Undergraduate Problem-Solving Decisions in a Natural Hazards Assessment

A 2026 study by V. Isava compares the problem-solving decisions of 134 undergraduate students from three universities against a benchmark of 14 geoscience professionals. The dataset likely contains assessment results measuring four decision types: problem framing, solution planning, data interpretation, and solution reflection. It is hosted on figshare under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Analyzing differences between novice and expert decision-making in geoscience based on the four measured decision types.
• Developing educational interventions to improve student problem framing based on the finding that students were less likely to connect features to societal impacts.
• Creating assessment rubrics for data interpretation skills based on common student mistakes like misinterpreting data or relying on irrelevant information.
• Studying the effectiveness of real-world scenarios in teaching based on the study's recommendation for providing multiple practice opportunities.

Strengths

• Includes a benchmark comparison with 14 geoscience professionals.
• Focuses on four specific, measurable types of problem-solving decisions.
• Data from 134 undergraduate students across three universities provides a multi-institutional sample.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

V. Isava via figshare

Collection Method

Likely gathered via a controlled assessment where participants selected a road section in Seattle, WA for structural reinforcement.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-20 18:25:14; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Assessment scenario is set in Seattle, WA, USA; participant universities are unspecified.