THE USE OF UNIFYING THEMES TO IMPROVE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE IN THE HIGH SCHOOL EARTH SCIENCE CLASSROOM

In standards-driven education, science teachers are confronted by a list of topics that must be taught in order for the students to be deemed “adequately educated” in the subject. In state standards, unrelated topics are often placed together within a single category, and there frequently is no scientific rationale for the sequence in which the categories are listed. Departments and districts create curriculum maps to dictate the order in which the topics must be taught, and these curriculum maps often are organized according to the numerical order of the state standards. As a result, earth science material is disjointed, and students feel they are learning a series of random, disconnected facts. Emphasis is placed on memorization over understanding. Science is reduced to a mindless exercise instead of an intellectually engaging investigation, leading students to ask, “Why would anyone want to be a scientist?”

To address these difficulties, the unifying themes of plate tectonics and karst geology were used to relate many of the earth science topics into two common threads. Each unifying theme was presented using the big ideas from the Earth Science by Design© program. Related topics were linked through a series of essential questions that led students to explore the theme’s big ideas. Students utilized the scientific method by asking questions, seeking and testing answers, and finding relationships between data. One of the culminating projects included the creation of a mind map showing how all the topics were related to one another and to the unifying theme.

Students were more fully engaged throughout each theme unit, they eagerly asked and investigated their own questions, and they were excited as each new piece of the puzzle fell into place. Content retention increased because students continued to use and re-use key concepts and knowledge in their guided investigations. Key content continued to be fresh and understanding was deeper and more comprehensive over the several months that each theme required. Students expressed a sense of purpose in what they were doing and were able to describe interrelationships as the work progressed. Student performance on the state standardized test improved dramatically from a pass rate of 72% to 91%. Most importantly, more students expressed an interest in further science studies.