volume xxiv, issue 2 spring 2007 the earth · pdf filevolume xxiv, issue 2 ... a group of over...

Spring 2007

Volume XXIV, Issue 2

T THEHE E EARTHARTH S SCIENTISTCIENTIST

INSIDE THIS ISSUE...

Letter from the President 3 Comparing Student Achievement 14

Letter from the Executive Director 4 Don’t forget about the Weather. . . Inquiry 22

Letter from the Editor 6 Joining NESTA 28

Mark Twain’s Geology 7 Awards & Upcoming Events 29, 30, 32, 34

Advertising in TES 11 Letter to the Editor 31

Patriotic State Stones 12 Chat Corner and Membership 33

Read it online at www.nestanet.org

Patriotic State Stones, a Girl Scout Project; by Clare Marshall

The Earth Scientist

NESTA Contacts

President

Parker Pennington IV [email protected]

President Elect

Michael Passow [email protected]

Executive Director

Roberta Johnson

[email protected]

Secretary

Missy Holzer [email protected]

Treasurer

Bruce Hall

[email protected]

Retiring President

Tom Ervin

[email protected]

Editor

Monica Ramirez

[email protected]

Front Cover photo of Colorado Minerals

NESTA gratefully acknowledges the support provided to NESTA by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

What makes NESTA so strong?

In a word—people like you. We are not a corporate entity with profits to support our agenda. To paraphrase a line from a movie, “We have always depended upon the kindness of strangers.” Volunteerism in ways both large and small has gotten us to where we are today. Largely unsung heroes from around the country have kept us going for the last couple of decades. Where we go from here is up to you.

When the NESTA leadership met in Colorado to conduct strategic plan-ning for NESTA’s future, great things happened. Our dream for what NESTA can be and become in the future, grew exponentially virtually overnight. Never being the patient one, I want to see all those great ideas come to fruition dur-ing my term as president—even though I know this is just a touch unrealistic.

Our biggest event of the year is our contribution to the program of the National Conference on Science Education put on by the National Science Teachers Association (known in the business by the shorthand “NSTA—St. Louis”) It takes countless hours of preparation to pull it all together. The NESTA Executive Committee, Executive Director, Board, and many volunteers had a major hand in making it successful. The gratifying thing to observe was the number of people who just presented themselves on site and asked what they could do to help.

We will continue to have a major presence at the NSTA regional and national conferences, but there is much more we would like to accomplish. For us to make the goals of our strategic plan a reality, we need your help and your ideas. Please visit our web page and look over the strategic plan and see if you would like to help shape the future of NESTA. This edition of TES displays a committee structure for bringing ideas and proposals to the board for action. Please contact me if you would like to serve on a committee.

Parker Pennington [email protected]

Parker Pennington IV receiving NESTA Fellow Award with Roberta Johnson

Volume XXIV, Issue 2 212

FFFROMROMROM T T THEHEHE P P PRESIDENTRESIDENTRESIDENT

The Earth Scientist

Spring is here, and another school year is almost over! We had a very successful set of NESTA events at the NSTA meeting in St. Louis. I’ll just say a few words about our field trip on 28 March and our speakers for NESTA Earth and Space Science Education Resource Day (30 March) before I close with some remarks about other activities over the past several months.

Our field trip visited several of the geo-logic highlights of Missouri including the Ele-phant Rocks, Johnson Shutins, and the Taum Sauk and Hough Mountains. Our tour guide, Prof. Michael Wysession of Washington Univer-sity in St. Louis, did an excellent job of identify-ing extremely interesting outcrops and forma-tions for the group to visit, as well as providing interesting and entertaining discussion along the way (Photo 1). A highlight of the trip was definitely Elephant Rocks – huge, highly eroded granite plutons that look like… well… elephants (Photo 2). Also, a gentle climb to the top of the Hough Mountains brought us to a unique out-crop of columnar rhyolite – similar to the better known columnar basalts seen at Devil’s Post-pile in California or the Giants Causeway in

Northern Ireland – but much older. Several of us puzzled over whether the “columns” were truly hexagonal – there seemed to be quite a bit of variability in the shape of the col-umns (Photo 3). A particularly impressive specimen from this visit actually made its way into the Rock and Mineral Raffle on Friday afternoon, thanks to the strength, sweat, and commitment of Carl Katsu, a former NESTA President (Photo 4).

On Friday, we had four ex-cellent talks spanning topics in the Earth and Space Sciences, starting off in the morning with a tour of advances in research on the magnetic fields of Jupiter and Saturn by Dr. Claudia Alexander of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (Photo 5) After our third Shareathon of the meeting, we proceeded with three presenta-tions offered by faculty from Washington University of St. Louis. Speakers included Prof. Jennifer Smith, who gave a sobering talk about climate research - Climate

FFFROMROMROM T T THEHEHE E E EXECUTIVEXECUTIVEXECUTIVE D D DIRECTORIRECTORIRECTOR

Photo 1. Field trip discussions

Photo 2. Granite Plutons


Archives: Reconstructing the Past to Predict the Future – including a summary of results from the recent IPCC Summary for Policy Makers; Prof. Michael Wysession, who pro-vided another sobering presentation “Civilization Exists Through Geologic Consent”, highlighting the power of geologic forces on human society and development; and an informative presentation by Prof. Robert F. Dymek, who spoke on Using National Parks to Teach Earth and Environmental Science. All four of these presentations are available on the NESTA website for you to download and use in your classroom instruction.

Moving beyond the NSTA meeting, I’d like to update you on some of our other activities over the past several months. We have been particularly busy developing partnerships with other organiza-tions and groups with interests in K-12 Earth and Space science education, and have partnered on several proposals in which the NESTA network, communication venues (such as TES and ENews), and our events can be leveraged to better serve K-12 teachers. We were recently asked to become affiliated with the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Fed-

eration – a group of over 100 projects involved in collection and interpretation of Earth Science data collected from space – in view of their interest in having access to our ex-pertise in K-12 Earth and Space Science education. The NESTA Board approved this affiliation in St. Louis, and I anticipate this affiliation may help to further increase oppor-tunities for NESTA in the future.

