Teachers at all grade levels from elementary school to college tend to model their own teaching on their personal educational experiences. Therefore, in order to implement sustainable K-12 education reform in the spirit of the National Science Education Standards and Project 2061, pre-service Earth science teachers need to develop their content and pedagogical understandings in ways that are challenging, inquiry based, and intellectually stimulating. However, not all courses prepare pre-service teachers to teach in an inquiry-based classroom. Some are traditional lecture courses that have laboratory experiences that verify lecture topics. In order to address this gap in high school pre-service teacher preparation at Wright State University, two new courses have been designed, developed and implemented to enhance their conceptual and pedagogical framework. Both courses are interdisciplinary and stress standards based unifying concepts and processes of science such as systems, order and organization; and evidence, models and explanations.

Field and laboratory Studies of Coastal Processes is taught at the New Jersey Marine Science Consortium field station in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Students engage in interdisciplinary studies of the modern ocean environment, with an emphasis on the interactions between the physical and biological systems, including sedimentary structures, deposition, erosion, and the biological similarities and differences between beach, estuary, and near shore environments. The pre-service teachers then engage in inquiry-based laboratory experiences involving materials collected during the field trip and develop classroom applications using the content and pedagogy employed during the course. The second course, Paleontology of the Eastern United States, builds upon the knowledge constructed during the field trip to the modern ocean. Pre-service teachers observe and interpret ancient sedimentary structures and environments and engage in inquiry based paleontology activities to develop an understanding of the physical and biological similarities and differences between ancient environments in eastern North America. These courses allow pre-service high school Earth science teachers to construct a model for inquiry-based teaching for their future classrooms.