ENHANCING QUANTITATIVE SKILLS FOR EARTH SCIENCE MAJORS: CO-CURRICULAR MATH MODULES AND STUDENT PERCEPTIONS

The Math Your Earth Science Majors Need is developing and testing co-curricular math modules to support enhancing quantitative skills specifically for Earth science majors. Thus far we have created 14 modules on mathematical topics (e.g., vectors, exponential equations) and statistical topics (e.g., histograms, linear regression.) Each module applies the quantitative skill to real-world Earth science problems with examples from various sub-disciplines.

To evaluate the impact of the use of these modules, students take a survey before and after using the modules that measure their confidence in completing the work in their Earth Science courses, their enjoyment and confidence in doing mathematical calculations in their science courses, the perceived importance of quantitative skills in the Earth Sciences, and their self-confidence in a variety of specific quantitative skills. We present results from these surveys from 17 implementations of The Math Your Earth Science Majors Need at 11 institutions in courses such as Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology, Weather and Climate, and Surface Processes.

Testing and evaluation of the modules is ongoing and will be used to refine the modules themselves and give insight into how they can be effectively implemented in Earth science majors classes. Furthermore, we will measure the impact of the use of these modules on students’ quantitative skills, as well as their perceptions of their own self-efficacy, and the importance of quantitative skills in the geosciences.

The modules are available at https://serc.carleton.edu/mathyouneed/geomajors/index.html