Cory T. Forbes

The University of Texas at Arlington | UTA · Department of Curriculum & Instruction

Water is a crucial topic that spans the K-12 science curriculum, including the elementary grades. Students should engage in the articulation, negotiation, and revision of model-based explanations about hydrologic phenomena. However, past research has shown that students, particularly early learners, often struggle to understand hydrologic phenomena...

Students' thinking should serve as the foundation of effective science curriculum and instruction. To promote science learning, particularly in the geosciences, teachers must attend to students' existing ideas about natural phenomena through the use of ''high-leverage'' instructional practices such as formative assessment. Elementary teachers need...

To support elementary students’ learning of core, standards-based life science concepts highlighted in the Next Generation Science Standards, prospective elementary teachers should develop an understanding of life science concepts and learn to apply their content knowledge in instructional practice to craft elementary science learning environments...

Opportunities to generate model-based explanations are crucial for elementary students, yet are rarely foregrounded in elementary science learning environments despite evidence that early learners can reason from models when provided with scaffolding. We used a quasi-experimental research design to investigate the comparative impact of a scaffold t...

The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus envisions interactions between water, energy, and food systems, in which water allocation decisions constitute complex socio-hydrologic issues. Undergraduate students need to develop skills to understand and make effective decisions about the FEW Nexus. We implemented a comprehensive curriculum where undergraduate...

Purpose A faculty development program (FDP) introduced postsecondary instructors to a module focused on the food–energy–water (FEW) nexus, a socio-hydrologic issue (SHI) and a sustainability challenge. This study aims to examine factors influencing faculty interest in adopting the instructional resources and faculty experience with the FDP, includi...

Global climate change (GCC) is one of the greatest challenges of our age and a highly significant socio-scientific issue (SSI). Developing secondary students’ understanding about the Earth’s climate and GCC is critical for empowering future citizens and a key focus of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). In this cross-sec...

Science education literature has highlighted socio-scientific issues (SSI) as an effective pedagogy for teaching science in a social and political context. SSI links science education and real-world problems to engage students in real-world issues, making it ideal for teaching global climate change (GCC). Additionally, technological advances have c...

This current research uses Rasch modeling to compare the person- and item-fit statistics from two commonly used estimators, the joint maximum likelihood (JML) estimator and the marginal maximum likelihood (MML) estimator using an assessment used to measure secondary students’ climate science and global climate change epistemological knowledge. Data...

Science education reform efforts have emphasized the incorporation of more authentic and meaningful scientific practices into formal learning environments. With this focus on practices, such as scientific modeling, a powerful tool for sense‐making and reasoning, comes a need to observe and understand if and how it is actually occurring, particularl...

To prepare students to address water-related challenges, undergraduate STEM education must provide them with opportunities to learn and reason about water issues. Water in Society is an introductory-level, innovative, and interdisciplinary undergraduate course offered annually at a large midwestern university. The course focuses on both disciplinar...

Water is one of Earth’s fundamental natural systems. It is crucial to foster water literacy in today’s global citizens, particularly through formal education. The purpose of this research, in parallel with a study focused on human dimensions of water systems (Mostacedo-Marasovic et al., in press), is to examine water-related K-12 standards for teac...

Water is critical to sustain human existence. Water literacy involves understanding the interactions within and between natural and human dimensions of water systems to support informed decision-making, an important outcome for learners of all ages. It is therefore critical to foster water literacy in today’s global citizens, particularly through f...

Undergraduate students may possess underdeveloped knowledge about water systems, particularly groundwater. The use of models and modeling have been employed in undergraduate classrooms to support students’ learning about water. However, effective modeling requires spatial thinking skills, which undergraduate students may also need to develop. Here,...

In the past decade, emphasis on promoting “climate literacy” in K-16 science classrooms has increased. Teachers play a critical role in cultivating these opportunities, especially in secondary science classrooms. However, most prior climate education research has focused on students and student learning; little is known about how teachers implement...

This chapter provides an overview of what we can learn from the PISA data. The first contribution explores some of the insights from analyses of within country data. The next two question the validity of some of the findings. The second contribution uses the French data to explore how certain features of the PISA items are problematic while the thi...

Socio-scientific issues (SSI) are informed by science concepts but require consideration of societal aspects in order to be effectively understood and resolved. As a result, functional scientific literacy necessitates fluency with science as well as other domains of knowledge when engaged in reasoning about science and societal dimensions of SSI (i...

In this mixed method study, we analyse the effectiveness of two pedagogical approaches – one model-based and another non-model-based – for developing secondary students’ understanding of the phenomenon of increase in Earth’s average surface temperatures, a core dimension of global climate change (GCC). Building on past research on teaching and lear...

Groundwater is a critical component of the global water cycle and standards-based topic within science education. However, students articulate an array of ideas about groundwater systems, including their natural and human elements. One way to support students’ learning about groundwater systems is through the use of data-driven, computer-based mode...

Developing understanding about the Earth’s climate and the phenomenon of global climate change (GCC) is essential for all students, our future citizens and decision-makers. Recent implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) has intensified the focus on teaching and learning of the Earth’s climate and GCC in formal learning enviro...

