BACK TO BASICS: A FIELD-BASED APPROACH TO EARTH SYSTEMS SCIENCE

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “revolution” as (1) “orbital motion about a point,” and (2) “a sudden or momentous change in any situation.” This session’s title suggests the latter definition, but are these definitions mutually exclusive? Historically, the geosciences are rooted in field observations and, although the laboratory is an important venue for conducting scientific inquiry, the work conducted in the laboratory is, ultimately, linked to questions that derive from field observations.

A problem with today's geoscience curriculum in K-12 education is that, with rare exception, students are restricted to a classroom format. Laboratory "hands-on" activities are important components of the curriculum, but these activities are often conducted out of context with no obvious link to the primary field observations that originally inspired the experiments. The activities merely become another "to do" in the classroom setting. We believe that much of the excitement of our discipline derives from the experience received while conducting fieldwork. This excitement and enthusiasm should become a normal part of the K-12 curriculum.

Here we report preliminary results of a project involving middle and high school teachers and students in an Earth Systems integrated field-based curriculum project. Nine teachers and almost 200 students conducted fieldwork during the spring 2000 semester in the first steps towards developing a field component to their science curriculum. Although not without difficulties, results have been positive indicating that using an Earth systems field-based component of the curriculum can provide the necessary engagement to inspire students to ask meaningful questions and develop critical thinking skills.