Earthlearningidea: A Worldwide Web–Based Resource of Simple but Effective Teaching Activities

ABSTRACT

Earthlearningidea was developed, without funding, to publish a new Web-based earth science teaching idea every week during the International Year of Planet Earth (2008); during 2009, publication continued, but at monthly intervals. The activities were mostly practically based and were aimed particularly at teachers and teacher educators in the developing world, who teach in classrooms with minimal resources, and they aimed to develop active and inquiry-based learning approaches. Earthlearningidea's success is indicated by the fact that, by December 2009, 69 activities had been published, activity pdf files had been downloaded more than 110,000 times, and the blog had been accessed in 152 countries, with positive feedback from many teaching situations. Many of the Earthlearningideas had also been translated into Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, and Chinese (Mandarin). Analysis of those who accessed the Earthlearningideas showed that the majority were from the more developed world. Thus, during 2010–2011, the activities, which were published each fortnight, were created to be slightly more sophisticated than previous activities, for example, in using equipment likely to be available in a school science laboratory, or more abstract ideas. The “stop press” update shows that the success of Earthlearningidea, measured by a range of indicators, is increasing. We ask all our readers to access the site, use the activities, give us blog feedback, and “tell their friends” across the globe.

Key words::

• practical activities
• inquiry-based learning
• thinking skills
• Web site
• blog
• translation

Acknowledgments

We are hugely grateful to all those who have supported us in the development of Earthlearningidea. In particular, we thank those who have translated for us, José Sellés Martínez (Pepe) from Argentina, Merethe Frøyland from Norway, Roberto Greco from Italy, and Shao Yanxiu from China, and their teams, described on the Web site as follows:

• José Sellés Martínez—Spanish translation by AulaGEA, a service for teachers and learners of the Department of Geology of the University of Buenos Aires. La traducción al español ha sido realizada por Aulagea, el programa de extensión del Departamento de Geología de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires.

• Merethe Frøyland—Norwegian translations by Kari Beate Remmen and Anne Kristine Byhring, sponsored by the Norwegian Committee of the Year of Planet Earth.

• Roberto Greco—Italian translations by Barbara Scapellato, Claudio Casali, Bovino Miria, Sonia Manaresi, Giulia Realdon, Laura Agostini of ANISN (Associazione Nazionale degli Insegnanti di Scienze Naturali). Edited by Paola Fregni, Chiara Fioroni, Mauro Marchetti, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra dell'Universitá degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia e Corrado Venturini del Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geologico-Ambientali dell'Universitá degli Studi di Bologna.

• Yanxiu and Zhang Lianhai of the Geoidea team. Geoidea is a network platform for teachers and students interested in geoscience.

• Michael Anjello Jothi Rajan—Tamil translations. Jothi is S. G. Lecturer, Department of Physics Head, Department of Religion and Value Education, Arul Anandar College, Karumathur in Tamil Nadu, India.

We are also grateful to the International Union of Geological Sciences Commission on Geoscience Education, for an unsolicited donation of $US 1,000 for the development of this project and to the Applied and Environmental Geophysics Research Group at Keele University for hosting the Web site free of charge.

FIGURE 1:  Numbers of Earthlearningidea activities downloaded as pdf files, November 2008–November 2009.

FIGURE 2:  A chloropleth map of the number of Earthlearningidea blog hits per country, by 31 July 2009 between 0 (shown in pale gray) to 6,699 (shown in black) of the 15,996 hits recorded; information provided by Google Analytics.

FIGURE 3:  Teachers trying out Earthlearningideas in India in late 2008.

FIGURE 4:  Teachers learning about Earthlearningideas in Italy in early 2009.

FIGURE 5:  Teachers using Earthlearningideas in South Africa in late 2009.

FIGURE 6:  Numbers of Earthlearningidea activities downloaded as pdf files, November 2008–October 2010.

Box 2. Earthlearningidea Sample Activity. Used with permission.

Box 2:  continued.

Box 2:  continued.

TABLE I: Earthlearningideas categorized (as of December 2009).

TABLE II: The Earthlearningidea activities list to December 2009.

TABLE III: The different sections of an Earthlearningidea, exemplified by reference to the “High flow, low flow” activity.

TABLE IV: Anecdotal feedback to Earthlearningidea activities provided through the blog and by electronic mail.