on the cutting edge · 2 — on the cutting edge participants in the programs offered by on the...

Professional Development for Geoscience Faculty

Evolving Themes,Enduring Impact

the Cutting EdgeOn the Cutting Edge

2 — ON THE CUTTING EDGE

Participants in the programs offered by On theCutting Edge are doing more than keepingpace with developments in geoscience educa-tion. They are taking the lead.

Founded by a grant from the National ScienceFoundation Division of Undergraduate Educationand sponsored by the National Association of Geo-science Teachers, On the Cutting Edge set out in2002 to improve the quality of professional devel-opment opportunities for geoscience faculty in theU.S. Within four years, a third of the nation’s 8,000geoscience faculty were aware of its services, ap-proximately one-fourth had used its resource-richwebsite, and over 800 faculty, post docs, andgraduate students had attended one or more ofthe 23 workshops the program organized.

On the Cutting Edge helps current and futurecollege and university educators:• Stay up-to-the-minute with geoscience re-

search and pedagogical methods• Put cutting edge information to effective use in

their classrooms, laboratories, and fieldwork• Network with colleagues in the geosciences

and related disciplines• Better prepare for and manage their academic

careers and become leaders in the geo-science community

CONNECTING PEOPLE, IDEASOn the Cutting Edge works to improve geoscienceeducation by offering workshops that keep facultyup to date with emerging and important aspects

Leading the Way

of both their rapidly evolving discipline and geo-science pedagogy, providing online services thatvigorously support the collection and circulation ofworkshop ideas and the continuing developmentof workshop themes and resources, and fosteringan active cohort of leaders to disseminatecutting edge content and model exemplary prac-tices in instruction and course design.

Each year On the Cutting Edge offers integrated,synergistic workshops that explore:• Emerging themes in pedagogy and content• Techniques for teaching upper division

courses in the discipline• Course design• Preparing for an academic career• Teaching, research, and career management

for early career faculty

Organizers draw upon the perspectives of lead-ers in geoscience education and suggestions frommembers of the geoscience community in choos-ing topics, which have ranged from “Geology andHuman Health” to “Design Principles for CreatingEffective Web-based Learning Resources.”

Workshop participants have come from all 50states, more than 400 different institutions (two-year colleges, four-year colleges and universities,and institutions granting advanced degrees), anddifferent career stages. Women and racial/ethnicminorities have attended On the Cutting Edgeworkshops at rates (45% and 6%, respectively)that are considerably higher than their proportionsin the field of geoscience education, where 15%are women and 2% are racial/ethnic minorities.

On the Cutting Edge also offers online tutorialsand workshops at professional meetings thatreduce costs and travel obligations for facultywhile expanding the audience for emerging topics.

SPREADING THE WORDCutting edge information is just a click away fromgeoscience educators, thanks to the On theCutting Edge website. In 2005, the site received


EVOLVING THEMES,ENDURING IMPACT

Emerging Topics ...................................... 4

Teaching the Core .................................... 6

Course Design .......................................... 8

Career Management ............................... 10

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACTHeather Macdonald, [email protected],

College of William and MaryCathryn Manduca, [email protected],

Carleton CollegeDavid Mogk, [email protected],

Montana State University, BozemanBarbara Tewksbury, [email protected],

Hamilton College

CREDITSOn the Cover, Main Image: The ManicouaganImpact Structure in Quebec, Canada. LakeManicouagan and Lake Mushalagan surroundthe central uplift of the crater, dated at 214million years. The original diameter of the craterwas 100 kilometers. Glacial advances havescoured the crater to its present form. (From theUSGS Landsat 7 Project)

This material is based upon work supported bythe National Science Foundation (NSF) Divisionof Undergraduate Education under Grants No.0127310, 0127141, 0127257, and 0127018.Opinions, findings and conclusions or recommen-dations expressed herein are those of theauthors and do not necessarily reflect the viewsof the NSF. On the Cutting Edge is sponsoredby the National Association of GeoscienceTeachers (NAGT) and is part of the DigitalLibrary for Earth System Education (DLESE).

visits from more than 250,000 different IP ad-dresses. Research suggests that there are at least6,000 intensive users of the site annually, of whichapproximately 2,000 are geoscience faculty in theU.S. Intensive users visit the site six or more timesin a single year.

