This document summarizes a webinar introducing the Geodesy Education through Scientific and Technological Innovation (GETSI) curriculum development model and guiding principles. The webinar provided an overview of the relationship between GETSI and the Interdisciplinary Teaching of Geoscience for a Sustainable Future (InTeGrate) project. It reviewed GETSI's guiding principles for curriculum design, which are to address grand challenges, apply geoscience to societal issues, teach the nature and methods of science using authentic geodesy data, and develop systems thinking. Examples of GETSI modules under development were given for introductory and majors-level courses focusing on topics like climate, hydrology, and natural hazards. Guiding

1. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM program within the
Directorate for Education and Human Resources (DUE-1245025).
INTRO TO GETSI-INTEGRATE CURRICULUM
DEVELOPMENT MODEL & GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The webinar begins at:
10 am PT | 11 am MT | 12 pm CT | 1 pm ET
For audio, call: 1-877-668-4490
(or 1-408-792-6300)
Access Code: 579 377 159
Press *6 to mute and unmute
(but hopefully we won’t need any muting)
Headphones give less feedback than speakerphone.

2. WEBINAR GOALS
• Introduce everyone
• Overview relationship between GETSI and
InTeGrate
• GETSI guiding principles
• Introduction to GETSI website
• Consider examples of how the Guiding
Principles might be met in the Year 2 GETSI
modules
• Data processing that could be done by student
summer intern

3. INTRODUCTIONS
• PIs
– Facilitator--Beth Pratt-Sitaula (UNAVCO)
– Introductory--Becca Walker (Mt SAC)
– Majors--Bruce Douglas (Indiana U)
• SERC Assessment/Evaluation
– Ellen Iverson (SERC)
– Stuart Birnbaum (UTSA)
• Year 2 Co-authors
– Sarah Hall (College of Atlantic)
– Eric Small (U of Colorado)

4. GETSI – TEACHING MATERIALS W/ GEODESY DATA

5. A five-year community effort to improve
geoscience literacy and build a workforce
prepared to tackle environmental and
resource issues
An NSF STEP Center
DUE-1125331
InTeGrate supports the teaching of geoscience in the context
of societal issues both within geoscience courses and across
the undergraduate curriculum.

6. Collaborative project w/ SERC as the lead institution

7. • Geoscience must come together with
other disciplines as our nation and the
world struggle with significant
environmental and resource
challenges.
• Meeting these challenges will require a
savvy public, a new kind of workforce,
and a broader understanding of
geoscience by all who engage these
issues
USGS
Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia
Interdisciplinary Teaching
of Geoscience for a
Sustainable Future

8. Implicit in this model is that InTeGrate supports transformation of teaching in
higher education to support engaged learning.

9. Example modules under development (all Intro)

10. Global climate system - link
together many of the topics on
the basis of the most recent
modeling for future trends
Climate patterns - short-term
time scales (seasonal, decadal),
implications for severe weather
events, ocean/atmosphere
Hydrologic cycles –
supply and demand,
contamination,
landscape change
Infectious diseases
- environmental
factors may affect
distribution,
transmission,
severity of
diseases
Biological diversity -
biomes, geological past,
implications for future
Biogeochemical
cycles -
movement of
key elements
(e.g., C, N)
Land use - ecosystem
changes (e.g., deforestation)
and implications for
biological diversity and
biogeochemical cycles
Energy resource availability -
balance between energy security
and development of less
environment-friendly sources in
North America
Hazard awareness -
preparation for future
natural disasters,
predictions, cost/benefits
Mineral resource
development -
population, wealth
distribution, technology,
limited supplies,
recycling, waste
management
Grand Challenges - InTeGrate
Jones Kershaw, P., 2005, Creating a disaster resilient America:
Grand challenges in science and technology. Summary of a
workshop. National Research Council,
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11274.
National Research Council, 2001, Grand Challenges in
Environmental Sciences. Washington, D.C., National Academy
Press, 106 p.
Zoback, M, 2001, Grand challenges in Earth and Environmental
Sciences: Science, stewardship, and service for the Twenty-First
Century. GSA Today, December, p.41-47.

