Teaching Secondary Earth Science Using Model-based Teaching

Abstract:

Climate change is a complex and an increasingly urgent topic facing the global community. To mitigate and limit the impacts of the rapid changes in Earth’s climate, it is critical to cultivate ‘climate literacy’ within society. The formal K-12 education system represents one of the best and most accessible opportunities to engage students in learning about Earth’s climate and global climate change. In the last decade, two guiding documents —Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and the Essential Principles for Climate Literacy (NOAA, 2009) — enabled the development and implementation of curriculum resources to assist teachers in this endeavor. In this study, we investigated two secondary geoscience teachers over three years while implementing a model-based climate curricular intervention. This three-week, NGSS aligned curriculum module involves the use of an online, data-driven, computer-based modeling tool. The curriculum was designed to provide students opportunities for using “big data” for both predicting and describing the Earth’s climate and global climate change. Specifically, we asked (1) how do two secondary science teachers implement a model-based curriculum? and (2) how do teachers’ implementation strategies change over the three-year study? We utilized a diverse dataset, including classroom observations, researcher field notes, pre-/post-interviews, and daily teacher reflections, using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods. Results show that over the three-year period, there were no significant differences between years F(2, 230) = 1.24, p =0.292, or were there significant interactions between the teachers and the year F(2, 230) = 1.57, p =0.211. However, significance did occur between teachers F(1, 230) = 9.93, p =0.002, specifically in the second year of the project. These results have direct implications for secondary science teachers and their students. Understanding how teachers teach earth’s climate and climate change is key to ensuring effective promotion of ‘climate literacy.’ In addition, they have implications for school administrations, curriculum developers, policymakers, and teacher educators.