The website provides support for workshopsand follow-on activities. It also provides the meansto disseminate workshop content widely andeffectively. Its growing collection of resources forteaching undergraduate geoscience includes:• Instructional materials and activities• Datasets, interfaces, and tools• Pedagogical resources• Course development and management

resources• Assessment instruments• Primary sources and bibliographies• Visualizations of earth processes

REMARKABLE RESULTS AND REACHAt the end of each On the Cutting Edge workshop,participants are asked to rank their overall satis-faction on a scale from 1 to 10. The average resulthas been 9.0, “highly satisfied.” Significantly, al-most 10% have participated in a second workshop.

Participants identify three major benefits of theworkshops they have attended: acquiring newcontent that can be easily used in their teaching,networking with other participants, and the chanceto “get away from the office” and focus on thescholarship of teaching and learning.

On the Cutting Edge assessments indicatethat satisfaction and benefit often accrue to morethan workshop participants. More than 60% ofthose responding to phone interviews said theworkshop they attended had a positive impact ontheir students, and 28% described specific depart-ment-wide results from their participation.

Finally, the website gives the program incred-ible reach, offering geoscience educators aroundthe world new ideas for courses and resources thatspecifically support teaching and scholarly activity.


GEOSCIENCE AREAS, NEW AND CLASSIC,FEATURED AT ON THE CUTTING EDGE

• Biocomplexity• Geology and Human Health• Geochemistry• Hydrogeology• Mineralogy• Ocean Systems

• Petrology• Rates and Time

• Structural Geology

Emerging Themes

Geoscience education is in the midst of phe-nomenal change: Our rapidly evolving under-standing of the Earth system is altering whatwe teach, research on learning is providingnew guidance for how we teach, and informa-tion technology is developing exciting newways of teaching and doing research.

The emerging themes workshops of On theCutting Edge put these topics on the fast track —moving them from areas of isolatedearly activity by leaders in the fieldto widespread implementationin undergraduate geosciencecourses. Multi-day work-shops bring togethereducators from a variety ofinstitutions from aroundthe country. They serveboth as discrete learningopportunities and as cata-lysts for ongoing synergisticaction. They are the starting pointof a multi-year trajectory of work onthese themes.

WORKSHOP GOALSOn the Cutting Edge offers two emerging themesworkshops each year, one on a new geoscienceresearch topic and one that brings a new aspect ofpedagogy into the curriculum. All of them:• Encourage participants to share and develop

their expertise on the subject.• Document the state of the art by answering

questions such as these: What is happening atthe forefront of this topic? What are the bestexamples of effective practice in geoscienceeducation?

• Develop a vision for forward progress thatconsiders the barriers, missing pieces, oppor-tunities, and actions needed to make broadadoption possible, including identifying priorityissues and needs.

• Develop an action plan. This often includesdirected outreach to other groups, such asorganizing a one-day follow-on workshop at aprofessional meeting and/or topical sessionsat geoscience conferences.

• Produce products supporting wider imple-mentation that can be disseminated on theOn the Cutting Edge website, includingexamples of how content is currently taught,

tutorials, workshops, or short courses on thetopic, reference lists, journal articles or topicalvolumes, goals and syllabi collections, teach-ing resources and online classroom materials.

On the Cutting Edge seeks out a diversegroup of participants balanced by gender, geogra-phy, institutional type, academic position andexperience, and disciplinary interest. In reviewingapplications, workshop conveners also considerattributes such as the breadth, type, or level oftheir expertise and their willingness to participatein follow-on activities.

