IMPACTS OF INCORPORATING SMALL-GROUP ACTIVE-LEARNING ACTIVITY MODULES ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDES IN AN INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY COURSE

A working knowledge of geologic principles and their impacts on society (e.g. climate change, energy resource management, natural hazard processes) is of vital importance, yet many incoming college students have limited experience or awareness. It is critical to develop scientific literacy, not just as a recruiting tool for geology majors, but to improve student engagement in introductory lecture classes and communicate the relevance of the material to their lives. In an attempt to improve students’ scientific literacy, increase student engagement, and raise the achievement rate of course learning objectives, this pilot project incorporated a series of self-contained active-learning modules into a 65-seat introductory physical geology lecture class.

Module activities were completed outside the scheduled lecture periods, typically with multiple 60-90 minute sessions offered each week. Participation in individual activities was controlled by signups, which limited session sizes to 6-15 students, depending on the activity. During the activity module, students investigated topics via discovery-based learning that scaffolded with course lecture concepts, such as examining mineral properties via SEM analysis, modeling the impact of land-use changes on flood risks, or taking a walking tour of campus to explore rock types and landform development. The effects of these modules on student achievement and engagement were assessed by pre- and post-tests, an online survey that was released to module participants, and by an end-of-course survey. Overall, participation in the learning modules had a positive correlation with performance on class exams; students who participated in more than five learning modules had a higher course grade average than their peers. Continuing efforts will focus on developing ways to integrate these active-learning approaches into larger lecture courses, and longer-term tracking of student attitudes towards the geosciences and their class experiences.