Integrating iPad Technology in Earth Science K–12 Outreach Courses: Field and Classroom Applications

ABSTRACT

Incorporating technology into courses is becoming a common practice in universities. However, in the geosciences, it is difficult to find technology that can easily be transferred between classroom- and field-based settings. The iPad is ideally suited to bridge this gap. Here, we fully integrate the iPad as an educational tool into two graduate-level K–12 in-service teacher outreach classes, one classroom-based course and one field-based course. We describe our field and classroom course objectives, and the integration of iPads into both settings. We assess the impact of the iPad in these courses through the use of pre- and posttests and surveys. Most participants enthusiastically use iPads once the initial learning curve is overcome. They tend to spend roughly the same amount of time using technology, but they substitute iPad use for laptop use once they become proficient with the iPad. Additionally, when equipped with an iPad, there is a possible increase in overall productivity as the participants spend more time preparing both for their university outreach classes and the classes they teach. However, they do spend more time on certain noneducational activities (i.e., picture/music/movies), but they appear to be more efficient and spend less time browsing the internet and conducting research for their classes. Interestingly, having participants work with iPads appears to increase confidence in general technology use, including laptops, as well as increasing confidence in the iPad as a teaching tool for their own classrooms. Pre- and posttest data suggest that there is no link to increased content knowledge by integrating iPads versus traditional teaching methods.

Key words::

• iPad classroom integration
• K–12 outreach
• field courses
• Earth Science

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Steven Whitmeyer for providing comments that greatly improved the manuscript. We are indebted to Alison Henning, for her efforts with Rice University Outreach over many years. We would also like to thank the participants of the summer 2011 ESCI 515 and fall 2011 ESCI 511 courses for their voluntary responses to survey questions. Also, we would like to thank Dale Sawyer for coteaching ESCI 515 and providing helpful comments to this paper, in addition to Eric Holmes and Weikei Yu for their fieldwork contributions and Matt Weller for fall 2011 ESCI 511 classroom assistance. We would like to thank Winnie Yu for processing LIDAR data. Both of these courses and iPads were supported/purchased by grants from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Teacher Quality Grants. iPad is a product of Apple Inc. (Cupertino, CA).

FIGURE 1: LIDAR elevation data set of Galveston Island (located along the upper Texas coast) distributed to participants.

FIGURE 2: (A) Students had the ability to collect shallow sediment cores in a number of locations. (B) An example of three split sediment cores.

FIGURE 3: Participants using iPads in the field (A) and in the classroom (B).

FIGURE 4: Pre- and postsurvey part one responses. Values are average results for all participants on a scale of 0–10 (0 = none, 1 = exceptionally low, 2 = particularly low, 3 = very low, 4 = low, 5 = neutral, 6 = high, 7 = very high, 8 = particularly high, 9 = exceptionally high, and 10 = perfect). Each question is shown below each set of responses.

FIGURE 5: Pre- and postsurvey part two responses. Values are average results for all participants in either hours per week or hours per day, depending on the question. Inside the gray box, participant responses reflect how much time they spend in a work week doing certain activities. Outside of the gray box, participant responses reflect how much time they spend each day using a laptop versus an iPad. Each question is shown below each set of responses.

TABLE I: Compilation showing the apps provided specifically for our two courses (some were free; others were purchased for the participants) in addition to apps suggested to participants for additional information. The specific course uses for all apps in ESCI 511 and 515 are noted.

TABLE II: Table describing representative pre- and postsurvey short-answer questions and responses.