre-service teacher candidates explore connections between science and issues of equity, particularly around sustainability issues, could help them see the importance of teaching science to their students more often. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 59 students enrolled in revised science methods courses at a large public university. Our findings suggest that positioning science instruction thusly was perceived as a strong motivator to …

Lewis And Clark State Park Signs, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Les Howard

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Bob Diffendal wrote text and Les Howard created maps for new Lewis and Clark signs at Ponca State Park on the Missouri River.

The Corps of Discovery led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached what is now southeastern Nebraska on July 10, 1804. It arrived at the point on the Missouri River adjacent to what is now Ponca State Park on August 22, 1804; and entered fully into South Dakota on September 8, 1804. Over this span of nearly two months members of the expedition saw and described many geologic features. The locations of some of the more prominent …

Geological Field Guide To The Cedar Point Biological Station, Keith County, Nebraska, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Roger K. Pabian

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This field guide was produced by staff members of the Conservation and Survey Division of the University of Nebraska originally in 1979 at the request of Dr. Brent Nickol, former Director of the Cedar Point Biological Station. It is an introduction to the geologic history and paleoecology of the Cedar Point area intended for students, staff, and other persons using the camp. This revision has been made some 15 years after the first version to reflect changes in ideas resulting from new data collected during that time.

Users of this guide should take care when studying the rock exposures described …

Plate Tectonics, Space, Geologic Time, And The Great Plains: A Primer For Non-Geologists, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

For most Americans, "The Great Plains" evokes images of grasslands, dust storms, prairie fires, Native Americans on horseback, cowboys and wheat lands, and perhaps flat valleys crossed by braided rivers carrying a heavy load of sand and gravel, extremes of weather, and a climate typified by an alternation of droughts and wetter periods. Geologists picture such general images, too, but they also see radical changes in the landscape over periods expressed in millions rather than hundreds of years. Geologically speaking, human activities on the Great Plains are too recent to have much of a place in the broad geologic history …