APPRECIATING THE RELEVANCY OF EARTH SCIENCE AND WRITING ABOUT SCIENCE IN A LARGE CLASS FOR NON-MAJORS

Recently, Southern Oregon University (SOU) revised its general education curriculum to include specific learning objectives for each disciplinary area. The objectives for sciences emphasized interdisciplinary connections, the relation of science to society, reasoned analysis of scientific issues, and effective communication. In response, the SOU Geology Department developed a two-term sequence in earth science, specifically designed to address the new learning objectives. The course contains a lecture section of 70 to 75 students and accompanying laboratory sessions each with 25 students. Since a high percentage of students were not science majors, we wanted to stress the relevancy of various scientific concepts to their lives. We also wanted to better integrate writing into the course, including the ability to make meaningful responses to the students' writing. Students are engaged through role-playing exercises in the laboratory sessions, guest speakers in both lab and lectures, shared student experiences, team teaching of the course, and concrete examples, usually from our region, that follow discussions of most concepts. Students complete several written assignments that are graded both for scientific content and for writing effectiveness, including a relevancy paper, an application paper, an earthquake preparedness plan, a flood preparedness plan, and several one-paragraph field observations of concepts described in class. In order to respond to the students' writing, we utilize specific check sheets for each of the assignments. Our approach has been effective in overcoming aversions to science often found in non-science majors. It also reinforces why effective writing and communication skills are essential in all majors. Student feedback has been generally positive although many students would like the course to last longer.