Integrating Geoscience and Sustainability: Examining Socio-Techno-Ecological Relationships Within Content Designed to Prepare Teachers

Abstract

Note to Instructor:Please take a moment at the beginning or end of class to address the assignment for this week that is due on Sunday. This assignment mirrors last week's, and students will analyze the provided lesson plan, answering questions about it. One relates to Strategic Thinking, one relates to the content of the lesson plan, and one asks the students to consider modifications for the provided lesson plan. This is a chance for them to review/evaluate/critique lesson plans from an outside source.We want students to see a clear connection with the course assignments, and their future classroom. When they are in their own classroom, they will need to be flexible with what formats of lesson plans they are working with, as the school and/or district will likely have specific requirements. It's also very possible that those requirements may change from year-to-year (or even quarter-to-quarter), so flexibility to different formats is important. As future teachers, they can start early on identifying strengths and weaknesses of different templates, content, instructions, etc. In-class Activities: Title of Lesson: Exploring Water Through Various Modalities Outcomes:1. Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the water cycle and human-managed water system. 2. Students will be able to distinguish between how poor water quality impacts humans and the environment. 3. Students will be able to construct and support a sustainable water system that demonstrates the interconnectedness of human and environmental systems.

An Investigation of How Environmental Science Textbooks Link Human Environmental Impact to Ecology and Daily Life

“…The context stories provide facilitates learning by providing a frame on which to mentally reorganize and integrate prior knowledge and experiences (van den Broek, 2010;Rathburn, 2015). It is for this reason that multiple authors argue for bringing real-world experiences into sustainability learning (Gosselin et al, 2013;Hale et al, 2017). Sustainability content presented in the context of students' own communities and personal experiences can help learners more readily incorporate new material into their understanding of the world (Premadasa and Bhatia, 2013;Hale et al, 2017).…”

“…If we want students to construct an understanding of the environment as including people, then textbooks need to present students with greater opportunities to see themselves in the environment (Premadasa and Bhatia, 2013;Rathburn, 2015;Hale et al, 2017). Examples from far-off locales are missed opportunities for students to see their own actions as being part of the environment.…”

“…Y. Wyner and R. DeSalle Hale et al, 2017). Making this connection to prior daily lived experience also has the potential to expand student conceptions of environmental issues from something unrelated to their lives (Loughland et al, 2002;Shepardson et al, 2007;Moseley et al, 2010;Tsurusaki and Anderson, 2010;Yavetz et al, 2014) to a more inclusive view of environmental issues that involve them.…”

Sustainability Programs in Business, Universities, and K–12: Educating Students and Leaders Toward a Sustainability Mindset

“…Bestlemeyer et al 2015found that coupling textbook education with hands-on projects reinforced the practice of interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative skills that helped students become environmentally literate citizens. Hale, Shelton, Richter, and Archambault (2017) found that students gained a more sophisticated understanding of cause and effect, the "socialtechnological-ecological relationships that exist interactions," by joining issues of sustainability with geoscience (p. 114). Project-based learning and inquiry-based learning environments also goal was to foster creative problem solving when addressing authentic problems (Wilborn, 2017).…”

Sustainability Competencies in STEM Education at Secondary Schools: A Systematized Literature Review

“…We present in Table 6 each core idea for the NGSS standards and the references of the coded plan studies, projects, and curricula. Waves and Electromagnetism radiation [25], [43] [27], [38], [45]- [47], [51], [58], [59] [36], [39], [40], [44], [48], [53], [60]- [64] Life-Science Structure, Function and Information Processing Matter and Energy in Organism and Ecosystems Interdependency Relationship in Ecosystems Growth, Development, and Reproductions of Organism Natural Selection and Adaptations [65], [66] [34], [48], [54], [65]- [71] Standards for Technological Literacy results…”