The Executive Committee and Board have been working hard to keep the ball rolling in NESTA – not only our ongoing program, but also bringing in new program elements and services as we work to achieve our Strategic Plan. In February, NESTA Presi-dent, Parker Pennington, and I set aside three days to work together on several priority items identified in the Strategic Planning effort. In the process, we iden-tified the need to revitalize our committee structure (it will take the work of many to help NESTA move forward in all the areas we have set out), which will provide lots of opportunities for service in NESTA to members. Keep your eyes out for information about these opportunities in our membership emails and E-News over coming months. You probably also have noticed a number of e-mails recently about professional development opportunities in the Earth and Space Sciences, and I’m delighted to hear that several of you have re-sponded to these opportunities. Given the success of the survey we completed last June, in which we had responses from about a third of the membership (pretty high for a survey), we have decided to repeat the survey – starting earlier this time.

Photo 3. Colum-nar Rhyolite

Photo 4.

Carl Katsu

The Earth Scientist

FFFROMROMROM T T THEHEHE E E EDITORDITORDITOR Thank you for contributing to the last issue. I hope you found The Earth Scientist

helpful in developing classroom lessons, and also for general information. Guidelines for submitting articles are listed below. I will be more than happy to consider them for publi-cation as they relate to earth science or earth science education. Since the last issue, I

have moved my employment to Broward Community Col-lege in South Florida where I am Dean of Academic Affairs for the North Campus. If you need to get in touch with me, my new e-mail is [email protected].

In future, we will have four regular publications, March, June, September and December. Due dates will be three months before the publication date.

My colleague Cindy Gutierrez and I have written an article for this issue which I think may be of interest to earth sci-ence teachers. The cooperative learning assignment has been modified from a NASA activity to meet today’s earth science content standards focusing on inquiry learning. If anyone would like to use the WebQuest and get more in-formation, I can send you a CD.

Monica Ramirez, Ph.D.

By the time you receive this TES, the 2007 survey will be completed, and you will soon be finding out about the results.

Very soon (hopefully before this issue comes out), NESTA will have implemented online purchasing through our website. This is a critical innovation, which will allow us to process membership through the website as well as offer NESTA logo items and other resources for sale online. Again, we’ll let you know as soon as possible when this new capability is in place.

In closing, I would like to once again thank all the people (members and non-members) that worked so hard to make our NESTA events in St. Louis a success – particu-larly Prof. Wysession and our other speakers, Dr. Alexander, (Photo 5) and Profs Smith and Dymek. It is truly inspira-tional to see how gracefully and generously NESTA mem-bers give of their time and resources for the benefit of other Earth and Space science teachers across the country!

Roberta Johnson. Ph.D.

Photo 5. Dr. Clau-dia Alexander of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

mailto:[email protected]

Mark Twain’s Geology Michael J. Passow, White Plains Middle School, White Plains, NY

[email protected]

By and by I was smitten with the silver fever. “Prospecting parties” were leaving for the mountains every day, and dis-covering and taking possession of rich silver-bearing lodes and ledges of quartz. Plainly this was the road to fortune.

Roughing It, Volume One, ch. XXVI

Before he became famous as one of America’s foremost humor writers in the late 1860s, Mark Twain—pen name for Sam Clemens—spent considerable time in the Nevada Silver Rush of the early 1860s. His wide grasp of geology, obtained through hard experi-ence and not out of the few books that existed then, adds to the delight of his non-fiction account of that period, “Roughing It.” But before he caught “silver fever,” he had earned his Mississippi River steamboat pilot’s license, after a hard apprenticeship under the great Horace Bixby. His recounting of that phase of his early life on America’s grandest river, “Life on the Mississippi”— as well as “Tom Sawyer,” “Huckleberry Finn,” and his other fic-tional works—also contain many nuggets of value to students and teachers of Earth Sci-ence who delight in discovering descriptions of geology, weather, hydrology, and other as-pects of the geosciences within literary works. Many of these could be used to create in-teresting interdisciplinary lessons.

Mark Twain was known to stretch the truth at times, as Huck Finn pointed out, but he could also be brutally honest, such as about his naiveté when first reaching the “Promised Land” of Humboldt County during the 1863 Silver Rush:

I confess, without shame, that I expected to find masses of silver lying all about the ground. I expected to see it glitter-ing in the sun on the mountain summits. I said nothing about this, for some instinct told me that I might possibly have an exaggerated idea about it….Yet I was as perfectly satisfied in my own mind as I could be of anything, that I was going to gather up, in a day or two, or at further a week or two, silver enough to make me satisfactorily wealthy.

ch. XXVIII


Developed by the NESTA Executive Committee and Board of Directors (October 30, 2006).

NESTA gratefully acknowledges the support provided by the National Science Foundation Geo-science Education Program, which made it possible for NESTA leadership and other recog-nized leaders in geoscience education to meet and initiate this plan in July 2006 at Winter Park, Colorado.

His first effort to impress his friends with his mining discoveries was somewhat disappoint-ing and eye-opening. Casually tossing what he brought back from a “deposit of shining yellow scales” in the bed of a shallow rivulet onto the table and thinking he had discovered gold, he was soon to learn that “nothing that glitters is gold.” His experience partner, Old Ballou, ex-plained,” It is nothing but a lot of granite rubbish and nasty glittering mica that isn’t worth ten cents and acre!”

He soon gained true knowledge of the nature of silver mining. After days of hard scrabbling among the mountains, Twain joined with Ballou and a third miner to claim the “Monarch of the Mountains”:

We the undersigned claim three claims of three hundred feet each (and one for discovery), on this silver-bearing quartz lead or lode, extending north and south from this notice, with all its dips, spurs, and angles, variations and sinuosities, together with fifty feet of ground on either side for working the same.”

ch. XXIX

Ballou explained that the wall or ledge extended hundreds of feet into the Earth like a curbstone, maintaining its nearly uniform thickness of about twenty feet, with tiny amounts of silver and gold within the zone, but with none in the surrounding rock. All they needed to do was bore a long tunnel starting in a nearby valley into the mountain, then get the ore to a dis-tant silver-mill, grind it up, and extract the silver by a tedious and costly process.

