Earth & Space Science

Teacher Voice

Senior level course, recommend students successfully complete Chemistry and Physics prior to taking. Course starts with the Big Bang and where everything came from, then after Earth is created and we've learned about all the types of objects in the Universe, the processes that have shaped the Earth into what we know today are studied. Advanced graphing skills are learned for Excel, programming in the Scratch language, advanced Google Earth skills also acquired. Class is student centered, teacher informs student what to learn and what activities to do learn, so students with independent working and self driven are most successful. Science documentaries and videos have replaced the typical teacher lecture, allowing students more control over the pacing.

What happens in class?

Around half the time, the typical class will be a 10-45 minute video on a topic, followed by either a series of questions to be answered while viewing or a quiz if shorter video. Most labs are online simulations because of the scale of space and Earth processes. Short project type assignments, such as student-generated powerpoints over guided topics, make up the other classes meetings. The course style very much models a college online course.