Education and Geocognition

Earth and environmental sciences teacher education is a growing need as increasingly primary and secondary education recognize the importance of teachers with this training. Furthermore, state-wide curricula are growing the student time allocated to Earth and environmental sciences so that students are more knowledgable citizens regarding important topics such as global climate change.

Geocognition examines how people perceive and understand the Earth and its history, and MSU research in this area is led by Prof. Libarkin, whose work includes novel approaches to research on visual representation, discourse, and reasoning through analogs. 

Many faculty are also active participants in local, state, and national science education organizations who provide professional development for science teachers in Michigan and nationally and informal science education opportunities to the lay public in Michigan and elsewhere (Outreach).

Faculty

Julie Libarkin - Geocognition (Lab webpage)

M. Jane Rice - Science Teacher Education

Emeritus Faculty

Danita Brandt - Informal Science Education Outreach

Kazuya Fujita - Earth Science Education Outreach