ENSURING SCIENCE LITERACY: INTEGRATION OF THE GEOSCIENCES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

Earth is an awesome place: this alone should inspire us to integrate the study of our planet into science curricula. Instead, the geosciences are often neglected, and students learn only about biology, chemistry, and physics. This is unfortunate because the geosciences offer both a foundation and a context for physical, natural and social sciences.

Geoscience education explains the importance of natural resources to civilizations, technology, and economies and examines the consequences of unequal distribution of these resources. In a geoscience course, students examine their misconceptions about global climate change. Geoscience education helps students make sense of natural disasters by studying why they occur, the issues of disaster prediction, and the importance of engineering and the role of economics in surviving disasters. Geoscience education teaches systems-thinking by examining the interconnections of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and geosphere. Through this, students also develop a sense of the immensity of time and space.

By integrating a rich geoscience curriculum in secondary educational settings, we will create a more scientifically literate populace capable of making better decisions about natural resources and disasters and more aware of natural interconnections, time, and space. Hopefully, these people will also appreciate the wonder of our planet.