CUTTING EDGE RESULTSBringing together people with diverse expertiseand diverse points of view to address criticalissues in geoscience has produced incredibleresults. Emerging themes workshops have fos-tered exciting, ongoing interdisciplinary collabora-


EMERGING THEMES WORKSHOPS

• Discoveries from Mars: Using a PlanetaryPerspective to Enhance UndergraduateGeoscience Courses, Arizona State Univer-sity, Tempe, AZ

• Teaching Public Policy in the Earth Sciences,American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC

• Teaching About the Ocean System UsingNew Research Techniques: Data, Modelsand Visualization, University of Washington,Seattle, WA

• Geology and Human Health, Montana StateUniversity, Bozeman, MT

• Teaching Geoscience with Visualizations:Using Images, Animations and ModelsEffectively, Carleton College, Northfield, MN

• Teaching Biocomplexity in the Geosciences,Montana State University, Bozeman, MT

• Understanding What Our GeoscienceStudents Are Learning: Observing andAssessing, Carleton College, Northfield, MN

• Design Principles for Creating Effective Web-based Learning Resources in the Geosciences,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

[For the current workshop schedule, visit:

serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/workshops.html ]

tions between faculty from geoscience, cognitivescience, other sciences, and education.

Another major contribution of emergingthemes programming at On the Cutting Edge isthe impetus it has given to the development anduse of online resources such as collections ofvisualizations. Visualizing the Earth, its processes,and its evolution through time is a fundamentalaspect of geoscience, and the site offers not onlycollections of visualizations on geoscience topicsbut tips on how to pick good visualizations andhow to use them in class. In 2005, the site’svisualization collections received visits from morethan 200,000 different IP addresses. Whether thesubject is paleo-climate or tsunamis, hurricanes,and other newsworthy topics, geoscience facultyare learning that their first stop for accurate andinvolving information and animations should beserc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/.

Page Four: Mars, adapted from an animation ofthe Scientific Visualization Studio at the GoddardSpace Flight Center. Below: Within days of theSoutheast Asia tsunami, On the Cutting Edgecreated an online collection of links to relatedresources, including (left) a segment of an anima-tion created by the Active Fault Research Center,in Tsukuba, Japan, and (right) before and afterIKONOS satellite photos from spaceimaging.com.


Teaching the Core

One of the program’s major successes hasbeen its increasing ability to engage researchscientists in thinking about the way they teachcore courses. In upper-division “Teaching X”workshops like “Teaching Structural Geologyin the 21st Century” and “Teaching Sedimen-tary Geology in the 21st Century,” up to 70participants share ideas and experiences thatthey can put to immediate use in their class-rooms and field exercises.

Like all On the Cutting Edge workshops, theseprograms:• Give participants time to interact• Emphasize practical applications — how

workshop topics can be applied in the class-room and in the field

• Give participants time to work on specifictasks that connect the topic to their teaching

• Make sure that participants leave the workshopwith specific plans for future action

What do “Teaching X” participants take awayfrom their workshop experiences? New, exciting,easily used content for their courses — and newand exciting professional contacts. Like those whoparticipate in emerging themes workshops,“Teaching X” participants point to networking asone of the major benefits of attending a workshop.

Using phrases like“eye opening” and “aseismic shift,” theyalso report significantchanges in theirattitudes about teach-ing — from a focus on“what am I teaching” to“what are my studentslearning” — as well asan increased recogni-tion of the importanceand utility of usingcognitive science andresearch on learningto guide their teach-ing. Faculty draw onvocabulary acquiredduring their workshopsto communicateeffectively about teaching not only with colleagueson campus but also at meetings of professionalsocieties. They also report an increased aware-ness of and/or motivation to publish teachingactivities.

A WEB OF CONNECTIONS, CREATIVITYThe On the Cutting Edge website helps partici-pants prepare for both emerging theme and“Teaching X” workshops. It also serves as arepository for the work they do there, makingrelated material available to participants and togeoscience faculty, K-12 teachers, students at alllevels, and others interested in geoscience topics.The ever-growing site contains more than 1,000web pages, 40 topical collections, and 1,500cataloged resources, including hundreds ofcommunity-contributed teaching activities.

