Contemporary Controversies in the Earth Sciences

Catalog description

Exploration of current areas of research in the Earth Sciences. EARTH 501 Contemporary Controversies in the Earth Sciences (3) Students will be introduced to a variety of topics from different disciplines within the Earth sciences with the aim of piquing their interest in topics of current research beyond the level found in typical secondary school or introductory college textbooks. The current topics will include subjects in which a consensus has recently been reached as well as scientific questions that are so far unanswered. Students will learn the appropriate state of the art scientific content relevant to each topic by performing basic data in order to complete the activities in each lesson. They will finally construct a plan to teach a selected topic to the audience of their choice. This course provides an entry into the other courses in the Master's Degree Program in Earth Science Education.Students will learn scientific content by completing activities in each of six lessons that will span either the 12-week or 15-week semester. These activities will be in the form of background reading and discussion that outlines a current scientific problem or debate, the collection and manipulation of appropriate data, and the assessment of the results of this work. By doing this, students will simultaneously become familiar with the content as well as the practice of science. Students will also participate in online discussions about how to teach this content to specific secondary school audiences. They will complete a capstone project in which they will construct a teaching plan based on the topic of their choice.