BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH, TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH THEMATIC DIGITAL RESOURCE COLLECTIONS: AN EXAMPLE USING THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD

Digital resources have revolutionized the way undergraduate geoscience educators design and teach courses by providing dynamic learning media directly linking research and learning. Although these resources are now invaluable classroom tools, the new challenge of organizing select resources into coherent, practical teaching collections remains. To address the problem of resource organization and usability we created a thematic collection based on an interval of geologic time, the Cretaceous Period. The goals of this collection are to discover and organize superlative digital resources relevant to the Cretaceous Period, thereby providing a useful teaching tool and exemplar for future theme-based collections using an Earth system approach. The collection was created by first determining a set of key Cretaceous topics and concepts of potential utility. By systematically searching the web for these specific topics, instead of a more general “Cretaceous” search, we located more technical sites and obtained a more diverse information base. Accurate, relevant sites were imported from DLESE or cataloged directly into the Carleton College Science Education Resource Center (SERC) database. Once resources were compiled into this database, they were further organized and arranged into the Cretaceous collection, a new element in SERC. To accommodate multiple teaching styles and pedagogies Cretaceous resources were arranged by: (1) subject, (2) earth system components (e.g., biosphere, atmosphere etc.), and (3) inquiry-based topics that address compelling contemporary research questions. This collection forms an important step in advancing the quality and usability of digital geoscience resources while providing a useful teaching tool for undergraduate geoscience educators.