11. The Geoscience Literacy Documents

12. GRAND CHALLENGES GEODESY/GETSI
--subset of these of particular societal
importance

13. GUIDED BY EARTH SCIENCE & CLIMATE LITERACY DOCS

14. Constructive Alignment
Literacy Big
Ideas
Module Goals
Learning
Objectives
Assessments

15. GETSI-SERC RELATIONSHIP
• GETSI largely uses the InTeGrate model for
development (as practical)
• GETSI largely uses InTeGrate assessment process for
module quality and student learning evidence
• GETSI site is hosted by SERC
• Ellen Iverson (SERC) is our project evaluator
and lead assessment consultant
• Stuart Birnbaum also serves as InTeGrate assessment
consultant

16. • Developed and tested by 2-person teams
• 1-1.5 year commitment to development, testing, revision and
publication
• Supported by assessment consultant to meet design rubric,
develop embedded assessments for use in testing
• $7,500 stipend for co-authors; equivalent buy-out salary for PIs
Call for proposals
GETSI MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT TEAMS

17. DESIGN GOALS – GUIDING PRINCIPLES
• Address one or more geodesy-related grand challenges facing
society
• Make use of authentic and credible geodesy data to learn
central concepts in the context of geoscience methods of
inquiry
• Improve student understanding of the nature and methods of
geoscience and developing geoscientific habits of mind
• Develop student ability to address interdisciplinary problems
and apply geoscience learning to social issues
• Develop systems thinking
* Referred to as Guiding Principles for Curriculum Design

18. PEDAGOGIC GOALS
• Engaged, student centered, research based
pedagogy supports higher order learning
• Alignment of goals, materials and assessments
supports and documents learning
• Develops scientific thinking and an understanding
of the process of science
• Materials can be used successfully in multiple
settings

19. IMPLEMENTATION GOALS
• Materials are used widely by faculty across the
country
• Learning by students can be documented to
show increased higher level understanding of
sustainability and geoscience
• Materials are used in courses outside
geoscience departments

20. LINKING GOALS AND PROCESS:
THE MATERIALS DESIGN RUBRIC
1. Guiding Principles
2. Learning Goals and Outcomes
3. Assessment and Measurement
4. Resources and Materials
5. Instructional Strategies
6. Alignment
7. GETSI-specific Instructional Strategies

21. LINKING GOALS AND PROCESS:
PART 2: TESTING AND PUBLISHING
• Collection of assessment data
• Revision of materials
• Publication of teaching materials and
supporting information for faculty
• Case studies document implementation at
your institutions

22. DEVELOPMENT PROCESS (+1 YEAR)
1. Materials in Development
2. Pass Assessment Rubric
3. Classroom Pilot & Data Collection
4. Review and Revision
5. Publishing

23. GETSI WEBSITE
• Webinar switched to looking at components
of the
– GETSI website http://serc.carleton.edu/getsi
– “For Team Members” pages
http://serc.carleton.edu/getsi/info_team_membe
rs/index.html

24. LINKING GOALS AND PROCESS:
THE MATERIALS DESIGN RUBRIC
1. Guiding Principles
2. Learning Goals and Outcomes
3. Assessment and Measurement
4. Resources and Materials
5. Instructional Strategies
6. Alignment
7. GETSI-specific Instructional Strategies

25. GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
A. Address Grand Challenges
B. Interdisciplinary problems (geoscience
applied to social issues)
C. Nature and methods of science (geoscientific
habits of mind)
D. Authentic geodesy data and inquiry
E. [System thinking]

