Abstract

Our initiative is to develop Web-based inquiry (WBI) modules to enhance student understanding of the global carbon cycle.  There are six WBIs:

• Where is carbon located and how did it get there?
• How are humans impacting the carbon cycle?
• How does land cover change over time?
• What patterns of land cover exist globally?
• What is happening to carbon in the Lehigh Valley today?
• How representative is the Lehigh Valley of regional and global patterns?

The project will pursue four main goals:

• To enhance student understanding of the global carbon cycle as a key component of Earth system and global change science.
• To enhance the practice of scientific inquiry in introductory Earth system science courses.
• To support and facilitate scientific inquiry with online technologies (e.g., NASA datasets, GIS coverages, Internet-served real-time data).
• To provide course instructors with materials to implement inquiry-based, technology-supported, and instructionally sound teaching approaches that blend materials, activities, and assessments to produce more positive learner outcomes.

Our new WBIs will allow students to be Earth system scientists by engaging them in the integration of field and remotely-collected data to assess carbon flux changes within the Lehigh Valley and to relate these with patterns at the global scale using NASA imagery and datasets.

Students will make observations at multiple scales to link processes and observations.  Our curricular materials will weave existing laboratory exercises with field research, quantitative data analysis, and model visualizations to create an interdisciplinary exploration of the carbon cycle, with a focus on land use change.  Activities will engage learners in STEM skills including remote sensing, geographic information systems, global positioning systems, computing, and analysis of soil and water qualities.

The WBIs will expand and integrate current lessons in EES 21 Introduction to Planet Earth and EES 21 Introduction to Environmental and Organismal Biology, which form the core of a new minor program in Earth system science at Lehigh.  Synergistic activities with the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, the Lehigh Earth Observatory, EPA-funded research of the Lehigh River Watershed, and in the wider region make the project theme relevant and timely.

We will combine the expertise of a geologist (Anastasio), and ecologist (Windham), a NASA EOS project scientist (King), and a science educator (Bodzin) to develop and disseminate a modular and portable WBI system to enhance undergraduate Earth system science curricula at Lehigh University and other higher-education institutions.

The enhanced curricula in EES 21 and in EES 31 will introduce approximately 400 Lehigh students annually to Earth system science, support a new minor program in Earth system science at Lehigh, and will be required of all students majoring in the BA degree in Earth and environmental sciences, and BS degrees in ecology, environmental sciences, environmental engineering, and geological sciences.  In addition, our WBIs will be suitable for incorporation into entry-level college courses in physical geology, environmental biology, ecology, environmental science, environmental studies, and global change science.