About CUES

Welcome to Constructing Understandings of Earth Systems (CUES)! CUES is being developed through funding from the National Science Foundation and the American Geological Institute Foundation. Classroom teachers, scientists, and students across America are helping to create CUES. In the 2002-2003 school year, scientists and curriculum developers drafted what has become the first two units of CUES. Two of the five units (Systems in Space and Geosphere) were pilot tested by 12 teachers in 11 states from Oregon to Florida. Research staff at the Program Evaluation and Research Group (PERG) of Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts conducted an independent evaluation of the pilot test in 2003, which is being used to revise the program for a nationwide field test by 18 teachers during the 2003-2004 school year.

Inquiry and the interrelation of Earth's systems form the backbone of CUES. Too often taught as a linear sequence of events called "the scientific method," inquiry underlies all scientific processes and can take many different forms. It is very important that students develop an understanding of inquiry processes as they use them. Your students naturally use inquiry processes when they solve problems. Like scientists, students usually form a question to investigate after first looking at what is observable or known. They predict the most likely answer to a question. They base this prediction on what they already know to be true. Unlike professional scientists, your students may not devote much thought to these processes. In order to take a scientific approach to questions, students must formally recognize these processes as they do them. To make sure that the way they test ideas is fair, scientists think very carefully about the design of their investigations. This is a skill your students will practice throughout each unit of CUES.

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CUES Table of Contents (Draft)

Unit 1: The Geosphere and Nature of Science

Chapter 1 Nature of Science
Chapter 2 Large-Scale Forces that Change the Geosphere
Chapter 3 Surface Processes that Change the Geosphere

Unit 2: The Hydrosphere

Chapter 4 The Hydrologic Cycle
Chapter 5 Storage Systems in the Hydrosphere
Chapter 6 Humans and Water Management

Unit 3: The Atmosphere

Chapter 7 Weather
Chapter 8 Atmospheric Circulation, Weather Systems, and Climate
Chapter 9 Human Influences on the Atmosphere

Unit 4: The Biosphere

Chapter 10 How has the Biosphere Changed over time?
Chapter 11 The Biosphere Today
Chapter 12 The Biosphere in the Future

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Advisory Board

To assist in guiding the overall program AGI has established an Advisory Board of nationally recognized middle school teachers, scientists, science educators, and other professionals engaged in earth systems education.

• Harold Pratt (Chair), Past-President, NSTA
• Edna DeVore, Director of Education and Outreach, SETI Institute
• Richard Gottfried, Professor of Physics and Geology, Frederick Community College
• Edward Hopkins, Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Page Keeley, Science and Technology Specialist, Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance
• Gerald Krockover, Professor of Earth Science / Science Education, Purdue University
• Don Lewis, Chief Geologist (retired) Chevron Corporation
• Michael Passow, Earth Science Teacher, White Plains Middle School, New York
• Elizabeth Price , Earth Science Teacher, O'Brien Middle School, Nevada
• Judy Scotchmoor, Director of Education & Public Programs, UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology
• Martin Ruzek, Science Resource Specialist, Earth System Science Education, USRA

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This project is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation (grant no ESI-0095938). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.