The initial knowledge of college-level introductory geoscience students is poorly understood, yet greatly affects the ability of instructors to create an effective learning environment. Here we review past research into several fundamental Geoscience con-cept areas to better understand misconceptions, alternative conceptions and preconceptions related to Geologic Time, Plate Tec-tonics and geohazards. We combine this review of past work with new research on what students understand about minerals in order to address the disconnect between instructors´ perceptions of their students´ initial knowledge, with what the students ac-tually understand, in order to create a basis for decisions on course structure and pedagogy.
