5.2 Discussion

As we developed the course, a backwards design approach was used to align learning outcomes with activities and assessments. As part of working through this process, the ICE framework helped to facilitate my own process of connecting what seemed initially like disparate parts into a culminating assignment called “The Study Site Assessment” or the SSA. In the SSA, I wanted to deviate from the prescribed approach of a checklist of recalled Ideas and veer towards a holistic approach that invited creativity and deep learning through Connections and Extensions. To do this, we iteratively integrated the ICE model into a staged written assignment that both valued and honoured process work, which is usually rare in large-enrollment first-year classes because of the extra time to create and assess these assignments, including giving and receiving feedback. 

The SSA was created to simulate a critical step at the beginning of any successful geoscience-related thesis, professional project, or recreational adventure and unlock student capacity to think creatively and in critical ways. Comprehensively investigating a study site before a site visit is often incredibly valuable because it can help alter objectives, approach, and save both time and money. In my own teaching, I often use examples to illuminate the value and rationale for engaging in this type of thinking. For instance, this is one example that I’ve often used with great effect: We were flying in a helicopter I was directing to conduct research in a remote location in Wood Buffalo National Park, northern Alberta. We received special permission to land and collect samples in an area where few people had visited. I thoroughly investigated the area by completing an SSA beforehand but it wasn’t until we were hovering in an expensive helicopter over terrain that we could not safely land on that I got nervous. We were near the limit of gas to return safely and every moment of indecision cost money from a competitive University of Waterloo Water Institute seed grant and induced stress with our equipment and crew of three, an undergraduate student, First Nations community member, and me. At this moment I redirected our project “on-the-fly”, seamlessly adapting to land on a different part of the shoreline sequence and redirecting one aspect of the objectives in this unique research that I proposed. I attribute this quick response that saved our research trip to completing an SSA beforehand. The SSA forced me to not only prepare beforehand but prepared me to think creatively and critically before we even started fieldwork, forging a path forward that was uniquely my own and an integral foundation to problem solve while in the field.

The SSA is purposely separated into three parts (A, B, and C), each framed by the ICE model. For example, in part A, the Ideas element is represented in the description of the location site. The ideas build in the second instruction that asks students to both list and then to justify their reasons for choosing the site, therefore facilitating Connections. Finally, students in the final step of part A, need to demonstrate different ways of thinking like a geoscientist in a sense-making process that requires them to make Extensions beyond the site itself. A similar process was taken in the design for parts B and C of the SSA. This structure is meant to help students better manage this large compilation worth 25 percent of their overall mark in the course, align with the timing of class learning modules, and build similar elements that support student improvement and mastery. Students are provided these instructions for the SSA: 

Parts B and C are more comprehensive than Part A (each worth ten percent of their class mark). The assignment design provides enabling constraints; more specifically, by including pages and text limits, as well as the guiding criteria for the assignment using the ICE framework, students are encouraged to exercise their agency and judgment. Part B encourages systems thinking with unique adaptations of the rock cycle to create a novel and well-suited SSA to the location choice. Assignment instructions and descriptions are included here for Part B:

Part C encourages temporal thinking with unique adaptations of the geologic timescale to create a novel and well-suited SSA to the location choice. Here are the detailed instructions that students received for the completion of Part C:

The connections between Parts B and C were important to make clear for students in the assignment design. There is a parallelism that exists in both phases that enables students to develop competencies and skills that are transferable to a variety of contexts. Here we apply these ways of thinking in the geological realm, nevertheless, the strategies and approaches that students will grapple with as part of this assignment hold the potential to prepare them for tackling some of the challenges facing society.