The proposed project will synthesize existing knowledge and articulate unanswered questions in critical areas of research on cognition and learning relevant to the Geosciences. The study will focus on four themes: (a) geological time, (b) complex systems of the Earth, (c) spatial thinking in Geosciences and (d) field-base learning. A small group of experts in geoscience, geoscience education, research on learning, and cognitive science will gather for a week-long learning/brainstorming/writing retreat. The writing retreat will be preceded by a smaller two-day planning meeting, at which they will articulate major questions on each of the four themes, and identify a subset that have sufficient research base for synthesis. Findings will be disseminated through conference, websites, and journals, including a special issue of the Journal of Geoscience Education, and a journal that reaches the learning sciences community.
