Announcements
Before introducing the papers in this issue, I have a few announcements. First, JGE is changing the name of the "Commentary" paper type to "Position Article," to avoid confusion with the use of the term "commentary" in other journals. Any new manuscripts that could previously have been submitted as a "Commentary" should now be submitted as a "Position Article." By the time this issue is published, we should have new Instructions to Authors available on both the JGE and NAGT websites.
Second, I would like to congratulate the 2023 JGE awardees. Our Outstanding Reviewer is Bailey Zo Kreager of Elgin Community College, and our Outstanding Paper goes to Lindsay Schoenbohm & Mitchell McMillan for their C&I paper on "Worldbuilding from tectonic first principles: Integrating and challenging undergraduate knowledge through a course project."
Finally, this is my last editorial as editor-in-chief of JGE. Starting January 1, Dr. Angela Hessler will be taking over. I have enjoyed working with all the authors, reviewers, and editors over the past three years.
In this issue
It is well-established that the geosciences have not done a particularly good job at becoming more diverse and inclusive. Carrera and coauthors use 40 years of US data to look at an underexamined facet of diversity: students whose parents did not attend college (first-generation students). Since the 1990s, most US undergraduates have been first-generation students. This, however, has not been true in the geosciences: in 2016, only 25% of US geoscience undergraduates were first-gen students (compared to 54% of all physical science undergraduates and 61% of all undergraduates). This underrepresentation is the most extreme of any discipline that they examined. The authors have useful advice for faculty, departments, institutions, and organizations, and have suggestions from their experience to help other first-generation students. In addition to their suggestions, I have found NAGT’s Geo2YC division valuable for thinking about how I (as a former 4-year college faculty member and administrator) could remove systemic barriers and support the (often first-generation) students who transfer from a 2YC to a 4YC.
Another facet of supporting a diverse population of students involves reducing the common stereotypical views of who is included when we talk about scientists and science students. Two papers in this issue deal with visual representations as a way to think about the problem. Boyd and coauthors suggest using icons that represent study participants to help readers understand the diverse perspectives that are presented in research. Their customizable icons (such as those shown on the cover of this issue) give participants control over the decision about how they should be represented while preserving their anonymity. Milne and coauthors, on the other hand, used visual representations to evaluate the effect of experiential education on children’s perceptions of scientists. They used a Draw-a-Scientist activity to evaluate how 10- to 13-year-old students changed their views of scientists during a two-week GeoCamp in New Zealand. At the end of the camp, students pictured scientists more likely to be working collaboratively outdoors, and less like a stereotypical lab-coat-wearing man.
Two papers in this issue deal with paleontology education. Lepore and coauthors studied how an overnight field experience for high school students affected their personal connection to public lands and their sense of science stewardship. Martindale and coauthors describe a new boardgame that teaches undergraduates about reef ecology, evolution, and extinction. The game helps students to confront common preconceptions (such as thinking that the environment causes evolution, or that species "get better" through their evolutionary history).
Games can be adapted as assessment tools, as well as used to teach concepts. Bistron and Schwering use a mobile app called GeoGami as a tool to examine the ability of children (6–10 years old) to navigate and read maps. The assessment, which can be adapted to places other than where it was originally tested, is designed for areas with a branched network of paths and many objects such as trash cans or trees, to ensure that the children aren’t using cues other than the map.
Finally, anyone who has worked on the program review for an interdisciplinary major has probably struggled to find ways to assess what their students know and can do. Horne and coauthors have started to create a concept inventory for environmental and sustainability programs by analyzing the content of syllabi in introductory environmental courses, with a focus on the connections between food, energy, and water. Among their many findings, they note that the course materials are not connecting Earth systems with human systems, and that although ecology is covered, it isn’t connected to food, energy, and water. They also suggest that assessments beyond a concept inventory might be appropriate for capturing the learning in interdisciplinary programs.
Department of Geosciences, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado, USA
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