Southeastern Section - 62nd Annual Meeting (20-21 March 2013)

Paper No. 4
Presentation Time: 8:00 AM-5:30 PM

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEACHING APPROACH TO STUDY ABROAD TRIPS THAT IMPROVE SCIENCE LITERACY IN THE GEOSCIENCES


JOVANELLY, Tamie, Physics, Astronomy, Geology, Berry College, 2277 Martha Berry Hwy, Mount Berry, GA 30149, tjovanelly@berry.edu

Here we present a case study that combines interdisciplinary and experiential teaching pedagogies in a short-term immersion study abroad course in Italy. Formal and informal assessments before, during, and after the field experiences document increased self-assessed learning, and comprehensive knowledge of scientific concepts. We found that providing pre-service teachers with interdisciplinary learning opportunities, accompanied by a field teaching component, increased students’ science literacy. Students’ reflections of their experiences indicate that immersion in a linguistically different culture augments the benefits of interdisciplinary experiential pedagogy.