The website also offers a number of practical,logistical aids – from pointers on field trip safety toa registry of analytical equipment designed to helpresearchers, instructors and students gain access totechnology they need in their scholarly work.

Since 2002, over 800faculty members, post-docs, and grad studentshave participated in anOn the Cutting Edgeworkshop. If each ofthese men and womenuse the theories andteaching practices they’velearned to improve theirteaching with just 50students, each yearthey will influence thescientific literacy of40,000 citizens andpossible members ofthe scientific workforce.


“I really enjoyed being able to talk aboutteaching techniques, what material the‘experts’ in that field teach to their students,and good examples to use in class and lab.... I'll be revising my course a little everytime I teach it.” — Participant in TeachingStructural Geology workshop

“I have seen a dramatic improvement in mycourses. Firstly, both the students and Ienjoy the class significantly more. Secondly,I feel the students retain more information atthe end of the semester.” — Participant inTeaching Structural Geology workshop

“I came into this conference knowing two orthree people in hydro. I leave knowing many,many of whom are new friends and severalof whom I plan to do some research with.”— Participant in Teaching Hydrogeologyworkshop

EVALUATING IMPACTA comprehensive evaluation program helpsOn the Cutting Edge assess and betteraddress the expectations and needs ofworkshop attendees. “Road checks” at theclose of each workshop day facilitate mid-course corrections. Surveys at the end ofeach workshop identify areas of strengthand weakness as well as immediate impactsattributable to the workshop. Follow-uponline surveys and telephone interviewsgather information about how differenttypes of workshops impacted teachingpractices and how participants dissemi-nated what they’ve learned.

The results? More than 80% of thoseinterviewed by phone pointed to the work-shop they attended as the source of specificactive learning techniques that they incor-porated in their teaching.

A SAMPLING OF WEB RESOURCESABOUT HYDROGEOLOGY

Online Activities• Geothermal Energy and Geysers• Melting Glaciers, Gravels and Groundwater• Mixing Oil and Water: Comparisons with

Petroleum Migration• Service Learning and Local Hydrogeology• Soda Bottle Hydrology• Using Data from the Arsenic Problem in

Bangladesh• Water and Mud: Linking Hydrogeology

and Landscape Change• Western Water Law Project

Workshop Working Groups• Resources for Teaching Field Methods

and Developing Long-Term ProjectWorking Group

• Case Studies in Hydrogeology


Charting the Way: Course Design

A course design process for anyone who’sever said, “I really should do something aboutthis class, but I don’t even know where tostart” — offered in a variety of helpful andeffective formats ...

On the Cutting Edge’s annual four-day,face-to-face course design workshop drawstogether 30 to 40 faculty members to work ondesigning or redesigning courses that will betaught during the following academic year. Thesame practical and intellectually interestingguidance is available in a four-day onlinevirtual workshop and via a web-only tutorialcreated to help faculty who are working inde-pendently as well as faculty developers work-ing with campus groups.

An effective and innovative course should domore than provide students with a strong back-ground of knowledge in a field. It should also:• Enable students to use their strong back-

grounds to solve problems• Focus beyond the final exam to add to stu-

dents’ future lives, abilities, and skill sets andprepare students to think for themselves in thediscipline after the course is over

On the Cutting Edge has helped hundreds offaculty members design courses that meet these

criteria. In a follow-up survey of workshop partici-pants, 90% of respondents indicated that they hadfollowed through to teach the rigorous, goals-based, innovative course that they first began todevelop at the workshop. Furthermore, 80% ofrespondents said that they found the designprocess so useful that they followed it again whendesigning or redesigning another course.

