Expedition Earth Science

Goals:

As students move through their high school, college and professional lives they will need to become increasingly competent at reading, writing and speaking. Professional scientists and engineers share their ideas and discoveries through peer reviewed magazine (journal) articles and professional conferences. The goal of the Earth Science Symposium is to expose students to such articles and to help them develop their ability to digest the articles and to use them to synthesize the information. Students will also learn to identify the societal implications of the science described in the articles. All students will become more clear and confident public speakers. As part of the Honors Earth Science course each student will be required to present a research project at the LHS Earth Science Symposium in March.

 

Each project will consist of three products:

1. A magazine article written by the student. Each student will select an Earth science topic approved by his or her teacher. The student will then use library and internet resources to find at least 3 general magazine articles and 4 scientific articles about that topic. The student will then write an original, two page magazine article summarizing the scientific methods and results reported in those references. The student article will include at least 2 photos, figures or graphs with captions and a discussion of the societal implications of the research. Students will also include a list of references and use parenthetical citations throughout the article. The teacher will provide a template for the format of the two- page student magazine article and all student articles will be published in the proceedings book of the 2016 symposium.

2. A poster describing the student research. Each student will create a display poster on standard 20”x 30” foam core poster board that summarizes and expands upon the magazine article that they wrote. The poster will contain additional photos and illustrations of the data and results from the list of reference articles. The posters will be displayed in the Annex gymnasium at the March symposium. Awards will be presented for the best posters.

3. A slideshow presentation. Each student will create a 6 to 8 minute oral presentation with a 10 to 20-slide visual slide show that presents the information in the student’s magazine article. Like the article, the presentation will describe a geoscience problem, compare and contrast the methods that have been used by scientists to study the problem and summarize the conclusions those scientists have reported. The student will also present their own analysis and discussion of the problem, methods and data. Finally, the student will describe the implications of the impact of this problem on society and their recommendations. The slideshow presentation will be given at the LHS Earth Science Symposium in March in front of a panel of judges. At the end of the slideshow the judge panel will ask a series of questions and encourage the student to clarify and expand upon the points of the presentation. The presentation will be open to the public including other students, families, community members and faculty. Student presentations will be grouped by topic and 8-12 students will present in each room. Each judge panel will select the best presentations in their room and medals will be awarded at the end of the symposium. .