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Tools for the road
As this issue of the Journal goes to press, geoscience departments around the world are in the midst of adaptation and preparation for Fall instruction while supporting campus efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for more and better tools to assess student learning and insights into student access and success have never been greater. Summer field instruction is underway in many alternate formats, or is ready to begin shortly, and our community has come together in an unprecedented fashion to provide outcomes-based, research-guided teaching modules to support virtual field camps. The field teaching community has rallied to face the challenge of finding alternate ways to deliver the benefits of field instruction. It is too soon to tell what the impacts of these experiences are going to be for our students, but concurrent educational research efforts are underway. Research teams are measuring learning outcomes and are documenting the formation of the sense of community among students and positive impact on academic and career trajectories that results from thoughtful field instruction, on the ground or online. The six papers selected for this issue of JGE provide many useful new tools and insights, fortunately at a time when we as educators can use all the help we can get.
Student conceptions and inquiry
As a relatively young DBER field, geoscience educators are still mapping conceptual areas and developing validated tools for measuring student learning. This issue contains the development and testing results for the Mineralogical Concept Inventory, presented by Scribner and Harris. As mineralogical instruction enters a new hybrid model this Fall for many programs, this instrument will provide a useful measure for instructors. Similarly, as we work to maintain the depth of undergraduate instruction it is important that we understand the level of student inquiry and engagement with complex content. Kastens, Zrada and Turrin provide a useful taxonomy of student-generated questions linked to Bloom’s taxonomy and to geologic habits of mind that is valuable in gauging student learning across platforms and modalities. Rounding out this issue and providing the cover image, Martindale and Weiss report the learning outcomes resulting from a “serious” game designed to have students explore and understand the complex processes of taphonomy, i.e. of fossilization and preservation. This educational game is also freely available to the geoscience education community.
Communities of practice: mentoring, identity and inclusion
As we work to adapt instruction to restructured modalities, concerns related to diversity, access, inclusion and community have been thrown into sharp relief. Understanding of how we attract students to the geosciences, provide them resources to help them thrive, and ensure their inclusion in our community of practice is more important than ever. Petcovic, McNeal, Nyarko, and Doorlag examine the growth of the skills and practice of geologic mapping along with and because of the formation of communities of practice and associated growth of geoscience identity. The study makes useful contributions for assessing field experience structure, but also serves as a case study to guide reshaping other geoscience educational experiences. The pathway into geoscience is known to be influenced by interest, family and social pressures, and exposure. The report by Lyon et al. in this issue adds more nuance to our understanding of factors influencing intent to major in the geosciences through their study situated in a diverse STEM-focused high school. Additional insights into pre-college formation of geoscience identity are reported by Perrin, Connor and Oxtoby. They study a research apprenticeship program designed for high-school girls, and the association between science-related material resources and the formation of interest and identity. The road ahead will be challenging for us as a community, and it is all the more important we work to help students build connection, community and identity as geoscientists. With this issue we have even more tools and insights to help us along the way.