Steven Semken

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Research activity per year

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Research interests

Steven Semken is an ethnogeologist and geoscience education researcher who explores the ways that place, culture, and affect influence modes of inquiry, teaching, and learning in the Earth system sciences. He has studied and worked extensively in Native American and Hispanic/Latino communities across the Southwest United States, and was a faculty member at the tribal college of the Navajo Nation for 15 years before joining Arizona State University. He works trans-disciplinarily with colleagues in Anthropology, Geography, Science Education, and Sustainability. His current research activity encompasses sense of place in place-based science education for environmental and cultural sustainability; Native American ethnogeology and culturally informed geoscience teaching; geoscience interpretation in Southwestern National Parks; geoscience learning in virtual field settings; improving diversity in the geoscience community; and regional and environmental geology of the desert Southwest.

Supervision Expertise

2014	Effects of fault segmentation, mechanical interaction, and structural complexity on earthquake-generated deformation by David Haddad. Comments: Ph.D. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2013	The Blue Mound Chert: Interpreting a topographic anomaly in southern Wisconsin by Calley Galarowicz. Comments: Honors B.S. Barrett, the Honors College, and School of Earth and Space Exploration
2013	Determining persistence of community college students in introductory geology classes by Katrien van der Hoeven Kraft. Comments: Ph.D. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
2013	Evaluation of online teacher and student materials for the NRC Science Framework crosscutting science and engineering concepts by Patrick Schwab. Comments: Ph.D. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
2012	Structural evolution of the McDowell Mountains, Maricopa County, Arizona by Brad Vance. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2012	Assessing the effects of climate change in a semi-arid basin utilizing a fully distributed hydrologic model: A case study of Beaver Creek, Arizona by Gretchen Hawkins. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2012	Exploring evidence for Quaternary north-south directed extension at the southern margin of the Tibetan Plateau by Jeni McDermott. Comments: Ph.D. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2012	Speaking place, saving place: Western Apache cultural diversity and public discourse by Deborah Williams. Comments: Ph.D. School of Human Evolution and Social Change
2011	Students’ understanding of weathering and erosion by Ashley Tillman. Comments: M.A. Mary Lou Fulton Teacher's College
2011	Integrating LiDAR topography into the study of earthquakes and faulting by Sarah Robinson. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2011	Eye-tracking investigations exploring how students learn geology from photographs; and The structural setting of hydrothermal gold deposits in the San Antonio area, B.C.S., MX by Joshua Coyan. Comments: Ph.D. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2011	Late Quaternary normal faulting and hanging wall basin evolution of the southwestern rift-margin from gravity and geology, B.C.S., MX; and Exploring the influence of textfigure format on introductory geology learning by Melanie Busch. Comments: Ph.D. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2011	Exploring the history of India-Eurasia collision and subsequent deformation in the Indus Basin, NW Indian Himalaya by Alka Tripathy. Comments: Ph.D. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2011	A study on how the public uses the landscape to understand principles of geologic time while experiencing the Trail of Time intepretative exhibition in Grand Canyon National Park by Rebecca Mathews Frus. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2010	Changes in inquiry practices for beginning chemistry teachers by Gerardo Lopez. Comments: M.S. Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education
2010	Major-ion and trace-element cycling in an arid, spring-fed stream by Tracy Lund. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2010	A characterization of the knowledge and practices of beginning secondary physics teachers, Vidision of Cirriculum and Instruction by Jennifer Neakrase. Comments: Ph.D. Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education
2010	Exploring the beliefs of persisting secondary science teachers in general induction programs: A longitudinal study by Sissy Sze-Mun Wong. Comments: Ph.D. Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education
2010	Informal high-school astronomy resources for Arizona by Brian Gleim. Comments: M.N.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2009	Family outdoor experiences and student’s selection of an introductory science course by Kara Gasperone. Comments: Honors B.A. Barrett, the Honors College, and School of Social and Family Dynamics
