A GRAPHIC SYLLABUS

Faced with the challenge of team-teaching Introduction to Earth Science in a large format classroom for the first time, the authors participated in the Course Design Academy offered by the Lucas Center for Faculty Development at Florida Gulf Coast University. The goal was to transform a passive teacher-centered course into an active student-centered course. The redesign of the syllabus followed the backward design of Fink (2013) and proved to be an effective way to demonstrate to the students how the class was going to be guided. A year later, one of the authors used the same method to redesign the Environmental Geology syllabus. The result of this work was a well-organized syllabus based on her teaching philosophy—a valuable tool which will serve as the base for organizing the entire semester of lessons and activities for a student-centered classroom which will guide the students through the entire semester. Learning objectives and goals were rewritten and the tone of the syllabus was transformed to be more student-centered, friendly and enthusiastic. It shows that behind the syllabus there is a real person who aims to reach each one of the students. The goal was to ensure that students continue to make use of the syllabus throughout the semester, which inspired the creation of a colorful and succinct document – the graphic syllabus.