Water-literate individuals effectively reason about the hydrologic concepts that underlie socio-hydrological issues (SHI), but functional water literacy also requires concomitant reasoning about the societal, non-hydrological aspects of SHI. Therefore, this study explored the potential for the socio-scientific reasoning construct (SSR), which inclu...

One of the keys to science and environmental literacy is systems thinking. Learning how to think about the interactions between systems, the far-reaching effects of a system, and the dynamic nature of systems are all critical outcomes of science learning. However, students need support to develop systems thinking skills in undergraduate geoscience...

Scientific literacy is a central aim of science education. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a measure of secondary students’ scientific literacy and reported science instruction in 72 countries. Researchers have analyzed PISA data to identify important relationships between science instruction and students’ science...

To develop students’ capacity for science and to engage them productively in science and engineering practices, science education reform efforts have focused on supporting teachers’ development of conceptual understandings through engagement with both disciplinary content and practices, including science teaching at the primary level. One topic of...

Learning about heredity is important across the K–12 continuum. However, these ideas may be challenging for students. We examined third-grade students’ ideas about heredity in the context of a new, six-week, model-based science unit that uses corn as a model organism to support students’ ideas about heredity. We analyzed data collected during imple...

Given the need for effective problem-solving and decision-making skills in students entering the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) workforces, it is critical to create undergraduate learning environments that foster these skills through best practices (activ...

Research suggests that it is challenging for elementary students to develop conceptual understanding of trait variation, inheritance of traits, and life cycles. In this study, we report on an effort to promote elementary students’ learning of hereditary-related concepts through scientific modelling, which affords opportunities for elementary studen...

Earth systems thinking (EST), or thinking of the Earth as a complex system made up of interworking subsystems, has been shown to reflect the highest level of knowing and understanding in the geosciences. Previous work has found four frameworks of EST that repeatedly appear in the geoscience education literature. This study aims to quantitatively bu...

Introductory undergraduate courses present an opportunity to use disciplinary concepts in solving authentic problems. Making complex natural systems accessible to students through computer-based models allows them to practice making evidence-based predictions and communicate understanding. Despite the importance of modelling tools in formal classro...

Little is known about how middle school students problematize socio-scientific issues (SSIs), particularly contemporary energy challenges. To address this need, we developed and implemented an instructional module focused on a local wind energy issue and conducted research to explore how sixth-grade students frame, reason, and make decisions about...

Scientific modeling and systems thinking (SMST) is central to the geosciences, yet few studies have documented how and to what extent undergraduate geoscience courses emphasize SMST, as well as factors that might help explain or predict these trends. Here, we present research based on data (n = 2056) from the most recent (2016) administration of th...

Core Ideas Socio‐scientific issues prepare students for real‐world experiences. Socio‐hydrological reasoning involves the use of values. Value identifications differ between developing and developed countries. Value use frequency differs between developed and developing countries. Growing human populations place increasing demands on our planet, r...

Competence-based views of scientific modeling foreground students’ use of models to learn about scientific practices and disciplinary ideas. To support elementary, or primary, students’ development of modeling competence, they should be afforded opportunities to learn about the nature and use of models, modeling as a practice, and real-world phenom...

Developing scientific literacy about water systems is critical for K‐12 students. However, even with opportunities to build knowledge about the hydrosphere in elementary classrooms, early learners may struggle to understand the water cycle (Forbes et al., 2015; Gunckel et al., 2012; Zangori et al., 2015; Zangori et al., 2017). Scientific modeling a...

One aim of science education is to develop scientific literacy for decision-making in daily life. Socio-scientific issues (SSI) and structured decision-making frameworks can help students reach these objectives. This research uses value belief norm (VBN) theory and construal level theory (CLT) to explore students’ use of personal values in their de...

Providing feedback to students as they learn to integrate individual concepts into complex systems is an important way to help them to develop robust understanding, but it is challenging in large, undergraduate classes for instructors to provide feedback that is frequent and directed enough to help individual students. Various scaffolds can be used...

The public is more disconnected from agriculture than ever. Americans are now two to four generations removed from the farm with a majority of Americans having no direct experience in agriculture. As a result, the public lacks the knowledge and appreciation of the food, fuel, and fiber it demands. The National Agricultural Learning Objectives (NALO...

Scientific modelling is a key practice in which K-12 students should engage to begin developing robust conceptual understanding of natural systems, including water. However, little past research has explored primary students’ learning about groundwater, engagement in scientific modelling, and/or the ways in which teachers conceptualise and cultivat...

Background Many university students are becoming involved in mentoring programs, yet few studies describe the impact of mentoring on the mentor. Additionally, many studies report that students graduating from college are not prepared to enter the workforce in terms of key career skills and/or content knowledge. Herein, we examine the impact of our...

Although knowledge of disciplinary concepts and epistemic understanding of science are foundations of scientific literacy, students must learn to apply their knowledge to real-world situations. To engage effectively with contemporary water-related challenges with scientific and social dimensions, students need to understand the properties of water...

Societies today face an array of global, water-related challenges with significant scientific dimensions within the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus. To prepare students to become tomorrow’s global citizens, postsecondary learning experiences must provide them with the ability to learn and reason about socio-hydrological issues such as agricultural water us...