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Lecture Tutorials

Lecture Tutorials are short, interactive worksheets used during lecture. They are designed to combat the problem of students leaving typical lecture-based introductory geoscience courses with their misconceptions still intact. After a brief lecture on a topic, Lecture Tutorials are completed by students in small groups, adding an interactive component to the class and challenging students to think about their misconceptions. They have been successfully developed and used in physics and astronomy, and Jessica J. Smay (San Jose City College) and I have developed them for the geosciences and for planetary/solar system astronomy.

Below is a subset of Lecture Tutorials which we have developed and tested. Jessica Smay and I have published a full workbook of Lecture Tutorials with WH Freeman (Lecture Tutorials for Introductory Geoscience, 2010; ISBN: 1429253789), so instructors can more easily implement them in their classes. If you use Lecture Tutorials in your class, we would love to hear from you , because we want comments and feedback so we can improve Lecture Tutorials in the future.

Jessica Smay and I have also published a module on Lecture Tutorials on the SERC webpage, On the Cutting Edge - Teaching Methods. This module gives more in-depth information about Lecture Tutorials, tips for implementing them in the classroom, and additional examples.

Geoscience

Booklet of 8 example Lecture Tutorials (1014 KB) This booklet includes the following Lecture Tutorials:

1. Seafloor Ages
2. Subduction at Convergent Boundaries
3. Magma Source Depth
4. Igneous Rock Mineral Size
5. Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks
6. Locations of Earthquakes
7. Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide
8. Hypothesis of Dinosaur Extinction

Descriptions of the Lecture Tutorials in the Subset:

1. Seafloor Ages -- Students will learn about divergent boundaries and the history of the Atlantic Ocean as they think through diagrams and maps of seafloor ages. Students understand the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is where the youngest rocks are – that is where they are forming, even though they are far from the shore.

2. Subduction at Convergent Boundary -- This Lecture Tutorial goes over features seen at convergent boundaries and directions of plate motion at the boundary.

3. Magma Source Depth -- Students think about the formation of magma within the Earth, and they compare that depth to the layers within the Earth. Specifically this Lecture Tutorial clarifies the difference between the molten outer core and the source of magma for volcanoes.

4. Igneous Rocks Mineral Sizes -- This Lecture Tutorial teaches students the cause of different mineral sizes in igneous rocks and how to determine the history of these igneous rocks. Students realize that magma that cools slowly results in fewer minerals that are larger in size, instead of smaller, more numerous minerals.

5. Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks -- Students are often confused about how sediments become sedimentary rocks and the difference between sediments and sedimentary rocks, and this worksheet tackles that difficulty.

6. Locations of Earthquakes -- This Lecture Tutorial steps students through thinking about the locations of earthquakes around the world and the plate tectonic reasons for the pattern. Students do not think about the reason why faults are where they are, and that it is not related to external conditions.

7. Climate Change and Carbon Dioxide -- Students analyze graphs showing past carbon dioxide levels and temperatures in order to predict their direct effect on human survival. Students learn that the effect of climate change is not going to be a heat wave or difficulty breathing due to excess carbon dioxide.

8. Hypothesis of Dinosaur Extinction -- This Lecture Tutorial discusses what a hypothesis is and directs students to analyze whether or not different scenarios describing dinosaur extinctions are hypotheses.

Planetary/Solar System Astronomy

Booklet of all 17 Lecture Tutorials (2.59 MB) This booklet includes the following Lecture Tutorials:

1. Earth’s Tectonic Plate Boundaries
2. Earth’s Surface Features
3. Auroras
4. The Moon’s Crater History
5. The Moon’s Surface: Order of Events
6. Planetary Positions
7. Terrestrial Planets Vs Jovian Planets
8. Rock Types on Other Planets
9. Planet Surface Features
10. Volcanoes on Other Planets
11. Mars Climate Change
12. Other Moons Surface Processes
13. Jovian Planets
14. Space Objects
15. Asteroid Impacts
16. Pluto
17. Missions