Assessing Student Learning of Socio-Environmental Systems

This workshop (co-organized by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity & Conservation) brings together a diverse group of educational researchers, scientists, and educators to synthesize and evaluate assessment tools and approaches that can be used for teaching and learning about socio-environmental systems, particularly through case studies. We will collect best practices, explore new opportunities, and identify remaining gaps.

As focal points for the workshop, we will consider assessment of the following learning goals:

• Students understand the structure and behavior of socio-environmental systems.
• Students are able to work across natural and social sciences’ disciplinary boundaries.

For each of these learning goals, we will consider:

• What should students know and be able to do to demonstrate competency?
• What tools and practices are used to assess student learning of this goal?
• What research informs these assessment practices and tools?
• How can they be integrated into case study teaching?
• How effective are these tools and practices? Are there others that are needed? What is missing?