Research
Research Interests: Science education, climate science education.
Free online course (MOOC) "Climate Change: The Science" on edX. Self-paced, on demand. Access here.
"Understanding Climate Change: Science, Policy and Practice" 2nd edition by Sarah Burch and Sara Harris, 2021. University of Toronto Press. Available here: https://utorontopress.com/9781487522797/understanding-climate-change/
Research Areas
- Climate Science
- Environmental Science
- Geoscience Education
Biography
Professor of Teaching, 2015-present. Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, UBC
Associate Dean Academic, 2017-2022, Faculty of Science, UBC
Senior Instructor, 2010-2015. Earth and Ocean Sciences, UBC
Instructor I, 2005-2010. Earth and Ocean Sciences, UBC
Oceanography faculty/Chief Scientist, 1998-2005. Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA (www.sea.edu)
Ph.D., Geological Oceanography, 1998. College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Publications
Yasué, Maï, I-Chant Andrea Chaing, Meribeth Deen, Sara Harris, Nadia Joe, Nicole Legate, Ashley Moore, Rachael Sullivan, and Netta Weinstein. “Approaches from community-based conservation can inform equity and inclusion in universities”. Accepted to CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, April 2024.
Ram, Ilana, Sara Harris, and Ido Roll. “Choice-Based Personalization in MOOCs: Impact on Activity and Perceived Value.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN EDUCATION (April 10, 2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-023-00334-5
Burch, Sarah L., and Sara E. Harris. “Understanding Climate Change: Science, Policy and Practice”, 2nd Edition. University of Toronto Press. Toronto, ON, Canada (2021).
Jungic, Veselin, David Creelman, Ann Bigelow, Etienne Côté, Sara Harris, Steve Joordens, Peter Ostafichuk, Jessica Riddell, Pamela Toulouse, Jin-Sun Yoon, “Experiencing Failure in the Classroom and Across the University”. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT (2020). DOI: 10.1080/1360144X.2020.1712209
Scribner, Emily D., and Sara E. Harris, “The Mineralogy Concept Inventory: a statistically validated assessment to measure learning gains in undergraduate mineralogy courses”. JOURNAL OF GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION (2019). DOI: 10.1080/10899995.2019.1662929
Libarkin, Julie, Anne U. Gold, Sara E. Harris, and Karen S McNeal, “A new, valid measure of climate change understanding: Associations with risk perception”. CLIMATIC CHANGE, (2018). DOI: 10.1007/s10584-018-2279-y
Holland, Tara, Sarah B. Sherman, and Sara E Harris, “Paired Teaching: a Professional Development Model for Adopting Evidence-Based Practices”. COLLEGE TEACHING, (2018). DOI: 10.1080/87567555.2018.1463505
Aksit, Osman, Karen S. McNeal, Anne U. Gold, Julie C. Libarkin, and Sara Harris. “The influence of instruction, prior knowledge, and values on climate change risk perception among undergraduates”. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING. 55 (2018):550-572. DOI: 10.1002/tea.21430
Harris, Sara E., “Student Generated Concept Sketches for learning, feedback, and assessment in large classes”. In Jonathan M. Golding and Catherine Rawn (Eds.), Strategies for Teaching Large Classes Effectively in Higher Education. Cognella Publishing. San Diego, CA, USA (2018).
Harris, Sara E. and Anne U. Gold. “Learning molecular behaviour may improve student explanatory models of the greenhouse effect”. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION RESEARCH. (2017) DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2017.1280448
Lane, Erin S., and Sara E. Harris. “A New Tool for Measuring Student Behavioral Engagement in Large University Classes”. JOURNAL OF COLLEGE SCIENCE TEACHING. 44.6 (2015): 83-91. DOI: 10.2505/4/jcst15_044_06_83
Burch, Sarah L., and Sara E. Harris. “Understanding Climate Change: Science, Policy and Practice”. University of Toronto Press. Toronto, ON, Canada (2014).
