USING HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF GEOLOGY TO TEACH NATURE OF SCIENCE TO NON-SCIENCE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS (Invited Presentation)

Some of the biggest problems facing humanity are geoscience related (climate change, energy and mineral resource scarcity, water and air pollution, natural hazards). A quality geoscience education is necessary if people are going to develop and enact policies that will help mitigate such problems. Students need to engage in the content material for effective learning. Historical case studies can facilitate such engagement. This talk will illustrate a restructured introductory geology course for non-science majors by presenting the content as three case studies (the earth is a historical body, the earth is very old, and the earth is dynamic), tracking the development of these foundational geology concepts from Biblical understandings to the modern consensus views. The biographies of the three concepts include many of the characters involved in advancing our understanding and highlight many of the social, economic, and political influences on that advancement. In addition to recounting the history, students reflect on the process of geology, considering the social and cognitive influences on it. Analysis of students’ open-ended survey responses show that their conception of science (both as process and product) shifted from naïve realism prior to the course, to constructive realism by the completion of the course. Initially, students said science was happening because they were in a lab, or wearing a lab coat and goggles, mixing chemicals, and following strict, step-by-step directions. Science knowledge was something discovered. By the end of the course, students more often characterized science as a creative process resulting from research, and the assumptions, subjectivity, and biases of scientists. Science knowledge was not discovered but built on previous knowledge and was the best knowledge at that time. This humanizing of science engaged students showing them that anyone, even they could be a scientist.