In the following months, Twain gained wide experience in the geology of the Nevada min-ing region, as well as the arduous toil required to refine the silver. The region had attracted thousands seeking to make their fortunes, almost all of whom eventually left disappointed. But during that period of his life, Twain encountered many colorful characters that later filled the pages of his short stories, non-fiction works, and novels.

ch. XXXVIII

Perhaps the most famous story involves the still-missing “Whiteman cement-mine.” According to tradition, some twenty years earlier three brothers wandering westward through the wilderness discovered in a gorge in the mountains “a curious vein of cement [granite] run-ning along the ground, shot full of lumps of dull yellow metal” (Ch. XXXVII). The last survivor of their hardships gave a sample and map to a Mr. Whiteman. When Twain “had my one acci-dental glimpse of Mr. W in Esmeralda he had been hunting for the lost mine, in hunger and thirst, poverty and sickness, for twelve or thirteen years.”

Yet the lump given him by the young brother that he showed in his travels “was of a seductive nature…lumps of virgin gold were as thick in it as raisins in a slice of fruit cake.”

When it was rumored that Whiteman was seen in a region, everyone stopped work and attempted to follow him. Twain recounts the time he and his new partner, Higbie, tried to follow Mr. W, which resulted in a visit to the geologically interesting Mono Lake.

The Earth Scientist

9

“An unpretending expanse of grayish water, about a hundred miles in circumference, with two islands in its cen-ter, mere upheavals of rent and scorched and blistered lava, snowed over with gray banks and drifts of pumice stone and ashes.…The lake is two hundred feet deep, and its sluggish waters are so strongly alkali that if you only dip the most hopelessly soiled garment into them once or twice, and wring it out, it will be found as clean as if it had been through the ablest of washerwomen’s hands.

Of course, in such a mountainous region, geological events were common and dra-matic.

“The reader cannot know what a landslide is, unless he has lived in that country and seen the whole side of a mountain taken off some fine morning and deposited down in the val-ley, leaving a vast, treeless, unsightly scar upon the moun-tain’s front to keep the circumstance fresh in his memory all the years he may go on living within seventy miles of that place.”

ch. XXXIV

Twain delighted in recounting one of the most interesting lawsuits involving trespassing in the history of American jurisprudence. He describes how a Mr. Hyde complained to the newly arrived United States Attorney for the Territory that a landslide had caused the ranch of a Mr. Morgan, previously located higher up on a hillside, to deposit “Morgan’s ranch, fences, cabins, cattle, barns, and everything down on top of his ranch, and exactly covered up every vestige of his property to a depth of about thirty-eight feet.” Twain describes the ensuing trial, attended by everyone from miles around, and handled by ex-Governor Roop. The new Attorney led the fight for Hyde, and was amazed when Roop pronounced his ver-dict—but since it’s Twain’s story, you’ll have to read it, and I definitely do not wish to deprive you of the delight in the mixture of geology and case law!

At one point, Twain and his partners actually did strike it rich! His partner, Higbie, recognized that close to the wildly successful Wide West mine was another vein:

A “blind lead” is a ledge that does not “crop out: above the surface. A miner does not know where to look for such leads, but they are often stumbled upon by accident in the course of driving a tunnel….When [Higbie] went down into the shaft, he found that the blind lead held its independent way through the Wide West vein, cutting it diagonally, and that it was inclosed in its own well-defined casing-rocks and clay. Hence, it was public property.

ch. XL

Volume XXIV, Issue 2 212 Page

In one of the great examples of how “No good deed goes unpunished,” they wind up losing this million-dollar property, but you’ll have to find and read the book—it’s his story, and I don’t want to spoil it for you. But “What to do next” turned out to be Literature’s gain, because Twain became the city editor of the Virginia City Daily Territorial Enterprise. Thus began his ascent into the upper levels of American Authorship. He gradually learned the ru-diments of journalisms and frequently “became able to fill my columns with diverging no-ticeably from the domain of fact.”

Roughing It* enabled Twain to indulge in his two great passions—sharing his own obser-vations about the exciting experiences he had during the Silver Rush and including excerpts of what others wrote. Ch. XI of Volume Two provides an excellent example of the economic geology involved in this mostly-forgotten boom which could be used to create interesting lesson plans comparing then with industries today.

It was one which was long called the “great” earthquake, and is doubtless so distinguished till this day.” [Remember, this book dates to 1871!] … All was solitude and a Sabbath stillness.... There was great rattle and jar….Before I could turn…there came a really terrific shock; the ground seemed to roll under me in waves, interrupted by a violent joggling up and down, and there was a heavy grinding noise as of brick house rubbing together.

….from mere reportorial instinct, noting else, I took out my watch and noted the time of day; at that moment a third and still severer shock came, and as I reeled about on the pave-ment trying to keep my footing, I saw …the entire front of a tall four-story brick building… sprung outwardlike a door and fell sprawling across the street raising a dust like a great vol-ume of smoke!

Roughing It, Volume Two, ch. XVII

Most of the last half of Volume Two is a description of Twain’s experiences in the “Sandwich Islands” as special correspondent for the Sacramento Union. We know this archi-pelago as Hawaii, and even those of us who have never visited will delight in his descrip-tions of the Diamond Head, the beaches, the volcanic craters, and other geological features as seen through Twain’s perceptive eyes and wordsmith skills. At the time, Hawaii was still a monarchy, so he relished tales of how western missionaries and commercial interests were fast changing what had been a Polynesian paradise. Ch. XXX contains his fine description of the lava fields, a sunset accompanied by a rain shower and “rain-dogs”—little patches of rainbows—and Kealakekua Bay, where Captain James Cook was assassinated less than a century earlier.

There is much throughout Twain’s other works that could be used to create engaging les-son plans for Earth Science. Consider, for instance, how one could use Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher’s adventure of becoming lost in a cave that creates the climax to that great novel. Young Sam Clemens enjoyed exploring the caves near his boyhood home in Hannibal, MO, and used his memories for dramatic suspense. Students could compare his description with caves they have visited in person or virtually.

The Earth Scientist

Or consider his numerous descriptions of the Mississippi River as it was in the mid-19th century, with its meanders, oxbows, floods, and other erosional and depositional features. Pieces of interest to teachers and students of Earth Science pop up in Twain’s other works, such as Innocents Abroad, as well as some of his short stories.

Consider using Google Earth or other online resources to examine locales used by Twain, and having students compare and contrast land uses. Consider a field trip to Vir-ginia City. There are, doubtless, many other possibilities for science and interdisciplinary lessons based on these works.

