Does Students’ Source of Knowledge Affect Their Understanding of Volcanic Systems?
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The Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences offers majors in three areas: Geology (traditional, environmental, or hydrogeology, for work as a surveyor or in mineral exploration), Meteorology (studies in global atmosphere, weather technology, and modeling for work as a meteorologist), and Earth Sciences (interdisciplinary mixture of geology, meteorology, and other natural sciences, with option of teacher-licensure).
History
The Department of Geology and Mining was founded in 1898. In 1902 its name changed to the Department of Geology. In 1965 its name changed to the Department of Earth Science. In 1977 its name changed to the Department of Earth Sciences. In 1989 its name changed to the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences.
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1898-present
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- Department of Geology and Mining (1898-1902)
- Department of Geology (1902-1965)
- Department of Earth Science (1965-1977)
- Department of Earth Sciences (1977-1989)
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- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (parent college)
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Abstract
A recent survey of undergraduates at five schools across the United States indicates that many undergraduates feel that they have learned more about volcanic systems from Hollywood films and the popular media than they learned in the course of their precollegiate formal education. Scores on the Volcanic Concept Survey, an instrument designed to measure conceptual understanding of volcanic processes and hazards, shows that students who learned about volcanoes from nontraditional sources, such as films and popular media, scored significantly lower than their peers who learned from more traditional sources, such as in formal classroom settings or via personal experience. This “source of knowledge” effect has a highly significant relationship with student understanding of volcanic systems— on par with the effects of gender, lived geography, and self-reported general science interest, among others.
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This article is from Journal of College Science Teaching 41 (2011): 14. Posted with permission.