Santiago Canyon College: Using the TIDeS module in Earth Sciences for Educators
Angela Daneshmand, Santiago Canyon College
Why I Revised My Course
Angela Daneshmand and the Grand Canyon
![[creative commons]](/images/creativecommons_16.png)
Provenance: Angela Daneshmand, Santiago Canyon College
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
About the Course
Earth Sciences for Educators
Level: This is a 4-unit lecture/lab combo course that meets the physical science general education requirement. Students who take this course are mostly education majors (pre-service teachers) who feel that they cannot excel in science courses and are apprehensive about teaching science to their future students. They take my course because it is required for their major.
Size: 10-30 students
Format: 2 180-minute sessions per week
Investigating the processes that shape and form Earth and define its place in the solar system through the sciences of geology, oceanography, meteorology and astronomy.
This course is appropriate for students in any major, but oriented toward enhancing the Earth sciences knowledge of future teachers. Field trips may be required.
Course SLOs:
- Demonstrate that astronomical, geological, oceanographic and meteorological observations lead to understanding natural processes.
- Analyze and interpret their observations of Earth materials and features to deduce the processes involved.
ERTH 121 Spring 2024 (Acrobat (PDF) 2.3MB Aug15 24)
Although the course at Santiago Canyon College is titled, "Earth Sciences for Educators", it was hardly different from a regular Earth Science course. There was a heavy focus on Geology and only 1-2 days each of Astronomy, Oceanography, and Meteorology. The course consisted of mostly lecture slides with online labs from the Pearson Lab Manual and limited opportunities for active learning. Teaching the course on Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic added another layer of difficulty. Overall, it was very piecemeal, as it lacked a holistic view, appropriate scaffolding, and motivating questions to engage the students. My vision for this course was to make it geared for future teachers by building their confidence in science, inspiring scientific curiosity, and preparing them to incorporate science education standards into their future classes. The introduction of TIDeS changed this and enabled me to materialize my vision for the course.
TIDeS materials focused more on the process of science and covered topics in all Earth Sciences using real data from online databanks. Students engage with the content in teams to make predictions, complete tasks, and evaluate previous engineering designs. Students reflect on what they have learned and connect it back to the process of science using science and engineering practices. My favorite aspect of the TIDeS materials is that students build confidence in their abilities and understanding and envision themselves as scientists at the end of the course.
Using the TIDeS materials has changed my entire outlook on this course. I am learning alongside the students every semester because each team wants to focus on something slightly different. It keeps the content interesting for me and I enjoy it every semester now instead of dreading it on Zoom. It is student focused, very interactive, and helps build students' confidence in their own ability to "do" science. There is nothing more rewarding than hearing students say that this class makes learning science fun and that they are excited to teach science in the future.
The class models what elementary science should be more like as it has an emphasis on discovery, exploration, and the idea that everyone can be a scientist. It is applied to the real world. Overall, great for someone looking to teach science/multi subject.
My Experience Teaching with TIDeS Materials
My approach to teaching this course changed from lecturing and completing traditional labs and worksheets to being more student-focused with students choosing locations and events to focus on within a broader topic. The addition of societal relevancy helped engage the students in the content and kept the course current and interesting. The new course curriculum exceeds my expectations because my students are excelling and excited to teach science in the future. I am very happy I was selected to contribute to the TIDeS project because I was able to create a course that is student focused, very interactive, and extremely rewarding.
A Unit-by-Unit Breakdown of How I Taught this Module
Unit 1
- Unit 1.1:
- Started with the discussion slide, then talk with your neighbors and then used Mentimeter to lead the discussion. Here the students submitted a lot of the "scientific method steps" so I used that as a segue to talk about the scientific method they are used to and how the actual scientific method is not linear.
- Asked students what they thought Geo/Earth scientists did, had them discuss with a neighbor.
- I made copies and passed out the figure from AGI Critical Needs paper (page 4) had the students read it, pull out one thing that resonated with them to share with their neighbor. As the unit author suggested, I emphasized that science is good for society and that these jobs help us adapt to our ever-changing world. I also highlighted that we would be discussing climate change, resilience to natural hazards, mineral resources, and oceans and coastlines throughout the semester.
- Time to practice: Before diving straight into observations and interpretations, I prompted the students to consider whether "It snowed" was an observation or interpretation. The class was half/half on this answer! I said that those who voted interpretation were correct and asked those students what the observation was. They responded "there is snow". I found it to be a good starting point so those who thought it was an observation could adjust their thinking.
Unit 1.2:
-Skipped part 1 because students will do the HW after class and not before class.
- Part 2 went really well. I skimmed through the What is Science article before class and I really liked it. - I would add a recommendation there for instructors to read it too. It really helped me give examples as I was going through the slides.
- Jigsaw, used option 2. I had the "in practice and key concepts" portion printed out from last semester so they didn't go onto the website.
