PLACE-BASED PEDAGOGIES INCREASE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, SKILLS, AND GEOSCIENCE CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Place-based education increases engagement and enhances achievement by capitalizing on students' connections to local landscapes and communities, but it has most commonly been applied in primary and secondary schools. Many place-based pedagogies can be adapted for use in undergraduate geoscience courses, especially those with a field component. Through use of on-campus resources such as building stones, virtually any geoscience course can have a field component. Place-based pedagogies have been shown to be particularly effective with Native students and other students from under-represented groups in STEM disciplines.

One example is the correlation between field notes and journaling, a common strategy in place-based education. Many of the techniques for guiding and encouraging journaling can be adapted to improve students' observational skills and ability to take effective field notes. Concept sketches present another opportunity to provide students with the framework to document their observations, and clearly distinguish observation from interpretation. Furthermore, through use of their own field notes to complete quizzes, trip reports and lab reports, students experience a self-reinforcing feedback loop that can improve their field note taking as well as their grasp of geoscience concepts.

In addition, project-based activities, team learning and other place-based pedagogies can result in increased learning of important and practical career skills, as well as deeper and more integrated learning of geoscience concepts. Meaningful and contextually relevant exposure to the geoscience-related activities of local and regional organizations, contractors, corporations, municipalities and agencies expose students to geoscience career opportunities they may not have known about or considered previously.