Note: A companion piece, “Mark Twain’s Weather,” appeared in The Science Teachers Bul-letin, v. 64, no. 1 (Fall 2000), pp. 7 – 14.

*Note: “Roughing It” and many of Mark Twain’s other works are readily available in a wide variety of print, CD, and other electronic versions.


Advertising in the NESTA Quarterly Journal, The Earth Scientist

Artwork

We accept camera-ready copies and electronic ad files. We prefer electronic ad files in a .jpg format at a minimum of 300 dpi. (preferably higher). Every file needs to be Windows-based. We prefer images with fonts included as attachments. We do not accept MAC files of any kind.

Advertising Insertion Deadlines

Winter Issue (March)– Deadline December 1st

Spring Issue (June) – Deadline March 1st

Summer (September) — Deadline July 31 – (This year only) otherwise June 1st

Fall Issue (December) – September 1st

Advertising Rates

Full-page (9 5/8 X 7 3/8 inches) - $500

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Quarter-page (2 7/16 X 1 13/16) - $125

Page Charges - A fee of $100 per page is charged to authors who have institutional, industrial, or grant funds available to pay publication costs. Authors without access to such funds are strongly urged to assist in defraying costs to the extent their resources permit, but payment of page charges is not required from such authors.

Payment of page charges has no bearing on the decision to accept or reject a manuscript, and authors need say nothing about page charges at the time of submission.

Advertisements or Inquiries should be sent to

Monica Ramirez, Editor, [email protected]

The Earth Scientist

Patriotic State Stones, a Girl Scout Project Clare P. Marshall, Association for Women Geoscientists

Laramide Chapter Executive Board Member

[email protected]

In 2004, Colorado became the only U.S. state to have, by law, official geological state symbols that are red, white and blue. The state mineral, which became official in 2002, is 'red.' The state gemstone, which became official in 1971, is 'blue.' And a troop of eight girl scouts made the official state rock 'white,' to complete the set. This is their story.

The Idea

As a geologist working for the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum, I was con-structing an exhibit which mapped out the official state geological symbols (rock, mineral and gemstone) for the entire United States. Colorado, the Rocky Mountain State, looked distinctly deficient with only the state gemstone, aquamarine, within its borders. Then, earth science students from Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, successfully made rhodo-chrosite the state mineral. I placed the red rhodochrosite next to the soft blue aquamarine, and I knew that a white state rock was needed.

The Choice

Yule marble from Marble, Colorado, is famous throughout the U.S. and the world as a building and sculpting stone. Because of its unique genesis, the Yule marble has very few joints (breaking surfaces). Most marble has regularly spaced joints which dictate the maxi-mum size of blocks that can be mined from those quarries. With the Yule, miners can choose the size they need, and carve it right out of the mountain.

The Yule marble is a brilliant white, and is used as a building stone because of its color and purity. The bright columns of the Lincoln Memorial were fabricated in the Town of Marble in 1916-1917, and sent to Washington to be assembled. The entire amphitheater of the Women in Military Service memorial completed in 2004 is also constructed of Yule. Build-ings all over the U.S., particularly in Denver, were made from blocks of Yule marble. Very large sculptures can be made out of Yule marble as well. The Tomb of the Unknowns was carved out of one of the largest block of marble ever mined, in 1931. Some artists speculate that if Michelangelo had been carving his David today, he would have used Yule marble. And so, it seemed the obvious choice for Colorado’s official state rock.

Research

In March of 2002, eight girls (3 in sixth grade and 5 in fifth grade) agreed to take on the project that would consume them for two full years. They decided to make it their Bronze Award project, so that they would be recognized by the Girl Scouts Mile Hi Council. This award required that the girls earn two badges related to their project which included implementa-tion. Their badges were geology and leadership.

After completing the Geology Badge, their next step was to seek information regard-ing the Yule marble, such as when the Yule was mined, when the quarry was shut down to the public, and its general uses in health, science and industry. As part of the Leadership Badge scouts needed to find out how to make a new law in Colorado.


The eight Girl Scouts asked their teachers and found out they needed a Represen-tative. So, they invited Betty Boyd, their State Representative, to come to a troop meeting and explain the process. Representative Boyd told the girls what they needed to do. Once Ms. Boyd agreed to sponsor the state rock initiative, the girls solicited letters of support from professional organizations and politicians.

A year had passed between the original idea and Representative Boyd agreeing to sponsor the bill. At another troop meeting, the girls conducted a contest to see who would talk to the House and Senate Committees about the state rock initiative. Channel 9 News came to the troop meeting. Each girl had prepared a speech, and the girls and leaders (including Representative Boyd) voted on the best speech. Three girls were selected to speak to the politicians: one about the Yule marble itself, one about their Bronze Awards and one about how making this the state rock completed the Patriotic Geologic Symbols for Colorado, the Centennial State.

The girls also went to visit the Yule Quarry. A geologist explained properties of the rock, but the scouts were not allowed into the mine because they were too young.

Legislation

The initiative received the number House Bill 04-1023, and the three girls spoke at both the House and Senate Committee meetings. The bill was passed unanimously through both the house and the senate. It was signed on March 4, 2004, and went into law that August.

Education

When the three girls were selected to speak to the House and Senate committees in support of the State Rock Bill, they became very nervous. So, they practiced - refined - their speeches. They visited other girl scout troops and their own classes (grades 5 and 6) and their siblings’ classes (grade 4) to give their speeches. At each of these events, the girls asked for comments from the students and the teachers. Often, they were asked to explain the process they had to go through: the House committee, then the whole House vote, the Senate committee and the whole Senate vote. The girls gained confidence as their speeches improved.

At Belmar Elementary School, where 7 of the 8 girls attended school at the time, the teachers and principal became quite animated about the state rock project. The fourth and sixth grade teachers decided to have their classes watch the proceedings of one of the committees. This caused the House committee to hold the meeting in an entirely different building to accommodate the 100 elementary school children. Ironically, the building was made of Yule marble.

This project has stimulated thought provoking questions among the student body at Belmar elementary School, such as how decisions are made, how to become a geologist, or a State representative.

