1. “WHAT WORKS AND WHY?” TEACHING SMALL LAB/(FIELD-BASED) CLASSES ERIC LEONARD DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY COLORADO COLLEGE

2. COURSE “DECISIONS” 1)LEVEL/PREREQUISITES -- 200-Level class with Introductory Geology or Introduction to the Earth System prerequisite

3. COURSE “DECISIONS” 1)LEVEL/PREREQUISITES -- 200-Level class with Introductory Geology or Introduction to the Earth System prerequisite 2) FOCUS -- Operation of the climate system, record and causes of naturally occurring climate change

4. COURSE DECISIONS 1)LEVEL/PREREQUISITES -- 200-Level class with Introductory Geology or Introduction to the Earth System prerequisite 2) FOCUS -- Operation of the climate system, record and causes of naturally occurring climate change 3) PEDAGOGY -- “Interactive” lectures, sequence of labs, student presentations, class discussion

5. COURSE GOALS 1) Provide science majors with an understanding of the record and causes of naturally occurring climate change, as part of their broader science education. 2) Provide both science and non-science majors with an understanding of how the climate system operates and changes due to natural forcing, as a basis for understanding anthropogenic changes.

6. COURSE GOALS 1) Provide science majors with an understanding of the record and causes of naturally occurring climate change, as part of their broader science education. 2) Provide both science and non-science majors with an understanding of how the climate system operates and changes due to natural forcing, as a basis for understanding anthropogenic changes. 3) Provide students with hands-on experience of collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to climate change.

7. COURSE GOALS 1) Provide science majors with an understanding of the record and causes of naturally occurring climate change, as part of their broader science education. 2) Provide both science and non-science majors with an understanding of how the climate system operates and changes due to natural forcing, as a basis for understanding anthropogenic changes. 3) Provide students with hands-on experience of collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to climate change. 4) Introduce students to critical reading of current climate-change literature.

8. COURSE GOALS 1) Provide science majors with an understanding of the record and causes of naturally occurring climate change, as part of their broader science education. 2) Provide both science and non-science majors with an understanding of how the climate system operates and changes due to natural forcing, as a basis for understanding anthropogenic changes. 3) Provide students with hands-on experience of collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to climate change. 4) Introduce students to critical reading of current climate-change literature. 5) Highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the field.

9. LAB PROJECTS THE PRACTICE OF CLIMATE-CHANGE SCIENCE 1)DATA COLLECTION -- Crowfoot Glacier History, Representativeness of the macrofossil record

10. LAB PROJECTS THE PRACTICE OF CLIMATE-CHANGE SCIENCE 1)DATA COLLECTION -- Crowfoot Glacier History, Representativeness of the macrofossil record 2) ANALYSIS OF “RAW” DATA -- LDGO Vostok core lab

11. LAB PROJECTS THE PRACTICE OF CLIMATE-CHANGE SCIENCE 1)DATA COLLECTION -- Crowfoot Glacier History, Representativeness of the macrofossil record 2) ANALYSIS OF “RAW” DATA -- LDGO Vostok core lab 3) ITERPRETATION/IMPLICATIONS OF “FINISHED”DATA -- Past, present, and future climate maps of the Rocky Mountain region

12. LAB PROJECTS THE PRACTICE OF CLIMATE-CHANGE SCIENCE 1)DATA COLLECTION -- Crowfoot Glacier History, Representativeness of the macrofossil record 2) ANALYSIS OF “RAW” DATA -- LDGO Vostok core lab 3) ITERPRETATION/IMPLICATIONS OF “FINISHED”DATA -- Past, present, and future climate maps of the Rocky Mountain region 4) FINAL GROUP PROJECTS -- Data analysis and interpretation (not collection), on topic selected by group

13. SUMMARY 1)Prerequisites help -- even for an introductory course 2) A fairly narrow focus allows a more in-depth course. It is difficult to cover the whole field and choices of focus are necessary. This may be a particular problem under the Colorado College Block Plan. 3) Hands-on work (lab/field) is very important. We try to cover the the whole sequence from data collection, through data analysis, through data interpretation. 4)There is a need to weave together hands-on work with more content- driven approaches (“interactive” lectures, reading).