MEETING THE CHALLENGE – HOW THE GEOSCIENCE COMMUNITY PROVIDED ROBUST ONLINE CAPSTONE EXPERIENCES IN RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Geologic field camps and other field-based capstone experiences are among the most impacted by challenges associated with transitions to distance learning formats in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The geoscience community has the experience needed to run robust online capstone experiences, but that expertise is neither widespread nor evenly distributed. To help our community meet this challenge, we undertook a series of professional, curricular, and digital infrastructure development initiatives to engage more than 350 geoscience educators in collective action. To help focus this unprecedented, curriculum development effort, we developed a new set of community-derived program learning outcomes that satisfy both field-based and online capstone experiences. These new learning outcomes provide an effective foundation for arguing the equivalency of new online capstones to potential graduate advisors, employers, and state boards. We then organized educators into themed working groups that began developing new, high-quality curricular materials aligned with the goals and skills in the learning outcomes. All new activities benefit from an established peer review process through NAGT. To date, this effort has yielded more than 30 new introductory to advanced activities. These activities integrate a broad range of themes, datasets, tools, and techniques that build students’ skills in using the digital learning tools, resources, and strategies that are common in allied professions. Students who completed camps that utilized these materials commented on the value of the digital professional skills they developed in the online environment. These resources are freely available to the community through Teach the Earth (link below). Outcomes of this project will help address the long-standing challenge of building inclusive field experiences, and more broadly, developing inclusivity, diversity, and equity in the geosciences by facilitating the creation and expansion of curricular tools and opportunities that help students overcome barriers to participation (e.g., physical challenges, financial concerns, cultural stigmas, or family obligations) and reduce the novelty space associated with field-based experiences.

https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/online_field/activities.html