Conclusion

Now, 32 states have official state rocks, 24 have official state minerals, and 30 have official state gems. Ten states have all three: rock, mineral and gem. But only one state has geological symbols. For more information, please log on to the following ad-dresses below: http://geosurvey.state.co.us/Default.aspx?tabid=363

http://www.mines.edu/academic/geology/newstuff/staterock.shtml

http://geosurvey.state.co.us/Default.aspx?tabid=363

http://www.mines.edu/academic/geology/newstuff/staterock.shtml

According to the National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assess-ment, National Research Council (1996), “the National Science Content Standards (NSCS) provide expectations for the development of student understanding and ability over the course of K-12 education.” The main components of the NSCS standard 1 for Earth and Space Science states, “students will use scientific reasoning and critical thinking to build their understanding of how we know what we know in science and to ask divergent ques-tions while thinking logically about the task that lies before them and how to solve a prob-lem” (NSES, 1996). The study below addresses this NSCS standard and focuses on two approaches to teaching an introductory lesson on the physical environment of Earth’s Moon: descriptive and prescriptive. The latter, a learner-centered earth science lesson on Earth’s Moon, uses a teacher-designed WebQuest. This instructional technique, originally introduced by Bernie Dodge (1995), is an inquiry-oriented activity in which all or most of the information used by learners is drawn from the web and is based on an instructional design model which supports the constructivist theory. The former approach is a descrip-tive and teacher-oriented direct lesson on Earth’s Moon. Both lessons were taught at Colorado State University-Pueblo in the Teacher Education Program which mission it is to encourage pre-service teachers in defining patterns within a learning concept and in using inductive and deductive reasoning skills within the learning process.

This study compares learning from two different methodologies which cover the same content. Lesson A is teacher-centered. Lesson B uses the Constructivist Learning Environment (CLE) model by Jonassen (1999) and is learner-centered, focusing on a so-cial or dialectical perspective, defined by Schunk (2004) as “knowledge derived from in-teractions between persons and their environments” (p. 288). The model is prescriptive in nature. Both Schunk and Jonassen emphasize that problem-solving and conceptual devel-opment as well as reflective teaching, motivation, social group interactions, and coopera-tive learning are important.

Method

Subjects and Research Design

The target population was students enrolled in the Teacher Education Program at Colorado State University-Pueblo during the 2004-2005 academic year. From this group, all ED 301 (Introductory education course) sections from the spring 2005 semester were selected as samples for the study, representing all of the accessible population. The total number of students for this study was 65. The samples for this study were 29 students in comparison group A and 36 students in comparison group B. Selected external variables posed possible threats to the research design and the internal validity of the research; therefore these threats were minimized in three ways: (a) selection of subjects (threat 1) was taken into consideration as both groups were similar in size, location, number of fe-

The Earth Scientist

Comparing Student Achievement in Two Learning Environments

Dr. Monica Ramirez and Cindy Gutierrez

Colorado State University-Pueblo


males (24/24), and number of science majors per group; (b) experimenter effect (threat 2) excluded any personal bias in favor of one instructional method as each group was taught by the same instructor for the same period of time; and (c) pretesting (threat 3) students may automatically improve their posttest scores regardless of treatment; there-fore, an equivalent form of the pretest was used for the posttest.

The study was completed through quasi-experimental research involving the analysis of two 90-minute earth science lessons. The experiment was concerned how each of the two independent variables, direct instruction and indirect instruction using the CLE model, affected the dependent variable, student achievement in earth science. Independent variable A represented the descriptive instructional method and independ-ent variable B represented the prescriptive instructional method applying the CLE model.

Hypothesis

The null hypothesis stated that no relationship existed between the dependent variable student achievement in science in the ED301 courses and the independent vari-ables by traditional instructional method A and CLE method B.

Procedure

A pretest consisting of ten multiple choice questions derived from information from an astronomy textbook was administered to groups A and B during the first ten min-utes of the class.

Comparison group A received direct instruction using a teacher-centered ap-proach to learning whereby the teacher taught a 90-minute lesson on the Earth’s Moon using visual aids such as a Moon globe and rocks. Most of the questioning was conver-gent with some divergence during the guided practice phase. Students contributed to a teacher-centered concept map as they shared ideas about Earth’s Moon as an informal assessment (Figure 1).

Comparison group B received learner-centered instruction using the Constructiv-ist Learning Environment (CLE) model. The instructor used the MoonSurvivor WebQuest (Gutierrez & Ramirez, 2005) to engage students in a hypothetical scenario where each student was part of a four-man lunar mission crew. Each crew member ranked 15 sur-vival items in the order of most to least importance (rankings 1-15) on his or her travel to the lunar base station on foot. The instructor assessed students’ prior-knowledge of the environment of Earth’s Moon by having them complete a blank copy of the MoonSurvivor task sheet (Figure 2). The instructor proceeded to ask the students what knowledge they needed to have in order to rank the items correctly (divergent thinking). The instructor then disclosed the objective of the lesson which was for students in designated coopera-tive learning groups to describe and analyze the Moon’s environment, by researching and correctly ranking 15 essential astronaut survival items. The instructor used a second WebQuest page, giving students pertinent information as to what role each crew member would have to assume. Each crew member was assigned an individual role. The instruc-tor gave each of the crew commanders a MoonSurvivor task sheet identical to the previ-ous one for cooperative group ranking. Additionally rocks and Moon globes were made available to students. During the final task, each crew of student astronauts re-ranked the same 15 items a third time, using their newly acquired knowledge.

The Earth Scientist

Table 1. Demo-graphics

Results

Table 1 illustrates no significant difference in pretest scores between comparison groups A and B prior to the lessons. Comparison group B had a larger number of non-science secondary majors; however, the number of science majors was equal for both groups. Additionally, the number of students in the 18-25 age category was higher in group B. The distribution of females for both groups was equal; however, there was a dif-ference in the male to female ratio.

Table 1

Demographics between Groups A and B

_____________________________________________________________________ Group A (Control) N= 29 Group B (Experimental) N=36

Gender

F 24 24

M 5 12

_____________________________________________________________________

Science Ed Major 2 2

Elementary

Major 17 17

Secondary 12 19

Major (other than science)

_____________________________________________________________________

Age

18-25 13 25

26+ 16 11

_____________________________________________________________________


Table 2 compares the pre- and posttest scores of comparison group A. The results are significant at the .05 level demonstrating that it is probable that the direct method had a positive effect on student achievement.

