HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHERS CONTRIBUTE TO IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING OF THE SLIP RATE DISTRIBUTION ACROSS THE PACIFIC-NORTH AMERICA TRANSFORM PLATE BOUNDARY

In summer 2009, seven high school teachers, each accompanied by one or more of their students, and eight undergraduate students collected a total of 40-110 hours of GPS data from each of 29 sites within an 80 km x 70 km transect spanning the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults near San Bernardino, southern California. These teachers and students are investigating a region in which there is profound disagreement between fault slip rates estimated by geologic versus geodetic means. Offset channels and alluvial fans yield slip rates for this section of the San Andreas fault (averaged over the past 6 ka to 30 ka) that are more than twice as fast as the rates inferred from present-day crustal deformation. Geodetic data from the San Bernardino Mountains are sparse, however, making geodetic estimates of the slip rates in this region somewhat uncertain. Our EarthScope-funded project aims to increase the density of high-quality GPS data in this region.

Collaboration between high schools, a predominantly undergraduate institution (Cal State San Bernardino [CSUSB]) and a research university (University of Arizona) provides an effective means both to address this research problem and to introduce students and teachers to research by involving them in the research process. The teachers and students collect a large amount of GPS data that investigators at the University of Arizona will process and model using state-of-the-art techniques. The processed GPS data are also shared with the CSUSB group, for use in undergraduate and high school teacher research projects using one-dimensional elastic modeling.

To more broadly disseminate this project the participating teachers developed two Research Lessons using a teaching improvement activity called Lesson Study. Lesson Study involves backward design in which instructional planning and classroom instruction focus on maximizing student opportunities to learn. One of the research lessons focuses on scientific reasoning using a discrepant event and the other involves improving data analysis skills using graphing. The teachers will gather twice to teach and revise the lesson. A different teacher will teach each time, and the rest of the teachers will make detailed observations of student learning. Both research lessons cover key topics in the State of California Science Content Standards.