THE TIMES PROJECT (TEACHING INQUIRY-BASED MINNESOTA EARTH SCIENCE): A REGION-SPECIFIC, FIELD-BASED MEANS FOR DEVELOPING TEACHER INQUIRY SKILLS AND CONTENT-KNOWLEDGE

TIMES began as an Eisenhower Grant-funded program to develop and deepen teacher understanding of geologic inquiry in the field. The ultimate goal of TIMES is for middle school and high school teachers to employ inquiry-based methods in classroom teaching and student-led earth science field investigations. As a consequence of using field-based inquiry methods to understand earth processes and materials during their TIMES experience, participants have replaced many traditional approaches to classroom teaching with inquiry-based methods.

Another goal of TIMES is to provide teachers with specific content knowledge relevant to the geographic and geologic region where they work. Teachers can then apply this knowledge to teach their earth science curriculum in the context of local geology, and to assist students with inquiry-based field projects. Because each TIMES project has a different regional focus, teachers from a specific region are able to collaborate with one another and with TIMES instructors following completion of their TIMES experience.

Each TIMES project is a partnership between the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), a host college or university in the region, and the Minnesota Geologic Survey (MGS). The director of teacher education at the SMM and a faculty member from the host academic institution teach throughout the ten-day program. Specialists from the MGS and other agencies or academic institutions also contribute their expertise. Since the summer of 2000, approximately 80 teachers have participated in TIMES projects in southeastern MN, west-central MN, the Twin Cities, and northeastern MN.

In each TIMES project, teachers are immersed in the inquiry process for ten days in the field and are guided through teaching skills needed to do effective inquiry with their students. Each day, teachers live an inquiry cycle of observation, development of investigable questions, conducting investigations, and analysis of data from a variety of geoscience topics. In accord with good inquiry methods, content information is presented and discussed only after concrete encounter with the phenomena being investigated. The cornerstone of each TIMES project is the development of teacher "action plans" that outline implementation of their newly learned inquiry strategies in student-led field projects.