CONCEPT MAPS ILLUSTRATE THE INTEGRATED NATURE OF EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE

Earth System Science (ESS) is becoming a standard course offering at more and more institutions replacing, or in addition to, a physical geology course. In contrast to physical geology, ESS follows a systems approach by integrating geology, meteorology, oceanography, biology, and astronomy. It is the connections or linking concepts among and within these systems that is central to ESS. The traditional organization of textbooks, however, does not focus on this theme, as texts commonly treat topics as separate entities (i.e., chapters). Additionally, traditional lecture styles based on this organization make it difficult to illustrate the connections. One solution is to design a course using a student-centered approach. For example, three changes can be made: (1) use a backward-design approach to identify student goals, (2) use an inverted-pyramid concept to develop an overarching theme for the course, and (3) reduce the number of topics covered allowing more time to explore the connections among the concepts. Of these changes, it is the last that arguably plays the greatest role in student learning. Concept maps are a very useful tool in helping students “see” the connections among concepts. The use of these maps can link concepts within a topic, between topics, and to the overarching theme. Each concept map serves as a foundation onto which new information can be linked. This emphasizes the connections within ESS and reinforces the idea that ESS is not a series of separate topics, but rather a single story composed of many related concepts and processes.