Engaging Students in the Scientific Process: An Examination of Active Learning Strategies in Introductory Geoscience Labs

High-quality instruction of introductory geoscience courses entices students to major in geoscience fields and ensures undergraduate students have opportunities to learn and apply scientific information and practices. Prior studies indicate that active learning strategies in higher education settings can increase student knowledge and interest. This dissertation explores the integration of two active learning strategies in introductory geoscience laboratory courses: inquiry and gamification The first study housed in Chapter 2 investigates the level of inquiry used in introductory geoscience lab activities across the United States. Through a comprehensive analysis of these activities, this chapter assesses: (1) the degree to which instructor generated labs utilize inquiry, (2) the extent in which inquiry is focused on specific steps of the scientific method, (3) the degree in which modality, instructor, and topic are related to inquiry and finally (4) the extent to which inquiry was impacted by a short workshop and the COVID-19 online transition. The findings were explored with the assumption that the level of inquiry mirrors instructors’ pedological content knowledge (PCK; Shulman, 1986) and potential explanations for differences in inquiry usage are proposed based on the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth. This study suggests that PCK might be uniform across geoscience instructors and proposes future work to explore this unique idea. Chapter 3 switches focus, exploring the level of gamification incorporated into geoscience labs. This section analyzes game-design-based gamification principles, such as discovery, emotional entailment, and challenge. The study (1) provides insight on what principles are currently implemented in introductory geoscience labs, (2) how prevalent these principles are across five commonly taught topics and (3) explores avenues for increasing gamification principles in geoscience labs. The final study presented here investigates the impact gamification of a mineral identification activity has on students completing the activity. This study explores the outcomes associated with student interest, perceived importance of activity characteristics on student success, and knowledge gains using the theory of active learning. The findings here demonstrate a measurable relationship between the level of gamification and student knowledge gains.