Undergraduate Students’ Understanding about Volcanoes: Results from the InVEST Volcanic Concept Survey

Dominike Merle-JohnsonLloyd Barrow

Alan WhittingtonUniversity of Missouri, Columbia

InVEST-Volcano Concept Survey (Parham, et al., 2010)

“Concept-intensive instrument design to explore baseline levels of undergraduate students understanding about volcanoes without the aid of support materials (textbooks, etc) at introductory geoscience courses” p-177-178.

Survey components Demographic questions Beliefs about science Students’ preferences in technology Learning styles 10 open-ended volcano questions

Research Questions Using the InVEST Volcanic Concept Survey

(Parham et al., 2010) compare two courses to determine: Is there a correlation between scores and level

confidence for each of the volcano questions? Are there any significant differences between the

students’ scores for both courses? How do our results compare with the ones

reported by Parham et al., (2010)? What alternative conceptions students still

have before being formally taught about volcanoes?

The Courses

Course A Introductory For majors and

non-majors Includes a

laboratory component

Course B Introductory For non-majors Does not have a

laboratory component

Methodology Administer a modified InVEST Volcano Concept Survey

(Parham et al., 2010) After instruction on plate tectonics, but before volcanoes. Via Blackboard

One question was modified from “draw” to “describe” Voluntary Add self-reported confidence levels for each

question 4=very confident; 3=rather confident; 2= not very

confident; 1=Just a guess Did not asked computer-preference questions

Validate scoring survey Conduct statistical analyses to answer research questions. Analyzed students’ responses for misconceptions

Scoring Initially scored by first author (10% scored

by two other experts for reliability) Score reliability

Expert 1: Cronbach’s alpha= 0.95 Expert 2: Cronbach’s alpha =0.85

“Examples of idealized student’s responses” reported by Parham et al., (2010) (tables 1 & 2), and content expertise.

Scale: 0=no response or “don’t know”; 1=weak response; 2= moderate response; 3=strong/ideal response

Results: Responses to survey-Demographics

Characteristic Course A (n=99) Course B (n=85)

STEM---Non-STEM

34%---65% 59%---41%

Science Interest

45% Mode:Somewhat (scale 4/5)

52% Mode: somewhat

Earth Science Interest

43% Mode: somewhat

59% Mode: somewhat

Learned about volcanoes from

32% classroom activities---29%documentary films

49% classroom activities

Results: Comparison between courses

Confidence levels Many rated “just a guess” to why does a volcano

erupt and the role of water in volcanic eruptions.

Item Course A Course B

Question with highest mean score

Difference magma and lava

Difference magma and lava

Question with lowest mean score

Controls explosivity volcanoes

Hazards of eruptive material and environment

Total Mean and SD

14.945.84

18.695.28

Results: Comparison between courses

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Question

Mea

n s

core

Course A

Course B

Results: Correlation between scores and confidence level per question

Item Course A Course B

1) Volcanoes similarly shaped? 0.59** 0.45**

2) Difference between magma & lava 0.42** 0.35**

3) Volcano cut inside, what do you see inside?

0.51 0.44**

4) Volcano pattern around the world 0.47** 0.52**

5) Why volcano erupts? 0.4** 0.41**

6) Controls explosivity volcano 0.48** 0.58**

7) How water affects explosivity? 0.48** 0.46**

8) Describe erupting volcano & features 0.61** 0.62**

9) Hazard materials & interaction with environment

0.62** 0.71**

10) Volcano affecting 4 different scenarios

0.51** 0.57**

**p<0.01

Results: Comparison between Courses A one-way ANOVA was used to test

differences between the overall scores of both courses. Scores for both courses differed significantly for both courses, F (1, 182)=20.33, p=0.000.

Results, cont: Overall correlations

Pearson correlations shows significant correlations between total scores and: the courses (class), total confidence, and interest in how the Earth works.

Comparison with Parham et al., (2010) results

Characteristic Parham et al., (2010) Our study:

n 672 184

Avg. Total Score

64% 58%

High scores Knowledge- difference magma and lava

Knowledge- difference magma and lava

Low scores(Bloom’s Taxonomy)

Application and analysis Comprehension

No approximation of ideal response

Hazards, Affect groups of people

None

Results: Distribution scored responses

0 50 100 150 200 250

9 (An)

4 (An)

10 (App)

7(C)

6(C)

5(C)

3(C)

8(K)

2 (K)

1(K)

Score 0

Score 1

Score 2

Score 3

Comparison with Parham et al., (2010) results, cont.

“Student understanding of volcanic processes was rather limited” (p. 181).

Difference between magma and lava question had the greatest proportion of high scores.

Misconceptions Connect volcanoes with water and islands Hot or tropical climates Volcanoes form due to rocky or mountainous

terrain Random pattern

Misconceptions

Reported by others* Magma comes from the core All volcanoes have mountain shape

“New” “Magma is rocks being melted. Lava are rocks

in liquid form.” Cutting a volcano in half you see the core. Volcanoes are close to giant masses of water. Volcanoes occur also at continental-continental

plate boundaries. Volcanoes erupt due to pressure from core. The size of the tunnel to the mantle

determines explosivity. Magnitude earthquake

*http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/intro/misconception_list.html

Other interesting findings

“Is there water in volcanoes?” Water can make magma more runny Water makes volcanoes less volatile More water, more wet and it wont erupt Magma is thicker and flows slower than

lava. Water cools magma and will make it less

explosive.

Conclusions: Based on our results, students’ self-rated

confidence levels is a predictor of their knowledge on that concept.

The study found significant differences in scores between the courses assessed. Testing of variables did not show reasons for these differences. Further data/information is needed to answer this question.

Conclusions, cont. Compared with Parham et al (2010) results, our

results suggest student’s acquire or improve their knowledge about volcanic hazards and location of volcanoes, while making sense of/learning about plate tectonics.

However, the role of water in magma, the structure of a volcano, and why a volcano erupts are still topics they don’t understand well prior to learning about volcanoes.

Student struggle with comprehension questions.

Implications

Connections of other geologic topics (plate tectonics) can help students knowledge of volcanism before the formal lesson begins.

How students process what learned inside and outside classroom can have effects on how they make sense of what learned.

More emphasis/explicit explanations in classroom on why volcanoes erupt, the structure of volcanoes, and the role of water in volcanic eruptions.

Limitations

This research used only one survey collected once and at one institution.

Data obtained did not reveal why there were significant differences in both courses: Other data needs to be done.