WEBBOARDS AND BEACHES: EARTH SCIENCE FOR PRE-EDUCATION MAJORS

University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools have formed a partnership to better prepare future teachers for the classroom. This partnership is funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. We will report on the content and outcomes of a collaborative earth science course for pre-education majors. The course content centers on the national, state and local earth science standards. The pedagogy and content are integrated through hands-on field trips oriented toward the local earth system of the Lake Michigan shoreline, WebBoard activities centered on reviews of related web sites, weekly journal entries, and inquiry based classroom activities. In-class collaboration from the practicing MPS teacher was of considerable help in modeling good inquiry based science teaching as well as providing assistance on field trips, managing the WebBoard, and in reading journals.

A course-end evaluation indicated the students were better prepared to evaluate and use the internet and communicate electronically. They also acquired a repertoire of hand -on activities, and experience with local earth science field trips which they could potentially incorporate into future classroom settings. This course is one of a series of introductory science courses being developed for this collaborative teacher training program