Earth System Science
This page highlights the Earth System Science project's main focuses: Earth / environmental science content, scientific practices / inquiry, nature of science, and geospatial technologies.
Earth and environmental science content |
Scientific practices / inquiry |
Earth and environmental science offer so many possible ways to help students connect with their surroundings. Local to global place-based investigations bring science into focus in relevant, meaningful ways. Connections to social studies and other disciplines further deepens students' explorations and meaning making.
Topics:
|
How can we help students to do more authentic, high quality science investigations?
|
Nature of science |
Geospatial technologies and instructional strategies |
Understanding what science is like and how students' own experiences in school and in their lives connect to this can help them envision themselves as part of science. It also can help them to better understand science content, how to take positive risks, inform decision making, and more!
|
Regardless of the technology used, maps and imagery that includes relative or absolute geolocation can be great ways to engage students in meaningful place-based investigations.
Tips:
Ways to Integrate Geospatial Thinking
|
Project Leaders
Dr. Bridget Mulvey was Principal Investigator and Project Director for the Earth System Science project. She is Assistant Professor in the School of Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Studies at Kent State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Virginia and a master's degree in geological sciences from Indiana University at Bloomington. Dr. Mulvey teaches courses in science education and early childhood education for preservice and inservice teachers. She taught preschool-16 science for 11 years in formal and informal settings and has taught science methods at undergraduate and graduate levels since 2010. Her teaching and research focus on teachers and students doing science inquiry and understanding characteristics of scientific knowledge and inquiry to improve access to science learning and careers for underrepresented groups with a focus on minority, female, and special education teachers and students.
She has been awarded six Improving Teacher Quality grants to support the development of teachers' science content knowledge and teaching practices in Earth System Science and Physics. Since 2015 she has worked with Dr. Storlie on a Martha Holden Jennings Foundation-funded project to promote science inquiry and science careers among marginalized youth, partnering with Painesville City Schools. Her experiences as a female undergraduate and graduate student in the sciences inform her advocacy work for students from groups underrepresented in the sciences. Her preschool-16 teaching experiences inform her advocacy work for teachers and children of all ages. |
Dr. Jacqueline Curtis was Co-Principal Investigator for the Earth System Science project. She is Co-Director of the GIS Health & Hazards Lab and Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Kent State University. Dr. Curtis studies post-disaster recovery and derelict environments as they impact the health of women and children. Her current research focuses on the use of geospatial techniques in Health Impact Assessments and in understanding neighborhood environmental perception and Adverse Childhood Exposures.
Dr. Curtis holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Louisiana State University (LSU). She has served as a faculty member at LSU in the Disaster Science and Management Program, as well as in the Departments of Geography at the University of Southern California (USC) and California State University Long Beach (CSULB). She is an Editorial Board Member and former Book Review Editor for the journal, Cartography and Geographic Information Science (CaGIS), as well as a recipient of the Association of American Geographers’ Meredith F. Burrill Award. Video of Dr. Curtis talking about her own career journey and Geography careers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ1iT6WiptE |
Collaborators
Scientist and Educator Contributors (In progress...)
Dr. Anne Jefferson is a Geology professor at Kent State University. Her research focuses on watershed hydrology, groundwater-surface water interactions, and landscape evolution in human-altered and volcanic landscapes. Current projects focus on green infrastructure, stormwater management, and stream restoration. Much of her research is field-based, but her research group also makes use of stable isotope analyses, geographic information systems (GIS), and hydrologic modeling. She has expertise in fluvial geomorphology and landscape evolution, which implicitly and explicitly informs her research. For more information, please see her website.
|
Dr. Katie Anderson Knapp is a Social Studies Education professor at Kent State University. She is the Undergraduate Early Childhood Education Program Coordinator.
Her research interests include the use of family history with children, examining the U.S. History narrative taught in schools from a critical perspective, and students' (particularly African American children’s) experiences with social studies in the classroom. She conducts professional development for inservice teachers throughout Ohio. |