THE SPECIAL PLACE PROJECT: INCORPORATING FIELD DATA TO TEST STUDENT HYPOTHESES IN PLACE-BASED CASE STUDIES ASSISTED BY THE NASA-FUNDED EARTH ED 2YC PROGRAM

Place-based approaches for attracting students to the geosciences have gained attention as a means for involving underserved populations. Whether such techniques can be made to work for widely dispersed or students restricted to urban environments remains an open question. In the Special Place Project, individual students conduct semester-long personal case studies of a place of their choosing while the class collectively explores a case selected by the instructor. Students use rock samples, maps, Google Earth images, and photographs to apply the geoscience content they are learning to study the class place. Students describe what they are seeing, explore the landscape and use their observations and insights to develop hypotheses explaining the geologic origin of the place, on-going geologic processes altering the environment, make predictions for its future evolution and specify the role that humans have played and will play in the place in the future. Students also speculate on how anthropogenic climate change may impact the place and options for mitigation. The activities conducted by the class serve as a model for the techniques and goals the student is asked to achieve in their individual case studies. The multi-stage written project demonstrates each student’s ability to utilize the geologic content they are learning in an authentic and engaging assessment demonstrating critical skills all colleges strive to build in their graduates. But what about students that cannot visit their chosen places or easily investigate a heavily urbanized landscape? These students can test hypotheses regarding aspects of their place with a bit of help. Testing of the student-created hypotheses for the class place can be achieved with proper planning and support. This presentation discusses how the NASA funded Earth Ed 2 YC professional development program enabled use of this place-based case study approach to allow students to propose and test geological hypotheses regarding the formation of their class place. This model could be emulated by faculty in diverse institutions to create real time opportunities for students to test hypotheses regarding landscapes under study, despite being unable to travel during the semester, with webcasts archiving the student learning for future students and faculty to observe.