The course design process can be transforma-tional – both for the participant and for his or herdepartment, college, or university. One attendeewrote, “Our department is very fortunate. Four ofthe six full-time faculty members in our departmenthave taken this workshop. We are in the midst ofmajor curriculum changes as a result.” Anotherwas so impressed by the online tutorial that heenlisted a cross-discipline team of faculty at hisinstitution to take the course together.

While the workshop was originally designedfor geoscience faculty, the tutorial provides ex-amples from many disciplines, including thoseoutside the sciences, and offers an easy-to-applystrategy for designing courses in any discipline.The website offers a complete description of howOn the Cutting Edge runs course design work-shops, including links to all the materials needed,a detailed schedule, and tips for adapting oradopting the workshop format.

ONLINE COURSE GOALS, SYLLABI SERVE ASSPRINGBOARDS TO FURTHER INNOVATIONThe On the Cutting Edge website also serves as aspringboard for continuing course innovation.Using an online form, faculty can forward theircourse descriptions, teaching and learning goals,and syllabi to the website, where they can beshared with other geoscience educators. Coursesthat have been submitted include “Coastal Geol-ogy,” “Environmental Geology,” “Geochemistry,”“Geology of the National Parks,” “Global Warming:Fact or Fiction?,” “Historical Geology,” “MarineSediments: Source, Sinks, and Significance,”


“I’ve designed this course using everythingI learned at the workshop last summer, andI’ve thrown my comfortable, well-usedteaching style and methods out the window.We’re now in week 5, and I’ve got to tell you,it is one awesome class!” — Participant,Course Design workshop

“ I re-designed the entire course and I feelthat it was a great success. The course hadbecome an on-going discussion aboutmethods, content, philosophy of science,how to do research, all rolled up into one. Itwas exciting. The students were fired up.Their books had actually been USED.Binding cracked. Covers and pages dog-eared. It was great. The students were usingterminology and asking questions I’d neverheard from my prior courses....” — Partici-pant, Course Design workshop

“Physical Geology,” and “Sedimentology andStratigraphy.” Contributors include faculty fromBowling Green State University, DePauw Univer-sity, Georgia Southern University, Illinois ValleyCommunity College, Kutztown University, MountHolyoke College, Oberlin College, Savannah StateUniversity, Sullivan County Community College,University of St. Thomas, Utica College, WesternWashington, and Wittenberg University.


Career Preparation and Management

One of the explicit goals of On the CuttingEdge is to foster the next generation of geo-science educators and develop the leadershipneeded to ensure the overall health and vitalityof geoscience education. Exciting and intense

workshops filledwith practicaladvice and infor-mation and ses-sions at profes-sional societymeetings areigniting/reignitingthe interest of

graduate students and faculty in teaching andstudent learning and helping them managetheir academic careers. Workshops are alsothe means by which On the Cutting Edge isidentifying future leaders and developing anetwork of people who are willing and able tooffer workshops, develop web resources, andtake the lead in creating future professionaldevelopment opportunities in geoscience.

PREPARING FOR AN ACADEMIC CAREEROffered each year to more than 50 participants,this two-to-three-day workshop is designedspecifically for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who are interested inpursuing academic careers. Facultyand administrators advise participantson ways to become more effectiveteachers and stronger candidates foracademic positions and be more likelyto succeed in academic jobs. Work-shop highlights include a panel offaculty from a wide range of institu-tional types talking about their jobsand a panel focused on the academicjob search. Each participant takeshome ideas to improve his or herteaching and develops a personalaction plan.

ASSISTING EARLY CAREER FACULTYEach year, 35 to 45 faculty in their first four yearsof full-time teaching gather for four days at theCollege of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, todiscuss teaching methods, managing researchprograms, and career planning.

At early career geoscience faculty workshops,participants share ideas for teaching courses andconsider successful strategies for maintaining anactive research program and advising/supervisingundergraduate and graduate research students.As they develop a support network with colleaguesnationwide, they also explore ways to balanceteaching, research, and service responsibilities.