- Instead of the jigsaw, I had each group come up and 1 person gave a summary of the study and the other person highlighted the SEP.
Unit 1.3:
- Slides 1-9 (I did not show slides 8-9, but it was nice to have these as a reference when having Google Earth on the screen) I verbally went over an example SEP for my "question" so that they wouldn't be thrown off by question 4 on the worksheet.
- I had students complete the worksheet in pairs and afterward briefly present their location, question, and SEP plan to the class.
Unit 2
- Unit 2.1:
- Did not use the slides because I did not have the students do the pre-work. Instead, we completed this in class as a gallery walk (see picture) with questions/prompts from the pre-work taped on the whiteboard. This took ~10 minutes.
- Students shared their answers with the class (~5 minutes) and then walked around to get a closer view and make a few more observations for Part 1 of the in-class worksheet.
- For Part 2, I linked all the maps on Canvas for them to work in small groups with their team. This way they can zoom in on the specific areas in question.
Unit 2.2:
- Completed Parts 1, 1.5, and 2 as stated in the instructions.
- I found it difficult to keep everyone on the same pace because some students are more confident in their math skills.
- For Part 2, I rearranged the "rate=distance/time" equation (see photo). This helped the students TREMENDOUSLY
Unit 2.3:
- Started the class with a non-TIDeS GEODE plate tectonics exercise. Then proceeded with Unit 2.3 part 1.
- Students completed the pre-class and in-class work during class.
- For Part 2, some students wanted to go past 150ma! The student said "I think this is fun!" I call that winning.
See Photo (Acrobat (PDF) 1006kB Aug15 24)
Unit 3
- Day 1: Started with having students create their own classification system, then they identified minerals based on properties discussed (see attached worksheet-minerals).
Day 2: Had students research, present, and discuss the 3 different rock types, used attached worksheet-rocks and had them observe/interpret rock type. Then the answers were revealed and they had to further identify each rock by name using charts in the lab book.
Day 3: Students researched what geologic resources are derived from the rocks identified last class. Students played Mineral Sandiego (https://serc.carleton.edu/earth_rendezvous/2022/program/demos/tuesdayA/249460.html) in small groups to show that resources are found all around the globe (used questions from Part 4 on the first worksheet-minerals).
Day 4: Used an alternate version of the student worksheet for Unit 3.2 (see attached document).
TIDeS Unit 3 Combined Files (Acrobat (PDF) 1.4MB Aug15 24)
Unit 4
- Completed Units 4.1-4.5 as directed by materials.
Unit 4.6:
-Completed the pre-class work during class time.
-Only completed the Hurricane Damage case studies and optional Build A Hurricane Resistant Home activity.
- Students really loved the optional activity. I had students look on Redfin/Zillow for an actual house to retrofit. They wanted to know if they had a budget, so I added this in as a constraint that they have to work around. Students presented their retrofitted house plan to the class.
Unit 5
- Unit 5.1: I combined the pre-work, in class work (A and B), and the homework together (see attached files). Unit 5.3: I combined the pre-work, in class work, and the part of the homework together (see attached files).
Note: After Unit 5.4, make sure to hand out assigned roles and readings for the next class (Unit 5.5).
TIDeS Unit 5 Combined Files (Acrobat (PDF) 6.8MB Aug15 24)
Unit 6
- Completed Units 6.1-6.4 as directed by materials.
Assessments
In my course, I did not administer exams as a summative assessment. Instead, I created unit quizzes that were administered online after each unit was completed. Because the content was scaffolded in a way that helped the students feel confident in their understanding of the material, I saw an increase in the use of critical thinking and problem-solving via quiz answers. Additionally, Student Reflections helped tie what the students learned back to the Science and Engineering Practices. This really gave insight into how they are learning and what key points have stuck with them through each unit. Using the TILT method on assignments helped communicate expectations to students and thus led to an increase of thoughtful submissions. These practices resulted in equitable outcomes for the course due to the content creating parity among students, while eliciting a deeper understanding of the material.
Outcomes
My goals for this course were to 1) make it geared for future teachers, 2) build student confidence in science, 3) inspire scientific curiosity, and 4) prepare students to incorporate science education standards into their future curriculum.
- Goals 1 and 4 were met as we incorporated Science and Engineering Practices through hands-on activities, inquiry-based learning, peer teaching opportunities, and unit reflections.
- Goal 2 was met as students gave and received feedback, attempted assignments/tasks without the fear of failure, and envisioned themselves as scientists. Many students reported that they felt comfortable leading science activities and presenting on scientific topics at the end of the course.
- Goal 3 was met as students were given the opportunity to select their own subtopics (or focus on a specific location of their choosing), which formed a connection between the students and the topic and allowed them to engage more deeply and understand broader implications of the content.
Show Course Description
Hide