DESIGNING THE FUTURE: ON-LINE EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE COURSES FOR K-12 TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA) is a partnership among universities, colleges, and science education organizations dedicated to the improvement of Earth science education in general and Earth system science in particular. Over the past ten years, the wave of science education reform and exponential growth of the internet for educational purposes has resulted in the opportunity for ESSEA to provide on-line K-12 teacher educator professional development that meets the goals of the national science education standards.

Three different on-line courses, one each for elementary, middle, and high school teachers were developed over the past five years by the Center for Educational Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit University. Each of the semester long courses begins with three weeks of introductory activities and then develops content, pedagogical, and technological knowledge through four, three-week learning cycles. Each of the courses feature student-centered, knowledge-building, virtual communities where teachers participate in collaborative exercises and threaded discussions. A master teacher and an Earth scientist, who assists with the science content, mentor each section of 20-24 participants. The courses provide participants with rigorous content and pedagogical professional development by guiding the teams of teachers to solve problems, build models, and design original classroom activities. Each of the on-line courses have undergone an independent NASA-sponsored peer review and were rated "Outstanding."

By offering these state-of-the-art on-line courses, the ESSEA national professional development effort aims to improve the knowledge, skills, and resources of Earth science educators. K-12 teachers benefit from a deeper understanding of Earth system science and from the opportunity to use pedagogical best practices in their own classrooms reflecting current cutting-edge research on how K-12 students learn. Eight participating ESSEA partners now offer at least one of the on-line courses for K-12 teachers and several more will offer them in the next year.