SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE INVESTIGATIONS THAT SUPPORT NGSS TEACHING AND LEARNING

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alec Bodzin ◽  
◽  
James H. Carrigan ◽  
David J. Anastasio ◽  
Kate Popejoy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Science Investigations

scholarly journals Engaging Students in the Development of an Atmospheric Science Course: A Discourse Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Kuok Ho Daniel Tang
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Atmospheric Science ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Course Development

Aims: With increasing emphasis on learners-centered approach in teaching and learning, engaging students in course development and refinement is crucial. This study aims to foster a participatory approach in course development by engaging students in meaningful discourse at the early stage of an atmospheric science course. Study design:  This is a qualitative study which employed the grounded theory for data analysis. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in March 2021 in an international higher learning institution located in the Guangdong Province of China. Methodology: This qualitative study invited a year 3 cohort of environmental science students taking an atmospheric science and pollution course in an international higher learning institution in China to participate in a meaningful discourse about the course in week 2 of the semester. Their responses were transcribed and the transcripts analyzed with NVIVO based on the grounded theory. The transcripts were coded, the themes were drawn and the relationship was probed. Results: This study identified three overarching themes from the codes, namely assessment, course contents and learning activities, whose codes covered 4.5%, 17.8% and 23.1% of the text respectively. Codes for assessment comprise practical assignment and multiple-choice question, while those for course contents include black carbon, modelling, greenhouse gases, zero-carbon, and removal of Freon. Codes for learning activities include case studies, debate, field trips and quizzes. The words most frequently appeared in the transcripts are learning and field. The findings reflect expectations for interactive learning, simulation-based learning, authentic assignments and activities, experiential learning via field trips and problem-based learning. These are in line with the established pedagogies for environmental science. Conclusion: This study shifts the paradigm of students’ engagement in the increasingly learner-centered educational setting where students are proactively involved in course development in the early stage of teaching and learning instead of reactively involved through feedback collection at advanced stages.

scholarly journals Digital Curriculum in the Classroom: Authority, Control, and Teacher Role

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Puttick ◽  
Brian Drayton ◽  
Joan Karp
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Alternative Source ◽  
Authority Control ◽  
Digital Curriculum ◽  
Integration Of Technology ◽  
Habitable Planet

With greater online access and greater use of computers and tablets, educational materials are increasingly available digitally, and are soon predicted to become the standard for science classrooms. However, researchers have found that institutionalized structures and cultural factors in schools affect teacher uptake and integration of technology. Findings are sparse that detail the complexities of how teachers actually incorporate technology in their teaching as they negotiate the introduction of a new and potentially disruptive innovation. With respect to a digital curriculum in particular, teachers can be unclear about their role vis-a-vis the curriculum, as the "computer" potentially becomes an alternative source of authority in the classroom, and this can mean that the teacher is no longer in control. This paper reports on the implementation of two units of an innovative environmental science program, Biocomplexity and the Habitable Planet, as a digital curriculum. We discuss some of the lessons learned about the mix of challenges, anticipated and unanticipated, that confronted four high school teachers as they implemented the curriculum in their classrooms. We suggest that developers and users of digital curricula pay particular attention to how they envision where the authority for teaching and learning in the classroom should reside.

Transformative Sustainability Learning Within a Material-Discursive Ontology

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy Kcenia O’Neil
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Learning ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Agential Realism ◽  
Sustainability Learning ◽  
Educational Paradigm

In this article, sustainability education is defined within the three orders of change—education about, for, and as sustainability. The third-order change, education as sustainability is defined as transformative sustainability education—an ontological change in how humans and the material world relate. The dominant higher educational paradigm tends to educate about subject matter (i.e., sustainability) distanced from material and focuses on individual human cognition. This does not go far enough to enact sustainable change. Rather, a human and nonhuman materialization within teaching and learning is explained through agential realism, as conceptualized by Barad. The author narrates her way through her own transformative learning journey as an environmental science and sustainability educator going from a reductionist paradigm instructor into a relationality paradigm educator living into sustainability. From dualist teaching in environmental and human health where the study of food was an object, she undertook teaching and research on the pedagogy of food as a material subject. The findings explore the practice of agential realism in relation to the field of transformative sustainability education, namely, that teaching and learning intra-actively engages body, mind, and all material, including food, water, soil, trees, people, and communities. This is a profoundly transformative pedagogic shift in higher education. Whether we teach sustainability-related subject matter or not, a relational ontology of teaching and learning has the potential to create the conditions for a transformative learning process through an iterative reconfiguring of our relationality—moving towards a social and ecologically sustainable society.

Teaching and learning about ethical aspects of environmental science with graduate students

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Palinkas
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
The University

<p>Humans and their environment are inherently linked, especially in coastal and estuarine regions, and scientific and social values often must be balanced in ecosystem management and decision-making. Graduate students discuss these balances in a 1-credit seminar offered via the Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Science (MEES) program, an inter-institutional program within the University System of Maryland. The MEES program uses an interdisciplinary approach to train students in scientific discovery, integration, and application to generate new knowledge and to solve environmental problems, including social sciences. In the seminar, graduate students examine these problems through the lens of Geoethics, the ethical, social and cultural implications of geoscience research and practice, using a case-study approach. After a brief introduction to the concept, students develop a list of topics to examine throughout the seminar. In Spring 2020, these topics included climate-change communication, field harassment, community-based science, sustainability science, and preserving biodiversity. At the end of the semester, students give a presentation on ethical aspects of their own research.</p>

Ecology, Democracy, and Green Schools: An Integrated Framework

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A. W. Kensler
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Traditional Schools ◽  
Green Schools ◽  
Whole School ◽  
Ecological Principles ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Whole Systems

Sustainability is the integration of ecological, social, and economic approaches to ensuring healthy local and global communities for present and future generations. Although environmental science and social studies teachers have assumed primary responsibility for sustainability related programs and initiatives, whole school approaches to teaching and learning about sustainability are emerging in K–12 schools (green schools) all around the world (Henderson & Tilbury, 2004). Whole school and whole systems approaches to sustainability not only teach about sustainability via the curriculum but also encourage the school community to become a vibrant place for together learning how members might live more sustainably. Recent research highlights the importance of school leaders and leadership for successful green schools (Birney & Reed, 2009; Higgs & McMillan, 2006; Pepper & Wildy, 2008; Schelly, Cross, Franzen, Hall, & Reeve, 2010). The purpose of this article is to propose a theoretical framework that integrates democratic and ecological principles for describing, explaining, and predicting a continuum of development from more traditional schools to green schools. It ends with suggestions for future research.

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