2009	Diabase alteration and relation to low-temperature mineral deposits, Salt River Canyon area, Arizona by Kevin Goldman. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2009	Microbialites in Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico by Valeria Routt. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2009	Secondary science teachers’ views toward and classroom translation of sustained professional development by Elizabeth Lewis. Comments: Ph.D. Division of Curriculum and Instruction, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
2009	Terrestrial fieldwork and laboratory thermal infrared spectroscopy of basaltic impactites from the Earth and Mars by Shawn Wright. Comments: Ph.D. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2008	Paleoecology of Early Jurassic Navajo Sandstone interdune deposits by Nathan Wilkens. Comments: Ph.D. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2008	The interaction of assessment format and sex in assessing the knowledge structure coherence of middle school students’ understanding of the concept of force by Sharon Schleigh. Comments: Ed.D. Division of Curriculum and Instruction, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
2008	Hydropolitics: Examining the role of science in Arizona’s Groundwater Management Act of 1980 by Megan O'Shea. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration and Center for Science, Policy, and Outcomes
2008	Place attachment in geology students and the general public by Tracy Perkins. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2008	Mafic phreatomagmatic volcanism and density current dynamics by Brittany Brand. Comments: Ph.D. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2007	Visitor preconceptions and meaning-making at Petrified Forest National Park by Nievita Bueno Watts. Comments: M.S. School of Earth and Space Exploration
2006	The origin and modification of the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF), Mars by Rebecca Escobar Dial. Comments: M.S. Department of Geological Sciences
2006	Student visual-spatial abilities in map use by Sian Proctor. Comments: Ph.D. Division of Curriculum and Instruction, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
2005	Structural geology and stratigraphy of Paleozoic rocks of the Big Maria syncline, southeastern California by Anthony Salem. Comments: M.S. Department of Geological Sciences
2005	Subsurface geology of a groundwater remediation site, eastern Phoenix basin, Arizona by Joshua Coyan. Comments: M.S. Department of Geological Sciences
2005	Psychological, moral, and intellectual dimensions of pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward teaching evolution by Deirdre Hahn. Comments: Ph.D. Division of Psychology in Education, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
2004	End-Permian karst stratigraphy and geochemistry at the Kaibab- Moenkopi contact and its relationship to the Permian-Triassic boundary for northern Arizona by Kathleen McFadden. Comments: M.S. Department of Geological Sciences
2004	A model 400-level Field Hydrogeology course by Leslie A. Field. Comments: M.N.S. Department of Geological Sciences
1997	Hydrogeologic characterization of the floodplain that lies below the Uranium-Mill Tailings Remedial Action Site at Shiprock, New Mexico by Bernadette Tsosie. Comments: M.S. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
1994	Groundwater modeling at the Shiprock Uranium-Mill Tailings Remedial Action Site by Edward Henry. Comments: M.S. Department of Civil Engineering, University of New Mexico
	Transient response to baselevel fall or lithologic control on river incision and landscape morphology, and Comparing the transfer of knowledge from field lessons on the Mogollon Rim to erosion of Grand Canyon by Andrew Darling. Comments: Ph.D. 2015 candidate School of Earth and Space Exploration
	Structural evolution and ore mineralization of the Cacachilas Mountains, La Ventana, Baja California Sur by Samuel Wachtor. Comments: M.S. 2014 candidate School of Earth and Space Exploration
	Seismological and geological studies in the Mojave Neovolcanic Province and San Francisco Volcanic Field by Chelsea Allison. Comments: Ph.D. 2014 candidate School of Earth and Space Exploration
	Ethnogeology of the Taino people of the Caribbean and Isotope geochemistry of Yellowstone hot springs by Angel Garcia. Comments: Ph.D. 2017 candidate School of Earth and Space Exploration
	Comparison of virtual and physical field trips in geoscience education by Geoffrey Bruce. Comments: Ph.D. 2015 School of Earth and Space Exploration
	Ethnogeology and ethnohydrology of the Uitoto people of Colombia and Geochemistry of antibacterial clays by Sandra Londoño. Comments: Ph.D. 2015 candidate School of Earth and Space Exploration
	Mercury isotope geochemistry and Biogeochemical concept inventory studies by Chris Mead. Comments: Ph.D. 2014 candidate School of Earth and Space Exploration
	Technologies and critical incidents related to recruitment and retention of disabled individuals in STEM by Heather A. Pacheco. Comments: Graduate student, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College

External positions

Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University

Jan 1 2013 → …

Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University

2013 → …

NSF EarthScope Project National Office

Jan 1 2011 → …