Seminar: Dr. Nicole LaDue- NIU

UNC-CH’s Department of Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences is proud to host a guest seminar by Dr. Nicole LaDue. This event is scheduled for Friday, October 15th, at 12:30 pm. The speaker for this seminar will be presenting remotely. The seminar can be viewed in person in Murray Hall, room G202 on UNC campus in Chapel Hill, NC and online via Zoom (Meeting ID: 994 3817 3742).

Presenter Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Geology & Environmental Geosciences at Northern Illinois University

Title: Using Feedback and Accommodation to Promote Learning From Geoscience Models

Abstract: Geoscience concepts are often demonstrated using physical models. How to promote effective and efficient student learning with physical models is not well understood. Three research studies demonstrate effective strategies accomplishing this goal. The augmented reality sandbox is an exciting tool for displaying a dynamic topographic map overlaying sand. The first study demonstrates efficient and effective engagement with the sandbox that yields significant gains of topographic map skill. Classroom response systems are widely used for formative assessment. The second study demonstrates how to use Geoclick questions to engage students in reasoning about geoscience diagrams in large lectures. Finally, a pedagogy to engage students in making predictions with physical models was compared to using clickers alone. This third study revealed that active engagement with the Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) pedagogy was equally successful at promoting conceptual learning to clickers. However, the POE pedagogy maintained students’ self-efficacy while traditional lecture led to a significant drop in students’ confidence. The common theme in this work is the process of feedback to help students accommodate new information into their mental models. This learning mechanism can be applied to novel learning challenges you encounter with your students.