Curriculum:

The GEODE Initiative currently supports a middle school and a high school curriculum initiative. Both initiatives integrate scientific visualization into an inquiry-based program of hands-on labs, group work, and discussions to enhance students' understanding of the scientific and social issues associated with our changing environment.

High School

The GEODE Initiative has developed two high school curricula, Investigations in Environmental Science and GEODE Earth Science.

Investigations in Environmental Science: CASES is a year long, inquiry-based, environmental science curriculum that makes integral use of data visualization and analysis technologies for geographic data.

The GEODE Initiative at Northwestern University has developed an innovative high school environmental science curriculum for national dissemination. The Investigations in Environmental Science curriculum has been carefully designed to help students achieve national standards for environmental science, inquiry, geography, and technology.

Investigations in Environmental Science is a comprehensive, full-year environmental science course for 9-12th grade students that is innovative in three respects:

• Meaningful context. Investigations in Environmental Science teaches environmental science in the context of real world decisions about the use of natural resources. Authentic cases of environmental issues motivate students to learn and provide concrete contexts to anchor their learning.

• Inquiry-based pedagogy. The curriculum engages students in scientific inquiry using a pedagogical approach based on contemporary research in learning and education. Computer-based and laboratory inquiry activities are combined with discussions, lectures, readings, written assignments, and oral presentations in an integrated approach that supports robust learning of science content and practices.

• Integral use of technology. Students use software tools to conduct investigations with scientific data in the same way that environmental scientists do. They actively interact with dynamic representations of science processes.

In this curriculum, students use the My World GIS and WorldWatcher software developed by the GEODE Initiative. 

For more information, visit our Investigations curriculum page.

GEODE Earth Science is an online high school earth science course with virtual labs in which students conduct investigations with geoscience data using My World GIS.  GEODE Earth Science was developed with the support of the Illinois Virtual High School (IVHS) and is currently being offered by IVHS and Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, through its accredited high school program.

Middle School

The GEODE Initiative is involved in two comprehensive middle school curriculum development projects. GEODE researchers and developers are responsible for the earth science units within these curricula.

Project-Based Inquiry Science (PBIS) is a comprehensive, three-year middle school science curriculum developed by a multi-institutional team including Northwestern, the University of Michigan, and Georgia Tech.  The GEODE Initiative developed two 8-week units on Earth science for PBIS, the first of which will be published in Spring 2007. PBIS has been in use in New York City schools since 2005 and was adopted as the 6th grade science curriculum for all of Region 9 (Manhattan) in 2006. 

Developing the Next Generation of Middle School Science Materials is an NSF-funded instructional materials development project that is using a goals-driven development approach to create a three-year, project-based science curriculum for middle school.  Titled Investigating and Questioning Our World through Science and Technology (IQWST), this curriculum will include a chemistry, physics, biology, and earth science unit each year.  Scheduled for publication in 2010, this curriculum will set a new standard for the way curriculum can help students develop conceptual understanding and scientific inquiry skills across science content areas and grade levels.  The GEODE Initiative is developing the earth science units for IQWST. 

The two units described below have been develped of the PBIS curriculum:

Planetary Forecaster Project (Grades 6 to 8)

In this project, students explore the major factors that lead to variations in temperature around the globe (these factors include the curvature of the Earth's surface, the tilt of Earth's axis, land/water differences in specific heat, and surface elevation). The project places the students in the role of "research scientists" who must investigate the causes of temperature variation on Earth in order to make temperature predictions (and in turn, identify the habitable areas) on a fictional, "newly discovered" planet. In order to make their temperature predictions for the new planet, students must answer the driving questions of:

• What are the major factors that affect surface temperature?

• How do each of these factors affect temperature?

• Why do each of these factors have the effect that they do?

These questions motivate a series of investigations consisting of both hands-on labs and computer-based activities. For the computer-based activities, students use WorldWatcher to examine real-world temperature data (in order to develop and refine their hypotheses about the causes of global temperature variation). The curriculum concludes with students? final presentations in which they describe their findings and make a recommendation for where the new planet should be colonized.

Further information about Planetary Forecaster is available here.

In this curriculum, students use the My World GIS software developed by the GEODE Initiative. 

This unit was designed in collaboration with: LeTUS and sponsored by the NSF.

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Earth Structures and Processes (Grades 6-8)

Earth Structures and Processes is a 6-week unit in which students investigate the processes that shape the Earth’s surface.  Working with topographic maps and earthquake and volcano data, they apply plate tectonic theories to explain the formation and distribution of structures, such as volcanoes, mountain ranges, ocean trenches, and islands.  Students are responsible for a particular geological formation, which they are introduced to by a letter from a pen pal who lives near the formation.  Students must map the boundaries and motion of the plate their Earth structure lies on and explain the origin of their structure. 

Further information about Earth Structures and Processes is available here

In this unit, students use the My World GIS software, developed by the GEODE Initiative. 

This unit was designed in collaboration with: LeTUS and sponsored by the NSF.

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