Development of Alaska Earth Systems Field School

University Of Alaska Anchorage Campus, Anchorage AK

Investigators

Abstract

Earth Systems Science (40) This project is responding to the needs of undergraduates and K-12 teachers by introducing a more hands-on, inquiry-based, field-oriented, interdisciplinary science courses into an Earth Systems Field School. This 6-week summer course in the Subarctic and Arctic environments of Alaska uses three two-week modules focusing on coastal, boreal, and tundra ecosystems in sites such as Prince William Sound, the Chugach Mountains, and Denali National Park. The Field School is generating new excitement about interdisciplinary, hands-on science and is promoting ongoing faculty teamwork and collaboration across science disciplines and departments. The lessons learned from the adaptation project are being disseminated over the internet and through the Project Kaleidoscope network. Adapting the Columbia Earth Systems Field School provides an exemplary, proven model of interdisciplinary, inquiry-based learning. This model teaches students to understand landscapes in an integrated fashion, by using the disciplines of ecology and geology together and witnessing their dependence on each other. Students build their own conceptual and numerical models of ecosystem processes by collecting field data and using it to test models. They are learning techniques for mapping, identification, description, and analysis, all within the context of understanding current environmental problems. The conceptual framework of the Earth Systems Field School is being piloted the summer of 2001. The full six-week program is being offered in summer 2002. The program builds on existing course offerings, research programs, and community partnerships. In addition to transporting the curriculum from desert to taiga, the project is vigorously adapting the curriculum to better serve K-12 teacher candidates (and non-science majors generally) and equipping them with transferable science literacy and science enthusiasm. The program is also being restructured to increase its accessibility to older students who make up a large proportion of the University of Alaska's student body and to Alaska Natives who are underrepresented in the preK-12 and liberal arts student populations.