Table 2

Group A Group A

Pretest Posttest

Mean 66.206 71.724

N 29 29

_____________________________________________________________________

df t-value p-value

28 3.79388 0.00036

Table 3 compares the pre-and posttest scores of comparison group B. The results are significant at the .05 level demonstrating a p-value of 5.51E-08. Based on these re-sults, the CLE instructional model appears to be highly significantly related to improve-ments in student achievement.

Table 3

Pre- and Posttest Scores Group B

_____________________________________________________________________

Group B Group B

Pretest Posttest

Mean 62.777 82.222

df t-value p-value

35 6.6449 5.51E-08

Pre- and Posttest Scores Group A

N 36 36

N 36 36

Pre- and Posttest Scores Group A Table 2. Pre– and posttest cores: Group A

Table 3. Pre– and posttest cores: Group B

The Earth Scientist

Table 4. Pretest scores groups A and B

Table 5. Posttest scores, groups A and B

Pretest data from the groups is illustrated in Table 4 demonstrating no significant difference at the .05 level between comparison groups A and B.

Table 4

Group A Group B

Mean 66.206 62.777

N 29 36

________________________________________________________________________

df t-value p-value

63 1.669 0.212

Table 5 shows a significant difference between groups A and B post scores (p-value at 0.002). The mean scores for groups A and B in the posttest are higher than in the pretest 71.724 and 82.222 respectively.

Table 5

Posttest Scores of Groups A and B

Group A Group B

Mean 71.724 82.222

df t-value p-value

63 2.880 0.002

Pretest Scores of Groups A and B

N 29 36 N 29 36

Pretest Scores of Groups A and B


The directional one tailed t-test method was selected to test the null hypothesis. The level of significance was determined at the .05 level. The null hypothesis is rejected; there-fore there is a high probability that a relationship exists between the dependent variable stu-dent achievement in science in the ED 301 courses and the independent variables by tradi-tional instructional method A and CLE method B.

Conclusion

This study indicates that both the descriptive and prescriptive instructional methods are significant in improving student achievement in earth science. However, comparison group B which received the CLE treatment shows a more highly significant improvement than comparison group A. Based on this study, both instructional methods are associated with significant improvement on test scores; however the CLE instructional model is related to greater statistically significant test score improvement than the traditional descriptive model.

References

Dodge, B. (1995). Some thoughts about WebQuests [On-line]. Available: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about%5fwebquests.html Accessed: 10 January 2005

Gutierrez, C. & Ramirez, M. (2005). WebQuest: MoonSurvivor [On-line]. Available: http://staff.colostate-pueblo.edu/cindy.gutierrez/index Accessed: 27 March 2005.

Jonassen, D.(1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In Charles M. Reigeluth

(Ed.) Instructional-design theories and models: Vol. 2 (pp. 215-237). Mahwah, NJ:

Erlbaum.

NASA (1986). The original NASA activity obtained from a group consensus seminar. Smith, P. & Ragan, T.(1999). Instructional design (2nd ed., 18-25). New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Reigeluth, C. (1999). What is instructional design theory and how is it changing? In

Charles M. Reigeluth (Ed.) Instructional-design theories and models: Vol. 2 (pp. 5-29). Mah-wah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Schunk, D. (2004). Learning theories (4th ed., 285-328). NJ: Pearson.

National Research Council (1996). National Science Education Standards (1996).

Science-Study and Teaching-Standards-United States.

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about%5fwebquests.html

The Earth Scientist

Figure 1. Concept map of the moon; student sample


MoonSurvivor Lesson Adapted from NASA

Phases 1/2: You are a lunar crew member. Below are listed the 15 items left intact and un-damaged after landing on the Moon. Your task is to rank order them in terms of their impor-tance to your crew in allowing them to reach the LUNAR BASE STATION. Please place the number 1 by the most important item, the number 2 by the second most important and so on through number 15, the least important. You have ten minutes to complete this assignment.

(Courtesy of NASA)

Figure 2. NASA MoonSurvivor list of items; new items (modifications to original activity) are in italics.

ITEM Expert Ranking Reason

Box of Matches

Velcro Pads

Space Suit Repair Kit

50 Feet of Nylon Rope

Injection Needles

Four 100-lb Tanks of Oxygen

Stellar Map of the Moon’s Constella-

Life Raft

Magnetic Compass

Five Gallons of Water

Parachute

GPS-Unit

Solar-Powered FM Receiver-

Dehydrated Food

Topographic Map of the Moon

The Earth Scientist

The study of weather in schools has frequently focused upon obser-vations of daily weather. It is very common for elementary students to record the weather conditions at the start of the school day; thereby, providing an opportunity to record temperature, cloud cover, type of precipitation, and wind. These daily weather charts are posted so students can observe weather changes. This study can be extended by also recording weather conditions at mid-day and the end of the school day; thereby, providing greater details about the hourly changes that occur. Grades 4-8 students can add more details about weather conditions by recording wind directions, wind speed using the Beaufort scale, relative humidity, dew point, amount of precipitation for 24 hours, and percent cloud cover. This large data set allows students to begin to identify local weather patterns.

The National Science Education Standards [NSES (National Research Coun-cil (NRC), 1996] identified weather concepts in the earth and space science section. K-4 students, according to NSES, would develop their explanations about weather based upon observations. A detailed weather vignette illustrates this approach. Older students would continue their weather journal using instruments to expand their observations. Science for All Americans (SFAA, Rutherford & Alhgren, 1989) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy [American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 1993] also provides major concepts associated with weather in the physical science section. Their focus is also observational beginning in K-2 where the repeating pattern of weather conditions are stressed. In grades 3-5, the empha-sis is on changing states of water as they develop an understanding about the water cycle. A school weather station could provide more detailed data and readings which could be compared with local television and newspaper weather reports.

Inquiry

Studying weather should also include inquiry-the overarching goal of scien-tific literacy by NSES (NRC, 1996). According to NSES, inquiry always begins with a question. Then students design ways to answer the question, collect data, and con-struct a possible answer that will be communicated to others. After publication of NSES, many teachers of science were unclear about the meaning of inquiry. Subse-quently, NRC (2000) published Inquiry and National Science Education Standards to clarify their meaning about inquiry. NRC identified five essential features of in-quiry regardless of grade level.