Burch, Sarah, and Sara E. Harris. “A Massive Open Online Course on climate change: The social construction of a global problem using new tools for connectedness”.WIREs CLIMATE CHANGE. 5 (2014): 577-585. DOI: 10.1002/wcc.300
Jolley, Alison, Francis Jones, and Sara Harris. “Measuring student knowledge of landscapes and their formation timespans”. JOURNAL OF GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION. 61 (2013): 240-251. DOI: 10.5408/12-307.1
Jones, Francis, and Sara Harris. “Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Multiple Instructors to Teach Single Courses” COLLEGE TEACHING. 60 (2012): 132-139. DOI: 10.1080/87567555.2012.654832
Deslauriers, Louis, Sara Harris, Erin Lane, and Carl Wieman, “Transforming the lowest performing students; an intervention that worked”. JOURNAL OF COLLEGE SCIENCE TEACHING. 41.6 (2012): 76-84.
Carter, Lionel, P. Shane, B. Alloway, Ian Hall, Sara Harris and J.A. Westgate. "Demise of one volcanic zone and birth of another – a 12 m.y. marine record of major rhyolitic eruptions from New Zealand". GEOLOGY. 31.6 (2003): 493 - 496.
Harris, Sara E. and Alan C. Mix. "Climate and tectonic influences on continental erosion of tropical South America, 0-13 Ma." GEOLOGY. 30.5 (2002): 447 - 450.
Hall, Ian, Lionel Carter and Sara Harris. "Major depositional events under the deep Pacific inflow". GEOLOGY. 30.6 (2002): 487 - 490.
Harris, Sara E. "Data Report: Late Pliocene/Pleistocene carbon and oxygen stable isotopes from benthic foraminifera at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1123 in the SW Pacific.". Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results. 181.http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/181_SR/203/ 203.htm (2002).
Hall, Ian R., I. N. McCave, Nicholas J. Shackleton, Graham P. Weedon and Sara E. Harris. "Intensified deep Pacific inflow and ventilation in Pleistocene glacial times". NATURE. 412.6849 (2001): 809 - 812.
Harris, Sara E. and Alan C. Mix. "Pleistocene precipitation balance in the Amazon Basin recorded in deep sea sediments". QUATERNARY RESEARCH. 51 (1999): 14 - 26.
Ortiz, Joseph, Alan C. Mix, Sara E. Harris and Suzanne O'Connell. "Diffuse spectral reflectance as a proxy for percent carbonate content in North Atlantic sediments". PALEOCEANOGRAPHY. 14.2 (1999): 171 - 186.
Harris, Sara E., Alan C. Mix and Teresa A. King. "Biogenic and terrigenous sedimentation at Ceara Rise, western tropical Atlantic, supports Plio-Pleistocene deep-water linkage between hemispheres.". Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results. 154 (1997): 331 - 345.
King, Teresa A., W.G. Ellis, David W. Murray, Nicholas J. Shackleton and Sara E. Harris. "Miocene evolution of carbonate sedimentation at the Ceara Rise: A multivariate data/proxy approach.". Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results. 154 (1997): 349 - 365.
Harris, Sara E., Teresa Hagelberg, Alan C. Mix, Nicklas Pisias and Nicholas J. Shackleton. " Sediment depths determined by comparisons of GRAPE and log density data on ODP Leg 138.". Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results. 138 (1995): 47 - 57.
Mix, Alan C., Sara E. Harris and Tom Janecek. "Estimating %CaCO3, %opal and %non-biogenic sedimentary components from reflectance spectra: ODP Leg 138". Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results. 138 (1995): 413 - 427.
Hagelberg, Teresa A., Nicklas Pisias, Nicholas J. Shackleton, Alan C. Mix and Sara E. Harris. "Refinement of a high-resolution, continuous sedimentary section for the study of equatorial Pacific paleoceanography". Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results. 138 (1995): 31 - 46.