Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Education
Foundational GIS competence, cognitive demand and essay-response maturity in the Finnish geography matriculation examination
Published: 2026-06-21
Subjects: Education, Educational Methods, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Science and Mathematics Education
This study analyses how upper secondary students demonstrate foundational GIS competence in essay responses to a Finnish geography matriculation examination. A random sample of 100 Finnish-language responses was examined using qualitative deductive content analysis, the revised Bloom’s taxonomy, the SOLO taxonomy, and the GeoTAITO model. The task addressed geographic information, spatial [...]
Pedagogical integration of digital GIS tools in secondary education: Teachers’ uses, classroom organisation, and constraints
Published: 2026-06-21
Subjects: Education, Educational Methods, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography
This study examines how geography teachers implement GIS-related digital work in secondary education and what this reveals about the pedagogical integration of specialised digital tools. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 20 Finnish lower and upper secondary geography teachers, the study analyses the tools teachers use, the pedagogical organisation of GIS-related work, and the factors [...]
How Do General Upper Secondary School Students Interpret Map Information? Geomedia Literacy and Visual Map Elements in Finland’s Geography Matriculation Examination
Published: 2026-06-21
Subjects: Education, Educational Methods, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Language and Literacy Education
This study examines general upper secondary school students’ geomedia literacy in a high-stakes assessment context by analysing 272 essay answers to a map-related question in Finland’s nationwide geography Matriculation Examination (spring 2020). The task (“Vis-ual elements of a good map”) asked students to identify at least five map elements and justify what each element conveys using a provided [...]
A Rotating Air-Ring Model for Atmospheric Vortices and a Peripheral Drag Concept for Tornado Mitigation
Published: 2026-06-10
Subjects: Education, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This study introduces Latent Angular Momentum (LAM) as a heuristic parameter for understanding the intensification of rotating atmospheric vortices. Using a simplified air-ring model based on the conservation of angular momentum, we derive an analytical expression for tangential wind speed as a function of radial contraction and latitude. Model predictions yield physically plausible initial radii [...]
Improving Learning and Science Outcomes in The Reservoir Observer Student Scientists (ROSS) Program Through Reflection and Skill Building Exercises
Published: 2026-05-12
Subjects: Education, Life Sciences
The Reservoir Observer Student Scientists (ROSS) program engages high school students in year-round water quality monitoring to detect and understand cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs). This place-based participatory science program combines hands-on sampling, data analysis, and reflective learning to foster scientific literacy and contribute to environmental research. A mid-year [...]
Antimicrobial Resistance – A Growing Global Groundwater Challenge
Published: 2026-05-08
Subjects: Education, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Antimicrobials are composed of medications such as antibiotics and antivirals which are widely used to ensure human and animal health. However, inappropriate use of antimicrobials is a major driver of antimicrobial resistance in groundwater or other aquatic systems. AMR arises from complex interactions between humans, animals, microbial organisms, medicines, wildlife and the environment. [...]
Comparative Machine Learning approach to seasonal ENSO Forecasting with Time-Series Performance Evaluation
Published: 2026-05-07
Subjects: Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is one of the most important climate phenomena that affects weather conditions worldwide. It influences monsoon seasons, droughts, and crop productivity. Forecasting of ENSO processes is rather difficult since the system is inherently nonlinear. Moreover, the Spring Predictability Barrier limits the predictive capacity of forecasters during the boreal [...]
The 1908 Tunguska event and some mini-Tunguskas
Published: 2026-03-14
Subjects: Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This paper is a continuation of a series of works, devoted to various aspects of the 1908 Tunguska event. This paper is devoted to several events which can be called as mini-Tunguskas. Their manifestations are in some ways similar to the 1908 Tunguska event, only on a much smaller scale. Often initially such events were interpreted as meteoroidal bolides or even meteorite falls. However, the [...]
From environmental observation to shared narratives through human-AI interaction
Published: 2026-03-06
Subjects: Education, Engineering, Social and Behavioral Sciences
A structural bottleneck limits sustainability practices: many people can participate in environmental observation, but far fewer can participate in the synthesis work that turns observations into shared narratives that guide action. We term this disparity "synthesis inequality". Citizen-science programs have expanded public access to data collection, yet data interpretation largely remains [...]
From Roots to Canopy: An Evolving Framework for Critical Zone Education and Outreach
Published: 2026-02-27
Subjects: Education, Educational Methods, Higher Education, Science and Mathematics Education
Critical Zone (CZ) science provides an integrative framework for understanding the Earth as an interconnected system spanning from the vegetation canopy through soils and weathered rock to groundwater. While the CZ concept has become foundational within earth and environmental sciences, it remains unfamiliar to many educators, students, and community audiences. This paper presents the evolution [...]
Error-aware surrogate modeling for accelerated three-dimensional probabilistic inversion of controlled-source electromagnetic data
Published: 2026-02-26
Subjects: Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
We present a workflow for three-dimensional probabilistic inversion of controlled-source electromagnetic data that effectively balances accuracy and computational efficiency. The approach mitigates the high computational cost of forward modeling by employing a surrogate model derived from a mesh coarsening strategy. To account for the modeling errors inherent to this approximation, we implement a [...]
Exploring the compositional variability of magmas erupted at La Soufrière volcano, St Vincent, using chemostratigraphy and new 40Ar/39Ar ages
Published: 2026-01-27
Subjects: Education
The temporal compositional variation of individual volcanic centres is key to understanding magmatic processes in the underlying crust. La Soufrière volcano, St. Vincent, Lesser Antilles, has erupted predominantly basaltic andesite magmas for hundreds of thousands of years. Sampling of the recently exposed crater walls at La Soufrière reveals that sequentially emplaced crater lavas, feeder dykes, [...]
Spectral indices outperform AlphaEarth foundation embeddings for aboveground biomass estimation in tropical Andean Forests
Published: 2026-01-06
Subjects: Education, Engineering
Rising greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide (CO₂), are accelerating climate change. Forests are an important carbon store, but measuring how much carbon is stored in large tracts of diverse forests is challenging. Satellite imagery provides consistent measures of forests across space and time, which is an opportunity for accurate estimation of forest aboveground biomass (AGB), [...]
The 1935 Guyana event and the 1908 Tunguska event
Published: 2026-01-03
Subjects: Education, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
This paper is a continuation of a series of works, devoted to various aspects of the 1908 Tunguska event. In 1935 a remarkable event took place in Guyana (at that time British Guiana). A meteor was seen and a large area of devastated forest was discovered. The main source for information on this event was an article published in an astronomical magazine in 1939. The 1939-article provided [...]
Thermal Power and Climate Change: A Data-Driven Analysis of Cause and Effect, 1800-2100
Published: 2025-11-20
Subjects: Education, Engineering, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Since 2020, global politics have shifted sharply to the right—nowhere more visibly than in the United States and Europe. By 2024, this rightward turn in the U.S. culminated in open climate-change denial, the defunding of clean-energy initiatives, and a widespread rejection of scientific evidence. Major domestic and international institutions—NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Weather Bureau, EPA, USDA, FDA, [...]