http://www.earthscienceliteracy.org/

Here’s the introductory paragraph from that site:

I am pondering the purpose and scope of the initiative and how that maps onto real world action.  It would indeed be wonderful if all Americans understood all of these big ideas and concepts, but I don’t see how a document this extensive has any hope of being understood by even a large minority of the population.

We can point to no other examples of a set of commonly held understandings this broad and deep.

I can’t think of a set of understandings that is commonly held that is extensive as one of these big ideas and its supporting concepts.

If we wish to have different results from our efforts than the similar efforts that have come before, then we need a different strategy, or a different set of strategies.

If our goal is an Earth science literate populace, then I see three possible strategies (or kinds of strategies):
1.  Fundamentally change the nature of teaching.
2.  Fundamentally change the nature of what is taught.
3.  Create and implement a process of learning that replaces teaching.

Piece of cake.

My point is not that the good work done to create these literacy principles was for naught.  I think they do represent what every American ought to know, but without some profoundly different strategy, we won’t get there.  This work (and the parallel work in ocean, atmospheric and climate science) is a logical step in the process.

In my view, it makes sense for this group to work on fundamentally redefining what is taught.  That requires at the very least a repackaging of these ideas.

If the effort is to have the desired impact it needs to repackaged with attention to how people learn.  The National Research Council’s Committee on How People Learn have issued a series of reports all of which are attentive to three key research findings.

The second of those findings is the most relevant to the work on Earth systems big ideas.  That finding is:

To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must:
– have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
– understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and
– organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.

The organization and presentation of these ideas really matters.  Those at the CESE meeting heard me talk about this and I’m attaching a revised slide from my presentation that is an attempt at providing a framework connecting the ideas from the different Earth science disciplinary groups.

I look forward to the town hall meeting at GSA.
Cheers,
Don

I felt she warranted some respectful mention here, though I’m unsure of what to say.  One thing is certainly to explore the natural world safely.

Here’s a link to story on the tragedy http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/27035774.html.

I hope to be blogging more soon.

Don

Fred: I’ve got a great idea! Let’s put 20 or 25 fifteen year-olds in a room for fifty minutes at a shot and have some adult tell them about algebra!

Jackie: That is a great idea! Say, you could have them do that everyday!

Nate: Yeah! Yeah! And you could do it with biology and history too!

Jackie: And Spanish and English and Art! They’d be able to maybe go down the hall to different rooms for each of those things for the fifty minute blocks.   That’d be so awesome!

Keesha:  Ooh!  We might be able to get a couple of thousand teenagers into a really big building all at once!  You all are geniuses!

Fred:  Oh indeed we are!   Indeed we are.

Of course, this isn’t how high schools came to be as they are.   But, if the idea sounds stupid in this imagined discussion, maybe that’s because it’s simply a bad idea.  Maybe schools fail so many students because the structure is fatally flawed.

Maybe the reason so many bright, hard working nice people leave the field of teaching is because the field has set out a task for itself that is next to impossible.

None of this is to say that schools don’t have positive effects on many students.  Clearly they do.   Most Americans, according to an AP-AOL Poll, can identify a teacher who changed their lives. But 37% of us can’t.  And by the time you graduate from high school, you’ve probably had about 40 teachers…

Is trying to improve schools in 2007 akin to trying to improve typewriters in 1987?  That is, something that’s possible (and important to the users) but…

Cheers,

Don

I’m a Prius driver who happens to be about as beautiful as, well, Ben Stein. While I wonder too about why we don’t ban private jets and yachts, I found his defense of SUVs coupled with the belittling of hybrids troublesome. While my wife (who also drives the Prius) is indeed beautiful, I’m not. As teachers, we’re not rich. The car costs quite a bit less than the average SUV to buy and far, far less to fill up. Our other car isn’t a Ferrari — it’s a 1998 Chevy Prizm.

Stein is right that the rich need to do their share. He’s also right that their share is larger than Joe Sixpack’s. Joe is superior to the super rich in that he does far less damage to the environment. Ecological damage is not something we want to equalize if it means catching up to the rich.

The rich tend to have more than one big house, more than one car and they fly an awful lot more.

Whether the (jet) flight is in a private jet or an airliner, the plane typically spews out tons of CO2 for each and every passenger. That fact deserves much more attention, but belittling ugly Prius driving schmucks like me isn’t the way to do it.

You should be able to catch me on the radio tonight (depending on where you live). To find if Marketplace is on in your area, see their station locater map. Clicking on the map pins will show time and station. I assume the piece will be posted to the website after the show. If I’m right about that, I’ll post the link.

Sometimes it’s good to be a schmuck!

Post air date update:

I was indeed on the show but they edited my comments down to about five seconds of fame and mispronounced my name.  Ah well.  Fame is elusive, I suppose.