As always, the website links participants andother beginning faculty to a rich array of helpfulinformation about everything from time manage-ment and grant writing to active learning method-ologies and assessment techniques.

DEVELOPING LEADERSOn the Cutting Edge workshops develop campusleaders. More than 75% of attendees interviewedby phone indicated that a significant outcome oftheir participation in a workshop was the expan-sion of their sphere of influence. Following work-shop participation, they said, they contributedmore to cross-discipline activities at their institu-


“The list of ‘questions you should be pre-pared to answer’ was tremendously help-ful in prepping for interviews. Topics cov-ered in the teaching-oriented part of theworkshop probably made the differencefor me getting the job I did (and alsohelped in my first sojourn as Instructor ofRecord last summer).” — Participant,Preparing for an Academic Career

“This workshop really shaped the way inwhich I operate as a college teacher. Thefirst thing I do in designing new courses isto develop goals and objectives withhigher order thinking skills in mind. I in-corporate active learning even in my largerclasses and continue to develop new exer-cises to incorporate this style of learninginto my classes and labs.” — Participant,Early Career workshop

“I would recommend [this workshop] toany early career faculty regardless of insti-tution type or background. My History ofthe Earth class has improved … I haveused three new methods I learned about atthe short course (gallery walk at firstclass; students moving to simulate platetectonics; small group research panels inlab), each of which has worked well. I’vementioned how I enjoyed the conferenceand how useful I thought it was to manyyoung colleagues as well as my depart-ment chair and others.” — Participant,Early Career workshop

“Meeting other faculty in my position did alot to relieve the stress of feeling that oneis all by oneself in struggling with teachingand research. Personal discussions withthe leaders were very helpful. And ofcourse, the binder full of ideas is gold.” —Participant, Early Career workshop

tions, pursued grants related to workshop out-comes, developed outreach programs for localcommunity education and pre-service and in-service science teacher programs, and presentedor published in areas of geoscience education.

In addition to helping identify new leaders,workshops also help them prepare for larger roles— by providing opportunities to serve as workshopco-conveners, invited speakers, and workinggroup leaders and to create or review onlinematerials that bring workshop content to the fullgeoscience community.

READY, SET, GROW!On the Cutting Edge is poised to not onlycontinue but also expand its contributions toprofessional development opportunities forgeoscience educators. In the years to come,it plans to increase workshops and distance-learning options, catalyze the development ofnew learning materials, further develop its webresources, and implement a developmentprogram for training workshop and commu-nity leaders. For information on how tobecome involved, email one of the contactsnoted on page 3 or visit the program websiteat serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/.


QUICK CLICKS TO CUTTING EDGE WEB RESOURCES

ON THE CUTTING EDGE HOME PAGEserc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops

CURRENT WORKSHOP SCHEDULEserc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/workshops.html

GEOSCIENCE TOPICS AND EMERGING THEMESBIOCOMPLEXITY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/biocomplexityCLIMATE CHANGE — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/climatechangeGEOLOGY AND HUMAN HEALTH — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/healthGEOCHEMISTRY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/geochemistryHYDROGEOLOGY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hydrogeoMINERALOGY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/mineralogyOCEAN SYSTEMS — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/oceanPETROLOGY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/petrologyPUBLIC POLICY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/publicpolicyRATES AND TIME — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/time/abouttime.htmlSEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/sedimentarySTRUCTURAL GEOLOGY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure

TEACHING RESOURCESASSESSMENT OF LEARNING — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/assessCOURSE DESIGN — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesignTEACHER PREPARATION — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/teacherprep03TEACHING IN THE FIELD — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/field_experiencesUSING DATA — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/usingdataVISUALIZATIONS — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualizationWEB DESIGN — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/webdesign

CAREER MANAGEMENTPREPARING FOR AN ACADEMIC CAREER — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/careerprepEARLY CAREER FACULTY — serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer


on the cutting edge · 2 — on the cutting edge participants in the programs offered by on the...

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