Don’t Forget About Inquiry When Teaching Weather Dr. Lloyd H. Barrow, Professor Science Education

Missouri University Science Education Center, 321 F Townsend Hall

Cathy Wissehr, Doctoral Candidate Science Education

Missouri University Science Education Center, 321 F Townsend Hall

Chris Ratley, Doctoral Candidate Atmosphere Science

Swampscott High School, Swampscott, MA


The student:

1. Engages in scientifically oriented questions,

2. Gives priority to evidence collected by students which allows them to develop and evaluate their explanations to the scientifically oriented questions,

3. Formulates explanations from their evidence to address the scientifically oriented questions,

4. Connects explanations, which can include alternative explanations, to their scientific understanding,

5. Communicates and justifies his or her proposed explanations

. . . .these essential features introduce students to many important aspects of science while helping them develop a clearer and deeper knowledge of…science concepts and processes, (NRC, 2000, p.27). This is very different from traditional laboratories, which according to Yager (2005), are verifications of what science textbooks and/or teachers identify as truths about nature. Inquiry is not verification, but development of new knowledge or understanding.

Inquiry always begins with a question that students need to be able to answer. Why questions are sometimes called existence questions (NRC, 2000) or non-operational (Alfke, 1974). Examples of this type of question are; Why is the sky blue? Why does the sun rise? This type of question is answered via resources rather than di-rect observations. Elementary students are better able to answer casual questions (NRC, 2000) which begins with “how” or “what”. Students will manipulate materials to be able to observe what happens. Sometimes these are called operational questions (Alfke, 1974). Examples of this type of question are: How does the surface color affect temperature? How does the type of surface affect evaporation? How does the color of material affect melting rate of snow?

Sometimes inquiry is described as either partial or full inquiry. Biological Sci-ence Curriculum Study (BSCS, 2006) bases definitions of partial and full upon the five attributes of inquiry (NRC, 2000). According to BSCS, lessons that are full inquiry will utilize each of these five attributes. However, they can vary with respect to amount of direction that comes from the teacher. The scientifically oriented question could be gen-erated by the students, from a list provided by the teacher, or question provided by the teacher. Whenever one or more of the five attributes are absent, this is called a partial or guided inquiry. BSCS (2006) recommends beginning with partial inquiry that is devel-opmentally appropriate for the grade level.

Four Question Strategy

Cothron, Giese and Rezba (2000) use the four question strategy for implement-ing inquiry by using an experimental design format. To accomplish this task, Cothron, et al. utilizes the strategy to help students in designing their investigations. The following is the general format of the four question strategy:

I. What materials are readily available for conducting experiments?

II. How can I change the set of materials?

III. How does it act?

IV. How can I measure or describe the response?

The Earth Scientist

This general format allows students to generate a design to address the scientific question being studied. As a guided inquiry, the science teacher would choose what things are to be used in the investigation.

Below is an illustration of how the four question strategy was used for addressing the weather concept of temperature change (Figures 1 & 2). The testable question is how do ice cubes affect the temperature of water?

I. Materials: cups, types of water, initial temperature of water, ice cubes shape

II. Ways materials can be changed: placement of cups, number of ice cubes, gradu-ated cylinders, thermometer, stirring time

III. The temperature of water decreases when ice is added

IV. The temperature of ice water increases after set period of time

In this example, there are nine different categories that could be manipulated. But to answer the testable question about the impact of ice cubes on the temperature of water, only one of the materials (number of ice cubes) would be changed (independent vari-able). Our dependent variable is water temperature while all other materials must be

Cups Water (types) Initial temperature of water Ice cubes shape

plastic tap cold cylinder

styrofoam distilled room temperature square

glass hot rectangular

half moon

crushed

Placement Ice cube numbers Graduated cylinder Thermometer Time

0

sunshine 1 25 ml Celsius 2 minutes

air condition vent 2 50 ml Fahrenheit 4 minutes

away from 3 100 ml 6 minutes

4

Figure 1. Materi-als

Figure 2. Materi-als changed


held constant. Otherwise, results will not answer the question. Either the class can decide what conditions are to be held constant or the teacher can specify because of existing con-ditions. If it is decided to determine the impact of number of ice cubes on different water temperatures (dependent variable), the set up could be using plastic cups, tap water, rec-tangular ice cubes, 4 ice cubes, 100 ml of water, Celsius thermometer, 10 stirs, and after 2 minutes with placement away from sun and air conditioning. The teacher would need quan-tities of ice cubes (independent variable) for trials. Figure 3 is a data table for the experi-mental design format recommended by Cothron et al. (2000).

Closing

The studying of weather concepts can involve both observational data patterns and in-quiry. The four question strategy (Cothron et al., 2000) provides an effective way for teach-ers of science to include inquiry into their weather lessons as recommended by the NSES (NRC, 1996) by providing a model for designing their inquiry. The use of the four question strategy provides for the first feature of inquiry-engage in scientifically oriented weather questions as recommended by NRC (2000). If students get different results by checking their experimental design, they can see if they focused upon the same variables or research question, thereby, addressing essential features 2 and 3 (NRC, 2000) of using evidence and formulating explanations. Using their results, it gives them a personal experience that the students are able to transfer to their understanding about weather [essential features 4 and 5 (NRC, 2000)]. The four question strategy also provides a structure for students in design-ing their weather investigations as recommended by Harlen (2001).

References

American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993). Benchmarks for scientific literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Alfke, D. (1979). Asking operational questions. Science and Children, 11, 7, 18-9.

Biological Science Curriculum Study (2006). Doing science: The process of scientific

inquiry. Colorado Springs: Author.

Cothron, J., Giese, R. & Rezba, R. (2000). Science experiments and projects for stu-

dents, 3rd ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company.

Harlen, W. (2001). Primary science teaching taking the plunge. Portsmouth,

N.H.:Heinemann.

National Research Council (1996). National science education standards. Washington

D.C.: National Academy Press.

National Research Council (2000). Inquiry and national science education standards.

Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

The Earth Scientist

Figure 3. Experi-mental Design Data Table

Title: The Effect of the Number of Ice Cubes on the Temperature of Water

Hypothesis: If more rectangular ice cubes are used, then it will reduce water temperature faster.

