by Meredith Denton-Hedrick

When you teach geology, you have to face the reality (however inexplicable!) that not everyone is as fascinated by geology as you are. As with any science, geology can easily lend itself to a very dry, and thus very boring, presentation, so I’m always looking for new ways to keep students interested and engaged.

To keep my skills fresh, every year I try to attend at least one training event that focuses on active and engaged teaching and learning. Inevitably, whenever I come back from one of these events, my brain is flooded with ideas for new ways to present material and new ways to get the students more engaged in the class. “I’ll change this, and I’ll do that, and oh, I can do this too!”

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to attend the 2nd Annual Earth Educators Rendezvous in Madison, Wisconsin. It was, without a doubt, the best conference I’ve ever attended because it focused exclusively on practical things you can do in your own classroom, and it squeezed in as many demonstrations as it possibly could during the week. There were no papers presented, no droning, monotone talks – no, it was all active learning about active learning. We were DOING things, not just learning about things, and it was a constant barrage of ideas for the entire week. It was like trying to drink from a creative firehose!

During the week at EER, whenever inspiration struck, I would jot down ideas for specific ways I could incorporate the things I was learning into my own classroom and laboratory. When I returned home, I was more inspired than I’ve ever been, and I turned to my notebook to start planning the changes I would make to my fall class. First, I prioritized my list by the strategies I thought would be most effective. Next, I ordered those strategies from easiest to most difficult to implement. Eventually I settled on a list of about ten strategies I planned to implement in the fall semester.

I dove right in, and eagerly began rearranging my syllabus, changing lab assignments, adjusting exams, and tweaking lectures. Great, right? Well…yes and no. Sure, it was great that I tried out a bunch of new active teaching and learning activities, but if you asked me which ones were more successful and which ones were less successful, I couldn’t begin to tell you. Our semesters are busy enough as it is; add in a bunch of changes to a class you’ve taught for years, and honestly, the semester became a blur. I don’t believe in change solely for change’s sake, but because I was swamped all semester, I simply didn’t do a good job of evaluating the merits of the different strategies I tried.

Fast forward to this semester. In my spring class (which is a different course from my fall class), I focused on just two new strategies. During the semester, I’ve repeatedly gathered student feedback about how they feel about those strategies, and I have a much better feel for whether it’s worth my time and effort – and my students’ time and effort – to continue with them in future classes.

The moral of my story is this: don’t try to do too much in a single semester. Take baby steps. Sure, they’re baby steps, but they’re baby steps in the right direction.