26. GRAND CHALLENGES GEODESY/GETSI
--subset of these of particular societal
importance

27. A. GRAND CHALLENGES – GETSI YEAR 2
• Intro level – surface process hazards
• Majors level – water resources

28. B. INTERDISCIPLINARY PROBLEMS
(GEOSCIENCE & SOCIAL SCIENCE TIED TOGETHER)
Using GETSI Year 2 module topics, what are some possible ties to
societal issues or social science that could be included?
• Majors
– General too-much/too-little issues; how to share-Who owns it? Wetlands? Urban?
Farmers? Ranchers? Hydropower? Endangered species? Ecosystem health
considerations?
– Political issues – who has legislative powers to make decisions?
– City growth and development is entirely tied to water in some locations.
– Much of the country the relationship between snow and water availability is
critical. New applications of GPS multipath and water measurements; GRACE data;
InSAR for subsidence; GPS vertical positions
• Intro
– Hook – looking at surface hazards from a city planning perspective
– Why are there significant slope failure hazards in some places over others
– Encourage students how to read the landscape themselves – look at different
landscapes to see where they may be more prone to sliding.
– Perhaps also include climate elements as a components of level of hazard
– Bruce mentioned that IU PhD student (Anna Nowicki) is currently working with
USGS on surface hazards issues. Number of case studies globally. (also including
earthquake slope failure issues as well as physical slope parameters and climate)

29. C. NATURE AND METHODS OF SCIENCE
Integrating Geoscientific thinking into learning materials
Single most important thing you can do is to simply
make your thinking explicit
• Think aloud to students as you reason through a geoscientific
question
• Ask students to explore the uncertainty in data rather than
just the data itself
• Add reflective prompts to existing activities that involve open-
ended inquiry or research projects
• Ask students how and why they would address a problem
rather than solve the problem (Ex. designing a field
investigation)

30. C. NATURE AND METHODS OF SCIENCE
1. What are ways you help your students learn geoscientific ways of
thinking?
1. Very important to have students think about and interact with uncertainty. For
example, not all proxies agree with each other. Getting students to think about
this uncertainty takes time. Sacrificing amount content covered for more time on
uncertainty has been valuable.
2. Think about and state assumptions (especially hidden ones) they have to make in
order to move forward.
3. Have students make simple in-class calculations. They have to simplify system to
get an answer. Realize they don’t know the answer exactly but it helps them see
uncertainty. May also help them identify needed data for input. Or they may
need to prepare or reorganize data.
4. Tell students to bring intuition to science.
2. What are possible ways to included this in the identified GETSI
topics?
1. Intro – show student of pictures of active processes and paleo-slides and have
them try to apply their intuition as to what happened
2. Majors – see ideas above; sort out various kinds of data available; perhaps have
them look at what can be measured geodetically and more traditional methods;
see advantages/limitations/correlations/calibration of each
As soon as you start comparing data sets, the uncertainties & challenges become
much more obvious.

31. D. AUTHENTIC GEODESY DATA AND INQUIRY
• Particularly critical aspect of GETSI
• Good resources (esp. for Intro level) are at Teaching with Data on SERC
Thoughts/ideas on how you will use/present data in your modules? WHAT
SKILLS should summer intern have?
• Majors-level
– General computer skills – Matlab or programming;
– May be the non-geodetic data that requires more time (Ex. lots of excel work to
process stream measurements)
– PBO H2O is already in spreadsheet format so again excel might be most needed
• Intro
– Used ArcGIS; DEMs; can build/extract data from DEMs
– LiDAR, SRTM, Google Earth format
• Both
– Ability to find/arrange non-geoscience data – ex. population, population change
– Literature searches for imagery or data sets that would be best examples
– Build or manage data base of data & literature & images

32. E. [SYSTEMS THINKING]
• Earth is a complex and dynamic system
• Students need to understand that changes in one part of the
system can affect other parts
• Systems thinking strategies
– Explicitly highlight connections in discussions/lecture
– Concept maps
– Case studies
– Simple models
Have you used these strategies? How?
• Eric teaches and Earth System Sci course which discusses feedbacks
throughout with mostly simple models and case studies
• Ways of identifying various feedback loops or have students think about
different forcing factors and their frequencies or thresholds

33. Identify
Module
Learning Goals
Identify
learning
outcomes for
individual units
Determine
how to assess
and measure
student
success on
goals and
outcomes
Design
teaching
resources and
materials to
match
assessments
Plan
Instructional
Strategies to
implement
teaching
resources
THE APPROACH

34. FOLLOW UP WORK
• Finish Participant Checklist as needed
– BARSTL survey
– Review “Information for New Authors”, GETSI
rubric, literacy principles
• March 6 – each team gives intern skill list to
Beth
• March 13 – next webinar (Eric & Sarah)
• March 15 - travel plans for April Meeting
finalized (let Melissa know)