THE SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS (SEG) WIKI – A GEOSCIENCE CONTENT RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS AND MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Many K-12 teachers and classrooms are challenged with a lack of access to Earth science textbooks. Students may not be able to remove textbooks from the classroom to review outside of class or outside of school, and a school library may not have adequate print resources to assist teachers in providing students Earth science reference material. Teachers are appropriately cautious in encouraging students to go online and utilize websites for supplemental and primary sources of information. Because of the ability for anyone to author and edit articles, research shows that both teachers and students are especially hesitant to trust information on Wikipedia pages. The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) has established a geoscience-focused wiki (http://wiki.seg.org/) with articles on a range of Earth science topics authored by registered wiki editors that are students or professionals in the discipline. Since Summer 2015, undergraduate student researchers at Penn State Brandywine have been authoring new articles for the SEG Wiki on “Geology 101” topics. Example wiki pages include plate tectonics, global warming, desertification, extinction, and more. Under faculty supervision, undergraduate researchers learned how to locate and evaluate reliable sources to serve as the foundation content for their wiki pages. In addition to the Earth science content, students included external links to supplemental educational resources for teachers and students in middle and high school. It is hoped that as the “Geology 101” wiki article collection continues to grow, teachers will begin to utilize these pages as a free, reliable resource of geoscience content for students and classrooms.