EARTH SCIENCE MINI-LESSONS: A SERVICE-LEARNING STRATEGY

2005 Salt Lake City Annual Meeting (October 16–19, 2005)
Paper No. 33-10

Presentation Time: 3:45 PM-4:00 PM

EARTH SCIENCE MINI-LESSONS: A SERVICE-LEARNING STRATEGY
THOMPSON, Kirsten¹, BICKMORE, Barry R.¹, and GRAHAM, Charles R.², (1) Department of Geology, Brigham Young University, S389 ESC, Provo, UT 84602, kirsten_thompson@byu.edu, (2) Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology, Brigham Young University, 150 MCKB, Provo, UT 84602 Science instruction in elementary school classrooms is frequently lacking in the United States. One factor that impacts the amount and quality of science instruction is teacher attitudes toward science. The Earth Science Mini-Lesson Project is a strategic program created to help improve preservice elementary school teachers' attitudes toward science in a one-semester college class. Students participating in this project create earth science mini-lessons on topics taken from the Utah Core Curriculum Standards and teach them to elementary students at a local Title I grade school. Attitude survey results from both semesters showed that this service-learning outreach program positively affected students' attitudes after minor adjustments to the project organization. This is a simple, inexpensive, yet effective, project that can be implemented in a one-semester college science course for preservice elementary teachers that can help improve their attitudes toward science.
2005 Salt Lake City Annual Meeting (October 16–19, 2005) General Information for this Meeting

Session No. 33 Geoscience Education I Salt Palace Convention Center: 251 E 1:30 PM-5:30 PM, Sunday, 16 October 2005 Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 37, No. 7, p. 85
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