EARTH2CLASS WORKSHOPS FOR TEACHERS -- BRINGING TOGETHER CLASSROOM EDUCATORS AND RESEARCH SCIENTISTS

“Earth2Class” (E2C) is an innovative project to improve knowledge and skills of pre-college educators through interactions with research scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (LDEO.) Teachers and scientists connect through monthly workshops, web-based resources, and summer institutes to produce exemplar curriculum materials about a wide variety of cutting-edge geoscience investigations. These curriculum materials are disseminated through www.earth2class.org.

E2C is supported through NSF Geoscience Education Grant 331232. Co-PIs are Drs. Iturrino and Passow. The goals of the project include:

--Training teachers in the New York metropolitan area to enhance geoscience content knowledge, develop skills to incorporate improved electronic and hands-on investigations, and increase student achievement on mandated assessment tests;

--Increasing competency to teach the Earth Sciences of teachers serving in schools with high numbers of students from underrepresented groups, thereby providing greater role models that could potentially attract students into science careers;

--Contributing to the national effort of creating networks of classroom teachers, teacher-trainers, and science researchers seeking effective methods for innovative instructional techniques;

--Exploring innovative strategies based on existing and developing educational technologies; and --Engaging classroom educators and research scientists in expanding the knowledge base that will contribute to developing NSF Centers for Learning and Teaching, Science of Learning Centers, and other programs

Workshop themes include: the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, LDEO's Deep Sea Sample Repository, remote sensing of phytoplankton and the sea floors, volcanoes and hazards research, climate change, tree ring studies, core/mantle interactions, Lake Vostok, sea floor impact craters, and other topics.

www.earth2class.org provides supporting materials connected with each Workshop theme and a wide variety of resources of value to teachers and students. Workshops also provide opportunities to share CDs, posters, brochures, samples of deep-sea sediments, and similar resources to create stimulating student investigations are among the materials made available during our sessions.