Independent Variable:

0 ice cubes Aver-age


2 ice cube

Temperature °C

Trials

Temperature °C

Trials

Temperature

Trials

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2


es Aver-age



e °C Temperature °C

Trials

Temperature °C

Trials

3 1 2 3 1 2 3

Dependent Variable: Temperature in °C after 2 minutes of ice cubes put in water

Constant: Plastic tumblers Thermometer (Celsius)

Amount of water (100ml) Stirring (10 swirls)

Graduate cylinder (100ml) Type of water (tap)

Temperature of water (room) Clock (minutes hand)

Placement (away from sun and air conditioning)

The Earth Scientist

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Jack Cooper receiving NESTA Certificate of Service Award

Sue Ervin receiving NESTA Cer-tificate of Appreciation

Michelle Harris receiving NESTA Certificate of Service Award

Photos by Tom Ervin

The Earth Scientist

NESTA ROCK RAFFLE & SOCIAL HOUR—ST.LOUIS—2007

NESTA Rock Raffles come and go year after year, and there are always two things to be said about them with certainty…They are FUN, and most attendees go away smiling. This year’s NESTA Rock Raffle in St. Louis was no exception. Many mineral specimens were pro-vided through Parker Pennington by Bill and Judy Ruddock of Flint, Michigan. Another do-nation from Flint was some “Space Art” posters from retired science supervisor, Jim New-man. Peter Larmour came with donations of minerals, sand, and various related items. Lisa Ather sent garnets from Roxbury, Ct., and amethysts from Africa. Still other specimens were bought by NESTA for the raffle. This is what makes our rock raffles successful, mem-bers working together to provide materials for earth science education. I’m sure that I have left out someone’s name; if so, I’ll try to mention it twice next time to make up for it. We thank you all and hope that it made you feel as good to give as it did others to win the prizes. Carolina once again was gracious enough to donate a table full of their earth sci-ence products. A special thanks goes out to this group.

It was always a goal of the organizers of the NESTA rock raffles to have a mineral from each state in the union donated to make up the fifty specimens needed to provide the main part of the raffle. Next year in Boston let us see how close we can come to reaching this goal. And, please remember that the regional conference NESTA rock raffles need do-nations, too. Thanks in advance. Wilene Rigsby, Coordinator

Len Sharp Honorary NESTA Member-ship Award as an OEST Recipient


I read with interest the article, “Stars Have Stories,” in one of your previous pub-lications. I have been teaching astronomy for some years and have also used a similar “Constellation Project” for my high school and university students. The difference in my approach is to also have them find connections to art, music, and alternative views of star patterns from other cultures, such as Japan, China, native tribes of North and South America, Africa as well as ancient civilizations. I also have students find any ma-jor objects that are in the constellations region in the sky, such as galaxies, nebula, exo-planets, black holes, etc. The goal is to have the students become more connected with the region in the sky and to hopefully share it with others over time.

One concern I have regarding the article is the use of the term “constellation.” I took it to mean the star pattern that is commonly used to define a constellation region. In reality, the star patterns are asterisms (a common pattern associated with a constel-lation region.). in fact constellations are regions in the sky (88) that act much like areas associated with a county or state border that can be quickly identified by astronomers. Also, the star patterns you might associate as a constellation vary from historical text to text, thus, being somewhat unreliable.

The use of the word constellation to relate only to a group of stars and not a region in the evening sky is a common misconception that keeps people thinking more astrologically than astronomically. Sincerely, Tom Morin

Letters to the Editor

The Earth Scientist

NESTA Certificate Award to Daniel F. Thomas, Group Director, Math & Science

Calendar of Events

October 18-20, 2007, Detroit, Michigan NESTA will offer a Share-a-Thon and Rock Raffle at the NSTA Convention in Detroit this fall. The exact date and time have not yet been set - we'll let you know!

NESTA Share-a-Thon and Rock and Mineral Raffle November 8-10, 2007, Denver, Colorado NESTA will offer a Share-a-Thon and Rock Raffle at the NSTA Convention in Denver this fall. The exact date and time have not yet been set - we'll let you know!

NESTA Share-a-Thon and Rock and Mineral Raffle December 6-8, 2007, Birmingham, Alabama NESTA will offer a Share-a-Thon and Rock Raffle at the NSTA Convention in Birmingham this fall. The exact date and time have not yet been set - we'll let you know!

NESTA Website Highlights Presentations made by scientists at the NSTA convention in St. Louis are available on our website's conferences page at http://www.nestanet.org/php/conferences.php. Check them out - they may provide useful material for your classroom use!

website can be found at www.nestanet.org.

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Earth Science Chat Corner. This is the process:

(1) E-mail a question or a situation you would like to have discussed or resolved regard-ing the earth science classroom (field trip content questions, supplies, personal engage-ment of students, etc.).

(2) The editorial staff will then decide which letters to print with corresponding re-sponses in the following TES issue.

(3) Send all e-mails to: [email protected] or [email protected].

(4) Make sure to include in your e-mail to the editor, your name, address and phone number.

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Membership FAQ by Bruce Hall

How much are NESTA membership dues? The current rates are: 1 year $20, 2 years $38, and 3 years for $55.

How do I know when my membership will end? NESTA uses a rolling membership. Your mem-bership begins the date it is entered into our records. Your membership will end on the date specified in the upper right corner of your address label.

Will you remind me when my membership is going to end? Yes, we presently send out member-ship renewal cards two months in advance.

Who should I contact if my address changes? Any member planning to move to a new address should contact Bruce Hall at [email protected] .

Why do you want my e-mail address? The fact that you are receiving this E-News is one reason. The electronic network is an ideal method to distribute information which is relevant to our NESTA members.

Should I use my home or school email address? We would prefer your home email since many school districts put blockers on their accounts. We have had many instances where materials such as these have bounced back.


The Earth Scientist

Mike Smith receiving NESTA Distinguished Service Award

Bruce Hall receiving NESTA's Jan and Stoney Award

Howard Dimmick receiving NESTA Distinguished Service Award

Photos by Tom Ervin

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• Length of manuscript should not exceed 2000 words.

• Title Page: include author names, school/organizations, mailing address, home and work , phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.

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