INTRODUCTORY GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE: CHALLENGES AND CONFIRMATIONS AMIDST 21st CENTURY DIVERSITY

Engaging 2 year community college students in introductory geoscience courses at Minnesota’s largest community college requires a growing repertoire of techniques and approaches in the emerging culture of the 21^st Century. With open enrollment, that ranges from PACE Program and PSEO high-schoolers, to newly immigrated students from across Africa, the Middle East to SE Asia to China, from Baby Boomers to Millennials, from inner city youth to suburban elites, from urban Twin Cities to rural Wisconsin, from arch- conservatives to liberal progressives, our community college diversity requires a unique approach for introductory geoscience courses. Our Earth Science instructors have searched across the realms of curriculum and instruction to build classroom community and fellowship for a semester-long exploration of Planet Earth.

We have developed a range of instructional modes from D2L web platforms to support each class, field trips and field investigations, team-based cooperative learning for short- and long-term projects, use of hands-on artifacts, ad hoc mini-research projects, field-based labs, student produced videos, Turning Point Clickers, an Honors Option, combined with traditional presentations, tests, quizzes, class discussions, and homework to enhance students’ connection to our college, each other and the Earth.

Our courses include Earth Science, Geology, Energy and the Environment, Natural Disasters, Meteorology, Oceanography, and Physical Environmental Science. While efforts must be ongoing and evolve with each new classroom full of students, we have some insights to share that can help our colleagues teaching in 2 year community colleges. It is most satisfying to find the mix that not only draws forth an honors student moving on to a four year geosciences’ program, but also allows an ESL student to succeed, and keeps general student interest high and engaged.

Hinging on our classroom efforts, as with the rest of our colleagues in geoscience, is the looming issue of natural resources rates of consumption and limits to economic growth in a rapidly changing world. It is our hope that in sharing what has worked well in our classrooms, we can confirm and inform the efforts of our colleagues, in the quest both for geoscience literacy and transformation to a sustainable future.