CURRICULUM-SPECIFIC FILM: ELEVATING ENGAGEMENT IN THE INTRODUCTORY GEOSCIENCE CLASSROOM

As our global society invariably reckons with the impacts of a changing climate, we are increasingly called to recognize the interconnectedness of humanity and Earth system processes. Never has an education in the Earth sciences been so societally necessary for the future and health of humanity. Yet despite climate change posing an enormous threat, research indicates that scientific data has little effect on inspiring engagement and action on the individual level. One of the reasons climate science is still met with skepticism is a lack of individual perceived “personal responsibility” to the planet and the Earth system—which includes humanity. Such an awareness of personal responsibility requires a sense of “connectedness”, in other words, a relationship with the planet, which itself depends upon a foundational interest in the Earth. This study tests the hypothesis that curriculum-specific film, founded on place-based education principles, helps increase interest in, and engagement with, introductory geoscience curricula—which can be used to instill in students an interest in the Earth. Beyond the potential to promote “connectedness” to the Earth via place-based educational principles, there are several additional advantages to the use of curriculum-specific film including (1) the employment of a “blended learning” or “flipped classroom” model; (2) the potential to apply universal design for learning principles; (3) the potential to create emotional connections to content and (4) appealing to the values and preferences of college students. For this study, 25 lab sections of an introductory geoscience class of >400 students at the University of Wisconsin - Madison were randomly split into control and test sections. Control sections were provided pre-lab readings while test sections were given curriculum-specific pre-lab videos created for this study. Herein we report results from surveys designed to assess students’ interest in the curriculum, their perceived identity as geoscientists, their sense of belonging, and the relevance of geoscience in their lives.