InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Carbon, Climate, and Energy Resources > Instructor Stories > Callan Bentley
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Initial Publication Date: July 15, 2016

Callan Bentley: Using Carbon, Climate, and Energy Resources at Northern Virginia Community College

About This Course

A traditional introductory-level physical geology course.

52
students

Two 75-minute lecture
sessions and
one 165-minute lab
session per week
large suburban multi-campus
two-year-college

Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 553kB Nov30 15)

A Success Story in Building Student Engagement

I piloted the module over two weeks in an introductory physical geology course . Most of the students were enrolled in the course to satisfy their liberal arts core curriculum requirement, though there were a few geology "majors" in the group as well. The entire module was adapted to the course setting, with one unit per class meeting over the two weeks (Units 2 and 5 were taught during the slightly longer lab periods; the other units were taught during lecture).

The activities in the Carbon, Climate, and Energy module had students in my introductory-level physical geology class up and out of their seats, looking at and discussing the same data that scientists use to understand climate variability over geologic time and modern perturbations to the carbon cycle.

My Experience Teaching with InTeGrate Materials

I piloted the module at the end of the semester, in the two weeks before summer break. This is traditionally the point in the semester when I would be discussing climate change anyhow, but the two solid weeks of carbon-focused lessons was new. The students were a relatively typical group for this course at NOVA — a diverse group with differing abilities and motivations.

Relationship of InTeGrate Materials to My Course

This course was a single 16-week semester in length, so the 2 weeks of InTeGrate module materials represented an eighth of the course. As the syllabus shows (link above), every other topic in the course preceded the InTeGrate carbon module. Because the module is specifically focused on grounding an understanding of anthropogenic climate change in the context of physical and historical geology, I think it fit very well, drawing on concepts such as weathering, deposition, and subduction, as well as materials such as limestone and bituminous coal.

Assessments

I used all the assessments as presented in the module, and I found them to be useful indications of how much learning had taken place. The assessment questions were effective at helping me determine how well students had processed the new materials and ideas from this module.

I modified the Unit 3 quiz (by dropping the Snowball Earth questions) so that it reflected the class's modified version of the lesson. I also screened out some of the questions from the Unit 4 quiz so that it matched the others in length, and could be reasonably assigned in the short time available.

Outcomes

My vision for this module was to give my students the ability to ground any discussion of modern climate change in a sound geologic context. It is not clear to me what the right choices for our society are at this point, considering the tremendous benefits we have reaped from our utilization of fossil fuels, but also our liberation of naturally-sequestered carbon represents at some level a clear and present danger to a large portion of human civilization and the modern Earth ecosystem. So much of the public discussion that I have heard is ignorant of the basics of the natural cycling of carbon through the Earth system, and therefore cannot properly consider policy options for the future. Therefore, the goals for the module were to discuss (a) what is happening now, and (b) what we do about it, only after students have practiced identifying logical fallacies and learned how fossil fuel formation is a natural process that is a key part of the carbon cycle, and how climate has varied naturally in the geological past.

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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »