Here you can find resources that will help you with desiging, implementing and assessing courses and activities.
- A searchable collection of introductory courses designed by faculty across the United States. This collection describes courses using the same format we are using in our workshop. This collection is useful for finding ideas for course designs, for checking out syllabi, and for finding out what is helpful to others in filling out the course sheet.
- This on-line course design tutorial was developed by Barb Tewksbury through her work with the On the Cutting Edge Course Design workshop. It helps you think about goals, assessment, and course design in a way that is very similar to that described by Robyn and Anne.
- Understanding by Design Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (1998) lays out the principles for [designing a course going from selection of key ideas, to development of assessments, to design of activities.
- America's Lab Report (NRC, 2005 ) includes a meta-analysis of education research and recommendations for integrating activities into a course.
- Starting Point:Teaching Entry Level Geoscience provides information on teaching methods and examples of how they have been used in introductory geoscience courses.
- How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (NRC, 2000 ) describes the results of learning research and their implications for teaching. It is written for faculty.
- Learning for Use: A Framework for the Design of Technology-Supported Inquiry Activities (Edelson, 2001 ) lays out a theory for activity design based on learning research and demonstrates how it can be applied in a geoscience activity.
- These review criteria (Microsoft Word 37kB Oct4 07) can help you check to see if your activity is well-designed. An alternative version (Microsoft Word 40kB Oct4 07)
- Resources for teaching Quantitative Skills including activities in use by your colleagues.
- Guidance on designing writing assignments, particularly Quantitative Writing Assignments.
- Motivation and attitude play a critical role in learning. This site on the affective domain includes resources addressing ways to increase motivation, change attitude, build confidence and more.
- A searchable collection of data resources and activities that use them are found in the Using Data in the Classroom site.
- Visualizations can creat new insight for students and faculty alike. The Teaching with Visualizations site provides searchable collections of geoscience visualizaitions.
- A comprehensive site for geoscientists on Understanding What Our Students Are Learning contains information of assessment techniques (including rubrics, papers, and tests) and links to examples in the geoscienes.
- This primer on assessment was written specifically for geoscience faculty teaching introductory students.
- Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (Angelo and Cross, 1993 ) is a classic reference on classroom assessment techniques written for faculty.
- Talking About Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences (Seymour and Hewitt, 1997 ) provides a sophisticated example of testing your assumptions about why students are behaving in a particular way.