MSU Environmental Literacy Project Kristin L' Gunckel

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MSU Environmental Literacy ProjectKristin L.
Gunckel Blakely K. Tsurusaki
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
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Presented at the 2007 Michigan Alliance for
Outdoor and Environmental Education Conference

• This research is supported in part by three
  grants from the National Science Foundation
  Developing a research-based learning progression
  for the role of carbon in environmental systems
  (REC 0529636), the Center for Curriculum
  Materials in Science (ESI-0227557) and Long-term
  Ecological Research in Row-crop Agriculture (DEB
  0423627. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions
  or recommendations expressed in this material are
  those of the author(s) and do not necessarily
  reflect the views of the National Science
  Foundation.

CCMS
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY RESEARCH GROUP

• Principal Investigator, Charles W. Anderson,
  Michigan State University
• Lindsey Mohan, Chris Wilson, Beth Covitt, Hui
  Jin, Jing Chen, Hasan Abdel-Kareem, Rebecca
  Dudek, Josephine Zesaguli, Hsin-Yuan Chen, Brook
  Wilke, Ed Smith, Jim Gallagher, and Edna Tan at
  Michigan State University
• Phil Piety at the University of Michigan
• Mark Wilson, Karen Draney, Jinnie Choi, and
  Yong-Sang Lee at the University of California,
  Berkeley.

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PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

• What is Environmental Science Literacy?
• Introduction to Learning Progressions
• Our research
• Audience participation
• Implications of our research
• Resources
• Get Involved!

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THE NEED FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE LITERACY

• Humans are fundamentally altering natural systems
  that sustain life on Earth
• Citizens need to understand science to make
  informed decisions that maintain Earths life
  supporting systems
• Citizens act in multiple roles that affect
  environmental systems as learners, consumers,
  voters, workers, volunteers, and advocates

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RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP and ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
LITERACY
Environmental science literacy is the capacity to
understand and participate in evidence-based
decision-making about the effects of human
actions in coupled human and natural
environmental systems.

(Anderson, et al., 2006)
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STRANDS FOR PHENOMENA

• Carbon foods and fuels, global climate change,
  processes that produce, transform, and oxidize
  organic carbon
• Water fresh water, water management, processes
  that move and distribute water, processes that
  alter water composition
• Biodiversity foods and land for living,
  processes that create, sustain, and reduce
  biodiversity

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THE LOOP DIAGRAM STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES OF
SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
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IMPLICATIONS FOR SCIENCE CURRICULUM

• Thinking about any of the issues in the loop
  requires completing the loop
• Our current K-12 school curriculum is fragmented
  and inside the environmental systems box
• We need to teach whats inside the box in ways
  that enable students to connect to the arrows

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EXAMPLE SCENARIO Ice Mountain Water

• Nestle Bottling Company (Ice Mountain Bottled
  Water) has applied to drill a large well in the
  Muskegon River Watershed. Should they be allowed
  to do so?
• Where is the source of the water?
• How much water will be withdrawn?
• How will the well affect the groundwater supply?
• How will the well affect the tributary rivers and
  the trout in the rivers?

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THE LOOP DIAGRAM ICE MOUNTAIN
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Water Current K-12 Curriculum

• K-5
• Water cycle, where water is located, water
  conservation
• 6-12
• Physical science phase change
• Chemistry solutions
• Earth science weather
• Missing
• Groundwater
• Watersheds
• Engineered systems

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LEARNING PROGRESSIONS
High School
Middle School
Elementary School
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LEARNING PROGRESSIONS
Upper Anchor What high school students should
know and be able to do Lower
Anchor How children think and make sense of the
world
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WHY LEARNING PROGRESSIONS?

• How do students move from their ideas to more
  scientific answers? (learning trajectory)
• What are the connections between students
  experiences and how they are thinking about
  concepts at different points in their K-12
  schooling?
• How can we rethink curriculum to best help
  students learn?

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STUDENT ASSESSMENTS

• Assess student understand of science concepts
• Analyze patterns in student answers
• Conduct interviews

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PARTICIPATION

• Arrange the answers from highest to lowest in
  terms of understanding.
• What do these questions tell you about students
  understandings of watersheds, groundwater, and
  the connections between them?

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WATER IN THE RIVER QUESTION

• Why is there still water flowing in rivers even
  when it hasnt rained recently anywhere along the
  river?

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WATERSHED QUESTION

• If a water pollutant is put into the river at
  town C, which towns (if any) would be affected by
  the pollution? Explain why only these towns
  would be affected.

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GROUNDWATER QUESTION

• Sometimes we get water out of the ground using
  wells. Draw a picture of what you think it looks
  like underground where theres water. Be sure to
  label the important things that help show how
  water exists underground. Also, show in your
  picture how we get water out of the ground.

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INTERPRETATION Structure of Systems

• Trend from lower to higher level answers
  Invisible to visible
• Yet even at higher levels, important parts and
  connections remain invisible or poorly understood
• Examples
• Groundwater Question Answer C vs. Answer A
• Water in River Question Answer B vs. Answer C

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INTERPRETATION Connections Among Systems

• Trend from lower to higher level answer Need for
  processes to explain what happens
• Yet even at higher levels, some important
  processes remain poorly understood
• Examples
• Watershed Question Answer A vs. Answer B
• Water in River Question Answer B vs. Answer C

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WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

• Interview Data Ice Mountain Scenario
• What stands out to you about students
  understanding of the science?
• What are students basing their decisions on?
• How is their understanding of science affecting
  their decisions?

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INTERPRETATION
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IMPLICATIONS

• Make the invisible parts of systems visible
• Students need to understand how water moves
  through one system before they can understand how
  to connect systems
• Start with the ideas that students bring to
  learning about the environment
• Recognize that how humans are connected to and
  influence environmental systems

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NEXT STEPS

• Increase emphasis on inquiry and citizenship in
  addition to accounts
• Refine assessments
• Conduct teaching experiments to refine
  understanding of how students engage with and
  learn about environmental science
• Use research to
• Inform development of curriculum materials
• Inform development of new standards for formal
  K-12 science education

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RESOURCES

• Environmental Literacy website
• Assessments
• Curriculum
• Papers and Presentations

• http//edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/index.ht
  m

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QUESTIONS COMMENTS