Welcome!

Welcome
Welcome to the High School Earth System Science Course. This 16-week graduate course has been developed at the Center for Educational Technologies™, Wheeling Jesuit University. This course is structured as a collaborative, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) experience and is held exclusively in an online environment.

The focus of this course is on you developing Earth system science knowledge using the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Model. You can then apply what you have learned about Earth system science and Problem-Based Learning to your own student classrooms and school curriculum.

Earth system science thinking begins with the premise that the land, air, water, and living things on the earth are inextricably related and affect each other constantly. This view leads to a rich study of events and situations that draws on the traditional science disciplines and goes beyond them with the rigorous thinking required by theory building about the relationships in the system. Such interdisciplinary, complex, and rigorous thinking needs to be supported by an instructional model, such as Problem-Based Learning, that engages each thinker in bringing the best of his or her knowledge, experience, and thinking to bear.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional method using real-world contexts for in-depth investigations of a subject matter. PBL activities start with an ill-structured problem that serves as a springboard to team engagement. In this course, you will use the PBL Model to assess what is known, to answer questions, and then to analyze various options before presenting a recommendation or solution.

This course is designed to help you articulate and evolve your own knowledge about Earth system science and to learn to collaborate for knowledge-building. The methodology, Problem-Based Learning, begins with complex scenarios to invite a variety of interpretations that are then investigated and lead to supportable findings about Earth system science relationships.

The course structure and weekly activities allow you to use PBL in an interplay of individual and team work. Your focus is on the development of your own thinking. The juxtaposition of it with your teammates' thinking and the other teams' contributions provide the healthy dissonance you need to evolve your own thinking.

Overview
The first three weeks of the course will provide an introduction to the other course participants, your teammates, the facilitator, Earth system science, and Problem-Based Learning (PBL).

In the fourth week of the course, you will begin the first of four, three-week cycles. Each week of the three-week cycle has a rhythm of individual and team activity to support personal knowledge growth through individual reflection and team discussion. The three weeks in each cycle are known as Week A: Teacher as Problem Solver, Week B: Teacher as Model Builder, and Week C: Teacher as Designer. You will examine a different event (Coral Reefs, Tropical Forests, Ozone, Global Change) in each cycle.

During Week A and Week B you will do individual and team activities that teach you how to use the PBL Model in an Earth system science (ESS) context. Then in Week C you will use what you have learned about PBL and ESS to design a PBL lesson for your students.

In the last week of the course, you will complete an individual final project.

Course Goals
This course is modeled so that you will learn how to use science as inquiry from the student perspective and then be able to model this teaching approach in your own classroom. Specifically, you will:

Evolve your own knowledge about Earth system science and your skills in thinking systemically about specific events.
Learn to develop strong arguments with hypotheses, assertions, and evidence.
Develop collaborative skills for knowledge-building, argument-building, and acting as a critical friend.
Develop PBL experiences that will engage your students in using Earth system science thinking.

Methodology
To accomplish the goals above, you will act as a problem solver, model builder, and designer and will:

collaborate online in learning teams of four to six teachers
be supported and coached by a facilitator and an Earth scientist
develop your own knowledge through weekly reflection and production
use rubrics to gauge your progress

Outcomes
As a result of your reflection, research, and collaboration, you will:

develop model building skills for Earth system science thinking and Problem-Based Learning
increase your scholarly knowledge of Earth system science as demonstrated by mapping your pre-study ideas and then evolving them through research, reflection, and discussion
develop online collaboration skills
create four PBL learning experiences for your students

[ Welcome ] [Earth's Spheres] [ Earth System Science ] [ PBL Model ] [ Use of Technology ] [ Science as Inquiry ] [ Participation ] [ Assessment Overview ] [ Course Sections ]

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HTML ce by Chris Kreger
Maintained by ESSC Team
Last updated July 25, 2000